Act I, Scene VII
I'm not in a really typey mood at the moment, so I will let the pictures (mostly) speak for themselves. Ask me if you have questions about anything.
Burg Eltz:
Bacharach:
Hopefully I will be more typeative next time.
Labels: travel
posted by Allanimal @ 11:04
1 Comments
1 Comments:
Well, if Allan isn't typeative today, I guess I can pick up for him. Especially since I haven't written anything about any of the trips, expecting him to do it. Allan left off with us spending a night at home in our own bed, checking email quickly, and then hitting the road Richtung Burg Eltz. Burg Eltz is a really well-preserved castle near the Mosel. (You might have noticed that yourself based on the pictures.) The castle was never militarily defeated, which is probably why it is in such good shape. According to our guide book, we should try to find out when an English tour is going to happen, so the day before we left I called and asked if they were going to arrange an English tour the next day. I was told that the next day was going to be busy and they couldn't promise, so I should just ask when I got there. We got to the ticket office, and I asked about the English tour. "We don't know yet, go into the courtyard and ring the bell." I went into the courtyard and rang the bell. There I was told that it wouldn't happen unless we had at least 12 people. We were four, but I knew that there were other English speakers walking around.
Frustrating as the lack of commitment was, it was apparently good that I asked, because a little later there was an announcement "Raise your hand if you want to take the tour in English. OK, there will be an English tour in 15 minutes." All right! Allan and I had actually been to the castle a couple years earlier, and had taken the German tour. I tried summarizing the 5 minute speech per room for Allan's benefit before we went to the next room, but it wasn't terribly satisfying. This time, however, the tour was really pretty incredible. The guide got a little carried away with dramatic pauses from time to time, but provided really nice information. Much more than I remembered being imparted the first time, and certainly more than I had passed on the Allan. We were all quite satisfied with the tour, and headed back to the car and then Münstermaifeld, looking for food. Without too much trouble*, we found a nice restaurant with a variety of schnitzels, Hawaiian toast, veggie patties, and other exciting options.
*Without too much trouble ignores the challenge of getting four people to decide on a restaurant based on its name and exterior from inside a moving car within only a couple seconds, and then, to park said car without losing the passengers or restaurants.
Sated, we got back into the car and headed for Bacharach. We were in a gorgeous area and enjoyed the views of rivers, vineyards, and trees as we drove up and down the hills. We arrived, earlier than we had planned, in Bacharach-Steeg, where we were staying at the Gästehaus Zur Fledermaus. The hotel is named such because it is right around the corner from a church whose belfry is home to the largest German colony of Large Mouse-eared bats. In the summer at dusk, you can sit on the hotel balcony and watch them all fly out, a 45-minute spectacle. Now, before you decide that you aren't going to let me plan your vacation, I did check with everyone involved to make sure it was ok that we stayed there. The hostess was really friendly, but we had site-seeing to do, so we headed downtown by foot. It was probably a 2-km walk, so very doable, but we got stuck in a rainstorm, which wasn't very exciting.
We managed to get a piece of cake (at least I did. I don't remember if anyone else got one) and look around town, but we didn't find a bank machine that we wanted to use. There was this cool ruin, Werner's Kapelle, which we wandered around. What I thought was really interesting was that the chapel was built in the 1400's, and ruined in the 1600's. I guess I get so used to seeing war damage that I think that everything was hunky-dory till then. I am probably forgetting things like the pyramids and the colosseum when I make that statement.
OK, battery is about to die on this laptop, so I guess that is all I have to say for today! Hope it helps to explain the pictures, though!
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