Sunday, October 21st - Drive to St. Goar.
Bob: We were very comfortable in pension Mattenhof, but during breakfast we heard on the radio that it was snowing in Stuttgart to the east of us, and then it started to snow in the valley outside. Well, the thought of driving the mountain roads in the snow with German drivers right behind me was a bit unnerving, so we quickly finished eating, packed our bags, and bid our hosts adieu. They were awfully sweet folks, he even helped us scrape the ice off the car windows, and we were sad to say good bye but I felt that either we have to leave or risk being snowed in for a few days, and we could not chance that. The drive down from the high Black Forest into Freiburg in the lowlands required a lot of concentration because the snow and ice were just starting to accumulate and the curves were very tight indeed. But we made it down safely and joined the Autobahn heading north up the Rhein River. At the lower elevations it was raining rather than snowing and warm enough that I did not have to worry about black ice forming on the road surface, so I felt a lot safer. We drove from 9 o'clock in the morning to 2 p.m. to arrive at the Lorelei cliffs many miles downstream from the Black Forest region. Since we had almost continuous rain and/or fog along the way, we couldn't see any of the magnificent scenery and the driving was just tedious. Arriving in St. Goar, we wound our way down the steep, rocky banks of the Rhein through the ruins of a big castle and then, using our new Aldi GPS, located the hotel which had the starting point for the Volksmarch. Since they had a non-smoking room with a great view available for 72 Euro per night, we decided to stay there for the next three nights. The rain and fog dampened our ardor for taking a Volksmarch that afternoon, but I was interested to see that the hotel advertised not only the 10 kilometer Permanente Wanderweg but also one of the more traditional (and long!) 120 kilometer Rundwanderweg (Long-distance loop walk). So for the hardy folks reading this, you might consider doing the 120 kilometer version if you would really like to see a lot of the Rhein region and have a week to do it, because there are 7 segments to the walk that add up to 120 kilometers. |
Monika: It was time to move on, but we both were sad to leave the friendly folks at the Pension Mattenhof. And they proved to be friendly to the very end, hugging us good bye, and giving us a small bottle of Kirschwasser from the Schluchsee. And when the proprietor saw that we did not have an ice scraper to clear the windows, he came running with two of them, to help us get the ice off the window. And now it also had started snowing, if only very lightly. So we hustled out of the higher mountains and drove through the Hoellental to Freiburg, saying good bye to the Schluchsee, Schuppenhoernle, and the Titiesee. The snow did not yet stick, but the bridges and overpasses did look slightly icy. Our car has an external thermometer, and whenever it is below 3 degrees Celsius (about 35 degrees Fahrenheit) it blinks at you, telling you icing is possible. Sunday is a good day to travel in Germany; not only do they not have road construction, so there was no backup between Titiesee and Freiburg, they also do not allow trucks to drive except with a special permit. So the roads were free of trucks, and at every rest area, we saw the trucks parked with there curtains closed in front of their windows. After we got on the Autobahn in Freiburg, I took over driving for a couple of hours, while Bob had fun playing with the new GPS. He actually found out how to keep north up, rather than track up. Track up can get you slightly dizzy on a curvy mountain road. The only problem with North up is that the map stays nicely in place, while the triangle indicating position moves. However, it even stays in place, when the triangle moves off the map, so you have to drag the map to keep the triangle on the map. Not a problem if you have it on a rather large map scale. But even on a smaller scale I definitely find it easier to move the map, rather than trying to follow a map that keeps turning around you. It started to rain, but with no trucks to really kick up a spray, driving was not too bad. We stopped at a rest area for lunch, and then Bob drove us to St. Goar directly on the Rhein. We stopped and our new GPS gave us the location of the hotel that was listed as the starting point for the Permanente Wanderweg. Its name "Loreleiblick" view of the Lorelei sounded promising. So we stopped and asked for a room They had a couple different price categories, and I thought for 6 Euros more, we might get a room with a view. And indeed, our room faced the Lorelei cliff, and we could watch all kinds of ships negotiating the S-curve of the Rhine at the base of the cliffs. |
Bob: We took a walk into town to check on the boat schedules for trips on the Rhein (Rhine) and found that the season was fast drawing to a close. The regular river line was still operating, but only until October 28. The tour boat giving 1-hour trips was operating only on Sundays and the occasional evening, and the final line offered just some short excursions up and down the river from the Lorelei cliffs. The river itself, by the way, had a very noticeable current as it went sweeping along; I'd estimate somewhere between 5 to 10 knots. The current clearly affected the schedules for the river line where the times to go to upstream were noticeably longer than the times to do the same distance downstream. The most promising schedule for our purposes was the Koeln-Duesseldorf or KD line that had ships going upstream and downstream from St. Goar on a daily basis. St. Goar itself was a charming but very small riverside town. The businesses along the main street ran predictably in the tourist vein: restaurants and souvenir shops dominated the mix but I did see a bakery that we patronized later on. On the door of the tourist information center was, surprisingly, information about the Permanente Wanderweg we wanted to walk. The note also detailed that the really big Rundwanderweg for this region of the Rhein River was going to be cancelled at the end of 2007, and the note implied that it would be replaced with some other set of walks. We speculated that they might create some more Permanente Wanderwegs so that walkers like ourselves would have more of a choice, but we were not sure exactly what the new walks would be. Returning to our hotel for the evening, we had a light supper, watched the last Formula 1 race on TV, and turned in for the night after the 8:00 p.m. Tageschau news program. |
Monika: After writing about our day, Bob tried out the bed while it was my turn to write. After Bob woke up from the nap it had stopped raining. So we took a walk along the Rhein to St. Goar about 1K downstream from the hotel. We passed the ferry landing place, and a couple of ship landing spots, one was a regular ship going up and down the Rhein - judging by the times downstream was a lot faster than upstream. We thought one of these days we may want to take a trip up or down the river. When we got back, we watched the last formula 1 race, and it was exciting since three drivers could still win the championship (Alonzo finally won). |
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