WedneSday, august 3

We spent this rainy morning taking a two hour Rhine River cruise.  Since the boat dock was conveniently located directly across the street from our hotel, we just hopped on the first tour boat that stopped by and rode for an hour upstream to the town of Bacharach.  It's exactly as precious as you might imagine a quintessential Rhine River town to be.

After about 45 minutes of walking around and looking around, we hopped back on another boat for the ride back downstream to Sangt Goar.

We had a very nice lunch at what is clearly a local favorite, Café St. Goar.

The café is best known for its desserts, and most especially the Black Forest cake.  Here, they cut their huge fancy cakes with the same electric knife you'd use to carve a holiday turkey, so as not to disrupt the perfect layers.

We then headed out for sightseeing adventure #2 of the day - Marksburg Castle in Braubach.  Dating back to the 12th Century, this castle was used as a protective fortress rather than a royal residence, as evidenced by its many cannons.

We were clearly allowed to take pictures inside this castle, so we did. 😄

Hirsh wanted a picture of his favorite rental car riding on the ferry.

Still not ready to sample traditional German fare, we headed to a lively pizza restaurant in St. Goar to refuel after a long, wet, chilly day.