For the person here on the board who asked for a complete trip report on our recent visist to St Goar: <BR> <BR>One of the towns we stayed in on the middle Rhine was St. Goar. We stayed there two nights and wanted to stay at a B&B both nights, but when we got to town found the place most recommended in Rick Steve’s Germany 2001 book was booked. So we stayed in a hotel that several Internet Fodor’s posters recommended: Hotel Zur Loreley. <BR>The room was large as was the bath, but the windows looked out on a wall literally and the room was bare and featureless. Cost was 110 DM with a smaller than normal sized breakfast. This hotel is at Heerstrasse 87 right on the pedestrian mall street. As we didn’t care much for the hotel we went to the tourist office and they called the B&B we checked at earlier and she had a room for the next night. Her B&B is listed under her name (Ilse Kurz) and she is a very friendly, talkative (as long as you are fluent in German..her English is very limited) lady. Breakfast is on a very pleasant terrace with a nice view of the Rhine in the distance. The breakfast was small. Our bedroom looked out over a peaceful terraced garden. The bath is shared with at least one other guest room, the laundry and the hosts too it seems from the belongings in the bathroom, so access to it is rather limited. I recall the charge as 75 DM plus 5 DM for each use of the shower. <BR> As to activities we did while in St. Goar; first we walked up through a forest path to the castle ruin above the town. We were quite surprised to suddenly come across a group of 7 men dressed as medieval knights and a jester standing on a staircase amid the trees! When my husband spoke to them he found out they were Czechs who were there for some organized activity nearby (their German wasn’t very good, so that’s all we could get). They were friendly and posed with me for two photos, which I’m looking forward to seeing. Once out of the forest we got to Burg Rheinfels, which is a very interesting ruin. We followed the thorough description from Rick Steve’s book on a tour through the ruins. In the center of the ruins we came across more people dressed in medieval garb, food stands and craft demonstrations. My husband is a musician so he was interested in the people who were setting up to play music, but then a stern woman with a clipboard showed up and told us in German that we must leave the area immediately as this was a private party (the guests had not arrived yet). This was puzzling, as we had never been told we had to stay out of many parts of the ruin when we bought our entrance ticket. So the whole time there we had to try and see the parts of the ruin that we could and try to avoid the large parts of the ruin this private party was using for their games, meals etc. We did get to see bits of what they were up to from atop a tower and heard some of the music. And of course I got as many photos as I could of the colorfully dressed performers. The views from the tower of the ruin were very nice and the day was sunny with blue skies. The most interesting part of the ruin was the place where they used to lower prisoners into a pit and just leave them in the darkness with minimum daily food (they have now carved an entrance people can walk into through what was the wall). Steve’s book said one man survived 5 years in that pit. <BR> <BR> <BR>

(had to post in two parts as it's so long) <BR> <BR>After we left the ruin we went next door to the restaurant at the Villa Rheinfels and had ice cream and cappuccino on the terrace with its wonderful view of the Rhine far below. Later that evening we meet two people I had been writing to on the virtual tourist web site in town for dinner. We ate outside at a café on the pedestrian street and enjoyed a long talk with them. Afterwards we went with them on a stroll along the Rhine at night and enjoyed the lighted Burg Katz across the river. We love to meet local people when we travel, so it was great to meet two whom I had already been writing to and who spoke English so my husband didn’t have to translate all the time for me. <BR> The next day we switched to the B&B and went on a boat trip down to Bacharach. The views were very nice….I especially liked it when we went by the famous (and very photogenic) Pfalzgrafenstein tower in the middle of the river. In Bacharach we walked around the town (we had already been there by car earlier on our trip) and then returned on the boat. Once back in St. Goar we then went on a walk up many forested staircases to the ridge high above the Rhine. Great views of Burg Katz from this ridge trail. We walked along farmer’s fields to a view overlooking the Loreley rock. It was almost sunset by the time we descended back down to St. Goar. <BR>We ate dinner at Gasthof Zur Krone near the train station which is a place our hostess recommended and the food was quite good. They overcharged us for a bottle of wine though. The waitress and my husband talked at length as she was from Eastern Germany so he was interested in how the changes since 1990 were for her. <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR>

Anna- <BR>Thanks for posting about your trip. We will be going to St. Goar in July, so it was interesting to read about it. We will be staying at the Hotel Am Markt. Did you see it or hear anything about it? Are there any other restaurants you can suggest? Any info is greatly appreciated...I am an ultra-planner!

