Last night, about midnight, the wind suddenly started howling up the river. Our tent was flapping like I was on a Rainier climb. But, the tent flapping was the only commonality. The temperature at midnight was still 86°. I figured this wind was a sign of changing weather. The forecast showed daytime temperatures dropping from the mid-nineties to the mid-seventies in the next two days. We were happy to see this change coming.
Our goal for today was the Youth Hostel above the town of Bacaharach, just 10 miles into the "Romantic Rhine River Gorge". This 13th century castle was turned into a youth hostel in 1926. It is perched high on the hill, directly above town. We saw it from the boat yesterday. It is very cool looking.
We packed up and rode to the Rüdesheim-Bingen ferry, where our €5 carried us across. Once on the west side of the river we started downstream. It did not take us long to notice that the view from the boat yesterday was far superior to what we were seeing from the bike trail today. The cute little "Maus Tower", a castle right next to the river bank for
collecting tolls in days of yore was not visible from our bikes. There was quite a bit of brush and shrubbery (weeds) growing next to the trail, blocking much of the view.
For the first time since starting out on the bikes, the wind is blowing down river. We actually have a tail wind! It has only take 650 miles, but the effect is wonderful.
It did not take us long to make our way to Bacharach. Once there, we could look up to see the hostel towering above the town. We needed to ride our bikes up there. Consulting the GPS, I found the roads we needed to get us there. We debated whether to see town before riding up, thinking two trips up the hill unnecessary, but we worried that if we delayed our arrival we may not get a room. This hostel is a very popular destinations, it was a Friday night, and we did not have a reservation. We decided to ride up, try to secure a room, then ride back down, have lunch and tour the town, then ride back up.
The last part of the road up was as steep as our driveway and half a mile long. It was a grunt. I was in the lowest gear possible on my mountain bike, pumping up the hill. Sally? Let's just say she was in e-bike heaven. She had to work to get up the hill, no doubt. The bike doesn't do the work, it just assists you. But, if she had been on her old bike, we never would have made it.
Sally went to inquire at the desk while I watched the bikes outside. It has come to our attention that Sally always gets a more favorable response dealing with hotel/hostile desk clerks than I do, so we always send her in. About ten minutes and she was back. All the rooms were booked. When Sally said, "Darn, we just rode our bikes all the way up here", the man behind the counter said, "We do have a room we hold for emergencies. I can let you have that one." We were in. And it was only 10:45 in the morning.
We moved in and enjoyed the castle terrace and views, then explored the towers and lower passageways before mounting our bikes and letting gravity undo all we had done in getting to the hostel.
We did a little shopping and cruised thru town with our bikes before settling into a Kebab shop for lunch. Then we slugged our way back up to the hostel, content to stay put on our mountainside perch for the rest of the day.
I settled into my top bunk of our bunk beds and spent a hour relaxing and blogging. Sally headed out to write some postcards on the terrace. Blog finished, I headed out to meet Sally. We soon met Art and Carol from Eugene, Oregon. We talked with them the rest of the evening, including through dinner, which was included with our stay. Since it was Friday, fish was on the menu, along with new potatoes, fresh green beans and salads. It was delicious. At dark we went back to our room. I got the top bunk, Sally the lower (it is a hostel!). Kids were playing outside our room, having fun in the near dark on the castle walls. We both fell asleep, in spite of the noise.
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