Life In A Castle

I am sitting here typing this from a castle courtyard, high overlooking the Rhine River in Bacharach, Germany. The weather today was perfect. The sky is blue. There is a slight, refreshing breeze. I can see barges moving downriver and another village with a lovely steepled church just across the river a couple of kilometers away. The ¾ moon is in the sky already, even though it is still quite light out at 9:10PM. Life is good.

The only thing spoiling the effect is the chatter of a hundred or so 12-year-old school children all around me. Yes, we are at a youth hostel – a youth hostel in a castle – the amazing Jugendburg Stahleck – known far and wide among youth hostel enthusiasts. Despite the children (and they are reasonably well-behaved and fun-loving), the place is amazing. It looks like a Hollywood set, only better, since it’s real (reconstructed, not entirely original, but real enough for me). Inside it looks a bit like any old dorm building, but outside it's a modest and charming castle.

Today we left Bruges and drove three uneventful hours to Luxembourg City. We only stayed long enough to eat a bite and walk around a bit, but it was lovely. The city is situated along a ravine and next to a hill, giving it an interesting topography. The ravine area has been refined into a beautiful park that I wish we had had more time to visit. Oddly, despite being a Wednesday, the city shops were closed up tight. It was some sort of holiday and we were not able to figure out what it was. There were people around, though, and we found a vendor selling German fast food, but speaking only French.

Then we drove on to nearby Trier, Germany. Trier has a cute central core worth seeing, but the real attractions are the Roman ruins – in particular “Porte Negra”, the remaining town gate, c.200 (yes, that’s not a misprint). Our visit was marred, however by the ridiculous level of traffic getting into the city. It was absolutely overrun by auto traffic. I hate tourists! ;-j

The final leg of our route today was a beautiful drive through the winding back roads of wooded Germany, to Bacharach – one of the many riverside villages that face the Rhine and nearby Mosel Rivers. Tomorrow we will begin two days of touring these rivers, the villages, their castles and shops. Best of all, when we are done each day, we get to come home to our castle we share with 100 12-year-old “football” hooligans and snack on our remaining Belgian chocolate…