Dear KC, <BR> <BR>We were also along the Rhine/Moselle during the month of May. <BR> <BR>In St. Goar, we had an Italian meal at La Fontana. Excellent and quite reasonable. It is 1/2 block off the pedestrianzed main street(Heerstrasse), approximately two blocks down from the Church that sits at the foot of Burg Rheinfels. (As you walk down Heerstrasse, you will see a small sign on your right for a turn-off to the restaurant.) <BR> <BR>We also had a great meal(also quite reasonable) at the cafe of the Hotel Adler Post in St. Goarhausen. (If you take the car/pedestrain ferry across the river from St. Goar, the Adler Post will be to your immediate left on the main street (directly across from the park). The veal in cream sauce was wonderful, as were the potato pancakes with a sour cream and yogurt sauce that was laced with fresh rasberries. <BR> <BR>If you have car transport, the views and food were great at Castle Liebenstein and Castle Sterrenburg. <BR> <BR>Also, the wine tasting recommended by Rick Steves at the Weingut Zum Brunen Baum (next door to the Altes Haus in Bacharach) was great fun --Where else can you get 15 glasses of good wine for 27 DM--including bread to cleanse your pallet? <BR> <BR> <BR>If you get to Bacharach and have the inclination, the wine tasting

The town of Rudesheim is fun to visit for a meal. It has one street...Drogglegasse (SP) that is all restaurants with some entertainment. We met a couple at the next table in one of the places and had a great time with them that evening and touring the next day. <BR> <BR>The Krone Hotel in Assmannhausen is on the Rhine and has a restaurant. Goethe stayed there at one time.

It's so great to get all of this wonderful information! Once we get to St. Goar, how difficult/easy is it to get from town to town on the Rhine? Did you spend whole days in each town, or did you travel from town to town? I'd love to be able to see as many as possible. And all of the castles sound wonderful.

KC we had a small rental car but many towns have train service too (or you could use the KD boats to get from town to town). We spent 5 nights in the middle Rhine area; one in Assmanshausen, two in Oberwesel and two in St. Goar. I would say getting from town to town is quite easy in any case. <BR>Bacharach seemed like a nice town (we spent part of 2 days there) but as we stayed at the Auf Schoneburg castle hotel in nearby Oberwesel we went on to stay in St. Goar the other nights. Boppard has much to offer, but to me it was too big of a town to want to stay there overnight. Loved the chairlift ride and views in Boppard though. We intended on stopping in Koblenz for the morning when we drove through there on the way to the Mosel, but once we were on the freeway through there and saw how huge that city is my husband didn't want to stop so we went on to Beilstein.

Anna- <BR>We will also be staying in the Schoenburg castle for a night, and then 2 nights in St. Goar. What did you think of the castle? We also made reservations to eat dinner there. Did you also go to the Mosel area at all? Thanks! KC

Last June (2000), we stayed at the Hotel Cafe Post in Assmannshausen, which is a smaller, quieter town than Rudesheim, with good access by Rhine steramer and train up and down the Rhine. We tried the local Spatburgunder, a pinot noir which could easily pass for attractive southern Burgundy (e.g., Auxey-Duresses, etc). <BR> <BR>The Cafe Post is family-owned and managed with many good views of the river across the road and is convenient to the several docking ports for the Rhine ships, and the hotel restaurant serves a fine meal. We definitely recommend the hotel as a less costly alternative to the Krone, which is about 150 metres west.

Hi KC: I posted this reply to someone who asked about the Schoneburg on another thread I started...I'll repost my reply here for you too. BTW we also did spend 6 days on the Mosel (stayed in Beilstein, Zell, Berkastel-Kues) before we went on to Trier which is not in the Mosel valley but very near. When on the Rhine we also stayed one night at the Hotel Cafe-Post in Assmanshausen because of posts I saw on this board. <BR> <BR>Here are my comments about the Schoneburg you asked about: <BR>We stayed at Auf Schoneburg two nights <BR>and really enjoyed our stay. We had to switch rooms as that was the only way to get two nights in a row, but actually that made it more interesting as each room is so different. The first night we stayed in room 38 which is not in the main building so it has no view to speak of, but the room itself was very nice. Large, with a separate library room filled with books, a CD player and TV hidden away in armoire, a large sunny bathroom and a nice bed in a nook. Rooms have a half-filled sherry decanter and a mini-bar/fridge. Numbers of tourists come by to look at the castle and, although they are asked not to go into the main building, they can walk around these other small buildings so there is less privacy outside. The next night we were in room 36, which was high up a narrow staircase in a tower section of the main building. The room itself was smaller and not as nicely appointed (no library, no CD player, TV on a desk) but it had a private balcony with a nice view of the Rhine on one side and a high meadow with horses on the other. I sat there and watched the birds fly into small openings in a ruined tower right across from me which was memorable. <BR> <BR>We ate dinner at their restaurant both nights and the food was good. Menu I recall was only in German (my husband is fluent so that wasn't a problem for us but do be aware of this.....most of the hotel's customers were American's so I don't know why they don't have an English menu). Most of the staff was pleasant and informative (except one ice queen head waitress). There are two nice "library" rooms for the guests in the castle. People had drinks or coffee there. We *loved* the outside patio but the staff kept telling us it was "too windy" to be out there. We didn't find it so and sat there a number of times to read or just look at the fabulous view of the Rhine below. It took quite a bit of convincing but we finally talked one staff lady into letting us have coffee out there in the morning. The weather was great and it was a very nice place to have coffee. Breakfasts were very nice...the best we had in Germany. Large variety of meats, cheeses fruits etc. They put out a plate of interesting little dishes on your table to taste. We noticed that the English list of what these dishes were left out some details (so American's wouldn't know several were internal organ meats we thought). <BR> <BR>At night the outside of the castle is lit up and looks very nice. The moon over the Rhine and lighted castle towers makes for a nice evening stroll. <BR>Ah, just writing about it and remembering it makes me wish we could go back there again soon! <BR>