We had a great nights sleep last night and woke feeling pretty good! After a nice breakfast at our hotel (included in the bargain rate of 90E a night), we set off to walk to the train station. Our plan for the day: to buy a "hop on/hop off" day train pass for the region and explore some of the lovely little villages along the Rhine. Our first stop was the tourist information center, which was supposed to open at 10--but no one was there. No problem, we thought--we'll just ask our questions at the train station ticket office.
As we started to walk across the town square David very sternly said"don't look to your left"! Of course, I looked to my left. There was a Saturday morning flea market--didn't look too interesting, but I did a quick stroll by, just because.
Doesn't he look thrilled?
We arrived at the train station only to discover there is no ticket office--only ticket machines. No problem, after several tries at the machines we managed to buy our passes. We boarded the train and rode to the next little town, enjoying the scenery along the way. At the next stop we looked out the train window--the town is VERY small. We decide to pass it by, as we'd have to wait over an hour for the next train going up river. We stayed on the train, and soon pulled in to the next station--same thing--it's a tiny town.
Finally, we decided just to ride to the next large city on the Rhine, Mainz. After about a 1 1/2 hour ride along the Rhine we pulled into Mainz. We thought we'd wander around the town a bit, then find a nice place for lunch.
Mainz is not an especially charming town--but we did see this pretty church:
And, they have a city museum:
We wandered about a 4 block area, then decided we'd have lunch. We chose a small cafe on the square, and we sat outside under an umbrella--as the weather was looking a bit threatening. We ordered a salad and pizza to share--they were just OK. We made our way back to the station, where we had to wait just a few minutes for the next train back down the Rhine.
It sure wasn't an exciting day, and we didn't get to experience the small villages along the river, but we still had fun!
After pulling in to Boppard we walked back to our hotel, stopping at a small cafe along the way for a glass of wine. We decided we'd try a local Riesling--David's face says it all!
While we were relaxing and enjoying (?) our wine, the gentleman next to us started a conversation. He was very nice, and gave us a small souvenir from his travels along the Rhine. We meet the nicest people!
After our wine break we stopped in a church on the way back to our hotel. This is the first church we've visited on this trip!
The Church of St. Severus, dating to the 12th & 13th centuries.
Stained glass windows:
Newer windows on one side:
We'd made dinner reservations for this evening, so after a little nap and rest we walked the short couple of blocks to the Wein-Haus Romer-Burg.
It was in a pretty old building:
The interior reminded me of an English Pub:
We had a delicious dinner!
Starter: Goat cheese, apples & honey baked in Phylo:
David's beer braised pork fillet--really good:
Vegetable plate--the fried potatoes were the BEST potatoes we've ever had! I'm not sure what they added--but they were amazing:
We each tried a glass of local red wine--much better than the Riesling we'd had earlier!
All in all, it had been a fine day. Nothing exciting, just a relaxing day in the Rhine region.
Tomorrow: A cruise on the Rhine
Interesting day---even though the towns were very small it sounds like you had a nice train ride and saw some countryside. Your dinners look really YUMMY!!
ReplyDeleteLooking at your pork and mushroom dinner reminds me of my dinner yesterday....... I took one of your delicious tomato and basil sauces and put it in my crock pot with some mushrooms, caramelized onions and two large porkchops and let it simmer for the afternoon. It was so delicious! Thank you, thank you, thank you. Miss you here in Spudville.
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