Ahhh… Beer on a river cruise, what fun! The four of us (Rachel, Matt, Dave, Me!) cruised along the Rhine River in Germany on Saturday afternoon. The Rhine River cruise was about 2 hours long from our starting point in the town of Bacharach. We must have seen about 5-10 different castles along the way along with many other interesting points. There are many legends surrounding the Rhine river including something about 7 virgin maidens who would shipwreck boats on the seven reefs of the Rhine.

Dave and me on the Rhine River cruise.

Rachel and Matt!

The photo above is of the Loreley Rock. Legend has it that a young maiden threw herself from this rock after heartbreak from an unfaithful lover and turned into a siren. She lures sailers of the Rhine with her music which causes them to shipwreck their boats.

One of the towns we passed by on our cruise.

Castles galore!

We stayed in the small historic town of Bacharach along the Rhine River. Dave and I rented bikes and decided that is would be a good idea on empty stomachs to go and find food in the next town over. That proved to be a bad idea. 1 hour later we still did not have any lunch in our stomachs. It was a Sunday afternoon and most of the restaurants and shops were closed. We headed back to Bacharach and scored some food. I had a cheeseburger. I am American at heart.

I love all of the painted buildings. They seem to be everywhere!

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I am catching up on this past weekend of posts. Internet has been a bit hard to come by, so I am posting these entries as I find a connection. My Iphone is currently going through internet with drawl as it hasn’t had a connection since we left Boston. I might forget how to text when I get back to the states!

The old town of Cochem, Germany.

We headed to the town of Cochem on Friday night after our long hike up to Burg Eltz. We had one mission in mind, to find some good food and get Dave some beer. The Mosel River and Rhine River Valley are known for their sweet wine. Think of this area as the Napa Valley of Germany. Finding beer in wine country proved to be a bit difficult. When we did find beer it would either be wheat bear, not particularly our favorite or beer mixed with lemonade. The lemonade beer is quite refreshing on a hot day. We managed to find some beer for Dave, which made him a happy traveler.

Matt and Dave having a good time drinking some German Beer and Wine.

Dave took this really cute photo of Rachel and me.

I tried the Hawaii Schnitzel which had pineapple, cheese and berries on top. That is my favorite version of schnitzel so far.

Saturday morning the four of us explored the Cochem castle. Most of the little towns along the Mosel River also have a corresponding castle. The Cochem castle was amazing! The tour was great. We only paid a few Euros to go inside the castle on a tour and we could take photos. At Burg Eltz we were not allowed to take photos inside which was a dissapointment. Our tour was in German but our tour guide was really funny and even took time out to explain some important things to us in English.

Look at all of these gorgeous ceilings!

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We walked about 7 – 8 miles round trip to and from the castle Burg Eltz. I was so tired from this hike. Getting there was fine, it was the trip back that killed me. We got lost about 3 different times as the signs going up to the castle and back down to the town were not very clear. We took a path that started in Karden and ended in some other little town called Moselkern. Suffice it to say, it was a long hike up and down hill.

The town of Karden, Germany

Rachel and Matt on our hike.

Valley on our way to Burg Eltz.

The castle was beautiful! It’s original construction dates back to 1157. There were several other parts of Burg Eltz and residences added to the castle all the way through the 1600′s. The castle has remained in the same family for over 800 years. The Eltz family still owns it today.

Castle Eltz near the Mosel River

At the end of our hike we decided to take the Bahn (train) two stops to the town where Rachel and Matt’s car was parked. We couldn’t find the ticket machine in time so we had the choice to either hop the train or wait for the next one 30 minutes later. We decided to just get on the train and hope for the best. Unfortunately there was nowhere to buy tickets on the train, at least not that we say. The 4 of us decided to head to the one stall bathroom and wait out our two stops. Like that doesn’t look suspicious! Thankfully we only had a passenger laugh at us while watching us pile out of the small bathroom and not a train worker hand us a ticket. We read a sign that if we had been caught it would have been a 40 EUR ticket ($55). We were so worried that we were going to get caught! It was hilarious as we walked quickly off of the train knowing that we got away with that!

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Burg Eltz Castle near the Mosel River in Germany

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Dave and I are in Germany! We are visiting our friends Rachel and Matt while we are in Deutschland. Rachel and Matt live in a small town called Edelsfeld about 40 minutes away by car from Nuremberg.

Rachel is one of my closest friends. We have known each other since high school and became closer as the years went on and we went our separate ways. We try to keep in touch whenever we are in the same city or plan to be in the same city. I photographed Rachel and Matt’s wedding in Sonoma Valley, CA last year.
Rachel drove Dave and I to a town 20 minutes away from Edelsfeld called Amberg. It’s one of the only towns in Germany that still has a city wall. Many of the buildings are actually built connected to create the wall. We saw some buildings that were built in the 1500′s!

Look at this ice cream! Our ‘Lasagna’ ice cream was delicious. At many of the German ice cream shops you can get ice cream that looks like different meals. We were deciding between ‘Spaghetti’ and ‘Lasagna’. The ‘Lasagna’ ice cream won. Our ‘Lasagna’ ice cream was made up of Vanilla ice cream for the wide noodles with berries and strawberry sauce for the ‘marinara and meat’ sauce. It was sooo good!

The town we are staying in with our friends Rachel and Matt is called Edelsfeld. This town has its own brewery where you can buy the local beer. We went to the Gurtchenka and loaded up on several different types of beer all from neighboring towns. Edelsfeld only distributes its beer within a 10 mile radius of the town. This is beer that you really can get only here. I must say, I love German beer, and the fact that 12 bottles of good Bavarian beer only cost us 8 Euros.

More photos from Amberg:

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