After breakfast we said goodbye to our castle and went to the main street of Bacharach, finding Café Haus Stiehl. The owner, Marjkijke, met us and toured us through her contemporary renovated apartments. Behind her cafe we crossed over the outdoor patio, and up a set of stairs. The landing led to a door to an apartment, but we continued up another flight of steps. Opening the door we found a unit with a kitchen, living room, and bedrooms on the right, and a living room with more bedrooms to the left. Both units had steep stairs (practically ladders) leading into a loft area with a bed. The kids were very excited about the lofts, and all wanted a turn to sleep there. The beds had white fluffy duvets with matching duvet pillows. Looking out of the bedroom windows we could see across to other historic buildings lining the Main Street. From the living room we looked out over many rooftops and backyards. We were very happy with all the space, and the updated facilities.
We dropped our bags off, and then drove to the docks where we caught a riverboat to St.Goar.

The riverboat was luxurious. We were surprised that it was such an affordable
excursion, in fact Wednesdays kids travel for free making it very reasonable. To the left was an informal sitting area, to the right and a few steps up, was the bar and formal dining area. We sat in the dining room enjoying the scenery through massive windows. There was also open air seating on top. We rode for about an hour, looking around at the various castles that dotted the riverbank. Getting off at St.Goar we found a place to eat lunch. A bustling cobbled main street had many choices for us. We chose an outdoor patio, and continued our love affair with German food.

At the end of the street we found a mini train used to transport people to the town's famous castle. The driver was grumpy, getting mad at the kids for hurrying on. Burg Rheinfels, built in 1245, is a monstrous castle ruin with endless possibilities for exploring.

The castle was initially owned by Count Diether V von Katzenelnbogen, and used to protect tax collectors. Even though the castle was once five times larger than we see now - making it the largest castle on the Rhine, it is still the largest castle ruin overlooking the Rhine today. Soon after the castle was built it took on it's first siege. 27 towns came together in protest against the arbitrary increase of custom duty on the Rhine, and for just over a year tried in vein to bring down the castle, but were not successful. In the 14th century Katz castle was built across the river making it possible for the two counts to block the river valley, increasing their power. In 1692 the fortress was so strong that it was the only castle on the left bank of the Rhine that withstood the attack of 28,000 French troops sent by Louis XIV. The castle finally fell when Napolean took it in 1794 without a fight, sadly he destroyed most of the castle in 1796 & 1797 by blowing it up. Since 1925 the castle is owned by the town of St.Goar.

When we first entered the ruins we found a narrow spiral staircase leading high up into a part of the ruins. We climbed it, and had a look around at ancient walls, a deep well, and various archways. During peaceful times 300-600 people lived inside the castle walls. During a siege up to 4,500 people took refuge inside the walls, where it was 100% self-sufficent. We walked high along the walls of the castle making our way up to the lookout tower, where we viewed forests, valley and river. From high above the castle we saw where men protected their castle by shooting crossbow arrows, dropping hot pitch, and shooting large steel balls out of cannons. The steel balls were collected after a fight and re-used, they were expensive so recycling was important.

We came across the dungeons. Prisoners were held here, but executions and torture was only allowed in the prisons in St.Goar. Prisoners entered the dungeons through small holes in the ceilings, not through the entrance ways that free people walked. Twice a day prisoners were fed bread and water. They spent a lot of time sitting on wooden beams to keep out of the muck accumulated on the floor. 2 prisoners that were kept there for over 2 years, (longest time on record) died only 3 weeks after they were released, which gives an idea of the poor conditions endured in the dungeon.

Our exploring became even more exciting when we began walking through castle tunnels. We walked through narrow stone and dirt tunnels that were barely high enough for Tim to stand in. Tammy was creeped out, but with some persuading she reluctantly entered. The boys got very excited when they saw the tunnel incline and twist, making them very curious. They climbed on all fours as far as they could until it narrowed into an impassable point, so they backed down returning to level ground. By this point Tammy had found a scary looking spider near Deborah's leg, causing us to all leave in a hurry. Going in the other direction we noticed 3 foot mine tunnels descending further into the ground. These types of tunnels were used as booby traps. The tunnels reached out far beyond the castle walls. They were filled with gun powder and lit when enemies approached, blowing up the ground and enemy all at once. The unused tunnels were possible to explore by crouching or crawling - of course Darius and Brennin were up for it, but Tim and Doug thought it wiser to do something like that in pants, and long shirt with a headlamp. Since they were all in shorts, and only had iphone lights, they skipped that part. We noticed the damp walls were home to slugs, and as Tammy used her iPhone light to look at the slugs she illuminated a ridiculously big spider. Mila and her saw it at the same time, and looked at us with terror in their eyes. Dram unfolded as we screamed and ran out of the tunnel. Deborah followed us, but couldn't believe the fuss we made over a stupid spider lol The guys, and Makenna and Belia stayed back to take pictures of the creepy guy. Belia didn't look, but we were impressed that she didn't flee like the rest of us wimpy girls. After this point Mariah and Mila were creeped out and didn't want to be close to the castle walls. We split up with the guys and Makenna, they continued exploring. Tim admitted that Doug and Brennin were a little more jittery after the close up spider encounter. Tim hadn't seen the spider because he was making sure Belia didn't get scared, so he was less jittery. The thought of having a spider that size on you is a bit creepy, even for them. We made a quicker exit from the castle than the guys, but that still required one small passageway into an enormous cavern known as the cellar. It was originally part of the moat, and later when the castle expanded became a pantry. The pantry held their staple foods, as well as one massive stone container holding 180,000 liters (47,550 gallons) of wine. For interest's sake that is equivalent to 15, 3,000 gallon water trucks. This stone barrel lasted them 18 months. Part of the soldiers' pay was table wine. The stone barrel is no longer there, now the cellar is covered in red carpet and used for concerts. I'm sure the acoustics make the concerts a beautiful experience.

We left and spent some time in the gift store before walking back into the town of St.Goar. We wandered through shops, and then back to our boat that returned us to Bacharach. The informal area in this vessel surprisingly had Subway restaurant. We bought subway sandwiches onboard to eat back in our apartment.

At home we sat outside using wifi, and I did some blogging. The kids asked to go around the corner for hot chocolate. They felt very grown-up going to a restaurant by themselves, and had a great time.