Europe 2012: Day 13 - Boppard

Fortunately, we made our switch in Mainz and got to Boppard about 7:30 in the morning. We took a cab for a few minutes to get to our hotel. The Hotel Ohm Patt was a great hotel to stay at and John, the owner (who was also British), was so welcoming. He insisted that we sit and have some breakfast with the hotel guests who had spent the night. He also talked with us over breakfast to help us figure out what to do with our day. The only thing bad about the hotel was that we were put on the top floor with no elevator. So every time we went back and forth to the room we had to climb 3 or 4 flights of stairs. It was nice in a way because then things were really quiet and Anya couldn't bother anyone else. But I must say it was difficult with my injury. This was the view from our window.

We decided to go to Braubach to see Marksburg Castle, a medieval castle. We walked to the train station and hopped on the bus to Koblenz. The Rhine River runs through the area we were in and there are only certain towns where you can cross the river. Unfortunately, we had to take a bus north to Koblenz and then take a train to Braubach on the other side of the river. In reality, Braubach wasn't that far away from Boppard but there was no direct path to get to it. Needless to say, it took a lot longer to get there than we anticipated.

When we got there, we stopped at the tourist office to find out how to get to the castle, which of course, was on the top of the hill. There is a tourist train that goes up periodically but there was a German sign on the door that we deciphered to say that the train was not running that day. Unfortunately for us, it was another long hike uphill to get to the castle. Eric pushed the stroller most of the way and I just did my best to make it up with my sprained ankle. This is literally the hill we hiked up to get to the castle...and did I mention it poured down raining a couple times on the way up?

By some miracle, we got to the top of the hill in time for the only English speaking tour of the day. The castle is only accessible through a tour. It was really cool to see because people still lived in parts of the castle. It was medieval and still in its original form so we got to see what it really looked like during medieval times. We got a picture of each of us with one of the old helmets.

And we got one of Anya standing in front of the gate with a goat behind it.

It also had some great views...

After we saw the castle, we tried to find somewhere to eat but could not find any restaurants that were open. It was really bizarre. It was a Tuesday but for some reason, the town was dead. We were starving, but we headed back to the train station to get back to Boppard, via Koblenz. We got some snacks to eat on the train and eventually got back to the hotel.

We had dinner at a place called Severus Stube, which was recommended on Tripadvisor. It was amazing. We had salads, fried potatoes (just as good as my mom's), crisped roast pork, mango cream soup, fried turkey in mushroom sauce, noodles, and wine. We sat next to a guy who was cycling his way around Europe. He had a lot of interesting stories to tell about his adventures. We were all streudel-ed out by this point, so we decided to find a cafe for dessert. We settled on Cafe Baldeau and had raspberry cream cake, cheesecake, and a caffe latte. Then, we headed back to the hotel because it had been a long day.