Im Dürstey

Im sorry about not posting any news, but we spent the past four days in a little village along the Rhein River. Its called Bacharach, and there was one internet cafe, with one computer in it. It actually was the elementary schools computer that you could pay 50 cents every 15 minutes to use. In the town of Bacharach, i felt like i was in fairytale-land. The town is nestled at the bottom of a large hill. The hills are covered with vineyards planted vertically down there nearly 80 degree slopes. At the top of the hill sits an old castle. The castle is now used as a youth hostel, but we were told that last time students from CalPOly stayed there, they were crying at Astrids door the next day. So we stayed at a B and B call Pension Im Malerwintel. The inn sat at the end of a path with one of the walls part of the old city wall. The architectural style was all original half wood houses. And with the landscaping it seemed as though we were staying in some Disnez concoction of Salvang mixed with Hobiton. But I loved it. The buidings were crooked and the churches were tall. One of them sat just below the castle and was bombed in a war in the 1800s. The ruins still sit as they did a century ago. As part of our stay, we took a boat ride down the Rhein. WE were on the boat from 10 to 6 and saw many, many castles along the waz. We passed by the Loreley Rock, that the old man told us about way back in Munich, and saw some Roman churches. We got off the boat to take a tour of the Castle of Marksburg. It is considered one of the best preserved castles in Germany and also houses the German historical castle council. Two families still live in part of the church today and have to walk up the tall hill to bring in their groceries as there is no road. Apparently there usedto be a road of sorts, as the gates were built tall enough for a mounted knight to run through. We got to see the armoury, not that any of it was original, and the stables which were used as a torture chamber in the 1800s when the castle served as a prison. Its a little funnz how much the families spent to fortify the castle, they were prepared with cannons and archeryu windows, but were never attacked, one reason the castle still stands as it did.

When we got off the boat, our Anna was there waiting for us. She was ready to play hookey from school so that she could spend thenext couple of days with us. We had an enjoyable German dinner that night.

Yesterday we did very little, as Astrid was checking peoples journalling progress, so Mary and i climbed one of the towers on the hills. We sat up at the tower and sketched both the ruins of the chapel and the castle. We later came back with the rest of the class so that they too could enjoy the view we found. For dinner we went to a small restaurant where I ordered my first full meal of German Mountain Trout. It was delicious and I ate it with a glass of local Reisling (medium dry) from a bottle that Astrid ordered for our table of four. After dinner we went to pack our things and met up with most of the class at the only pub in town. We spent a couple hours just talking and anna taught me a german drinking song, but Im not sure i was being true to the song, as i only had one drink. But anyhow. Viva Colognia!