My internet connection in Bacharach is a T-Mobile internet point in a tiny shop across the street from this church. My best and only reliable connection was had while I was seated on this door step of this church. I stopped in at the tiny shop across the street to inquire about the connection ahead of time, but all that the lady there could tell me was that her son was the only one who new anything about the internet point and he was still sleeping. I've used T-Mobile several times now here in Europe and you can get on-line reasonably easy with a credit card, so that's what I did. I don't really like how their rate plans work and the coverage can be sketchy like here in Bacharach, but when it's the only game in town there is nothing you can do about it.

My river cruise was aboard one of the large Koln-Dusseldorfer (KD) boats. They run several boats up and down the Rhine every day with regular stops at several villages along the way. My Eurail Pass allowed me to ride these boards for free.

Most of the photos below were taken aboard our boat, the MS Loreley.

The Heimburg castle.

The Burg Sooneck castle.

Many of the cargo boats like this one had a cabin in the back and carried a car and/or small boat. The cabin is probably used like a sleeper on a semi truck and the car is probably off-loaded and used to get around while the boat is sitting waiting to be loaded or unloaded.

The Burg Reichenstein castle. Note the camp ground below it along the river.

The Burg Rheinstein castle.

The Ruine Ehrenfels castle. Note the vineyards surrounding the castle.

The Mauseturm castle. It was once used for charging river tolls, like most of the castles, and is now used as a navigational signal station.

Castle above Bingen.

The Niederwald Monument. It's 120 foot high and was built out of 32 tons of bronze back in 1877 to commemorate the reestablishment of the German Empire following a fews years of war with France.

That's our boat the MS Loreley. I took it as far as it went up stream (south) which was Rudesheim. It then sat there for an hour before heading back down stream (north). While it was stopped I got off an went for a walk and a beer in Rudesheim.

On our way down stream we passed a boat race seen here in the distance.

The Pfalz castle is in the river and the Burg Gutenfels castle is on the side of the hill.

The Schonburg castle.

Many of the train tunnels around these parts have entrances that resemble castles. Note the folks on bikes behind the fence. There is a bike path on both sides of the river, but today they also had the road on both sides of the river closed to traffic and opened up for people on bikes and roller blades.

The Burg Katz castle.

One of the bigger container boats on the river.

The town of St Goar. This is where I got off the boat and eventually caught a train back to Bacharach.

The Burg Stahleck castle above Bacharach and the view from my new hotel room. I switched from a double room to a cheaper single room today (it wasn't available last night). The new room is on the back of the hotel facing the castle and away from the rail line. I switched rooms only because of the cheaper price and the fact that this one has a full bathroom. The first room had a shower but no toilet, that was down the hall. The trains didn't bother me at all in the other room. They have new thick windows here to block the sound, but I sleep all night with them all open!

Another shot of the Bacharach showing a huge wine barrel that is the symbol for this town.

Here's a Google Earth file that shows the path of our river cruise today. It also shows some of the other boat stops up stream (north) towards Koblenz and some of the walking I did when the boat was parked and after I got off in St Goar. Just click on the following link to download and open the path in Google Earth:

  060625-cruise.kmz