Day 3 - From Frantfurt to Koblenz and Bingen and a Rhine River Cruise!

I thought I might get a bit of housekeeping out of the way before I tell you of our journey today.  Here are a few facts you might be interested in:

• the sun rises at 5.53 am and sets at 9.08 pm (Mr. Google gave me these precise times!)
• we are 8 hours behind Australia east coast.  So when it's 9am here in Germany it's 5pm back home.  As we are getting up you are just coming home from work.
• in motels the beds are singles pushed together and each bed has it's own doona.  So no more fighting over the doona.
• still trying to work out if toilets flush in the other direction in the northern hemisphere.
• beer is served at 8 degrees as opposed to icy back home.
• this driving on the righthand side of the road caper might take a bit for me to get used to - and I'm the passenger.
• and 1 euro is $1.50 AU.

Ok, that's enough of the serious stuff.  Today has been Wunderbar (wonderful) in every way possible.  We picked up our car - a 4 door Leon Seat (pronounced See-at) and headed off to Koblenz which took about 1.5 hours going through beautiful countryside and the Autobahn (freeway). 

Tony had 2 GPS's going at once - to be sure, to be sure.  But the one that came with the car, nicknamed Helga, was fighting with Tonys GPS, nicknamed Herman.  Helga was telling us to go one way and Herman was telling us to go another way.  In the end we found Herman was so much better and used the Autobahn a lot more.  Helga would often take us the scenic route which took a lot longer.  I suppose I just wanted us to go on the Autobahn so we could go fast.

Our plan for today was to get to Koblenz and then take the train down to Bingen to get on the River Cruise to take us back to Koblenz.  The cruise would take 4 hours of amazing countryside  and beautiful old castles on the hills.  

We went to the Bahnhof (railway station) to organise the trips and we had to make an on the spot decision of which train to book down to Bingen to sync with the cruise back to Koblenz and as we are going up to Cologne tomorrow we booked that train trip too. Now......for people that know Tony everything he does is done very meticulously and even with the aid of a spreadsheet or two.  He does not go into anything lightly and will only decide after much thought and debate.  But as we had to make the decision quickly and with a lot of people lined up behind us he was under pressure - under the pump to make a decision.  

Now, I'm not saying Tony makes the decisions in our household.......oh no, no, no......it's just he takes longer.....much, much longer.  Me, I like to make a decision fairly quickly - the fewer the options the better.  Tony was so proud of himself that he had made a quick decision without the aid of a spreadsheet or two and, to his surprise, it actually turned out perfectly.  Also, we decided to stay 2 nights in Koblenz which meant we had to book into a hotel......which hadn't been done before we left Oz. We went to the first hotel,  just across from the Bahnof and had a look at the room and booked it.  AMAZING feat for Tony to organise things on the fly!

So off we went on a fast train, very efficient, and arrived in Bingen in about 45 minutes.  Got on the river cruise at 4.30 and sailed up the Rhine back to Koblenz at 8.30.

Now throughout this journey today I found it hard to describe the beauty, fascination and amazing countryside.  I was lost for adjectives to describe it all.  I thought WOW, AMAZING, AWESOME, FANTASTIC but all these words just didn't do it justice.  It wasn't until we got back Koblenz that one word came to mind and it was WUNDERSCHOEN! (pronounced vunder-shern) (meaning amazing, beautiful, filled with wonder).  For such beautiful German countryside it needed a beautiful German word. The photos just don't do it justice.  It's one of those things that you just have to be there.

Waiting in Bingen for our boat to arrive.  How decadant!

Our boat for the cruise - The Goethe

This is our Captain - a bit of a dodgy looking fellow!

We had the best seat inside the boat.  It was reserved for other people but they didn't show up.

Of course we needed to eat......it was a 4 hour trip.  Beef Goulash!

Tomorrow, we are off to Koeln (Cologne) for another day of discovery.

Geniess den Tag!  Bis Morgen!  (Mr. Google might need to help you with this one!)