Once in Bingen, we walked through the festival, checking out the various merchants. There was a little bit of a wine festival, and we tried (and bought) a number of bottles, including a Bingen Ehrenfelsen Auslese and an Ehrenfelser Eiswein, some for Mike and some for us. We also got some Beerenauslese. Then we settled at what looked like a good spot and waited for the illuminated boat parade.
We waited, and waited. Then got some dinner at the stands at the festival, and some more wine. We continued waiting, and watching the dusk fall.
Dusk falls very late in Germany in July. By 10:00 dusk had settled pretty well, but nothing had happened. Normally staying at a hostel we would need to be back by midnight or so, but the folks at Stahlek had told us they were not watching time because of the festival. While we waited Mark chatted with a German gentleman, exercising his language skills (since the gentleman did not speak English).
By about 10:20 we began seeing lights around the turn of the Rhine, just downstream from where we were, and within 10 minutes the illuminated ships came into view and the fireworks started, which illuminated both the two castles we could see as well as Burg Klopp, which we could not see well. It was lots of fun. We left our seats as the grand finale began and as we walked to the car we managed to see the end of the grand finale over Burg Klopp and to get out of Bingen ahead of the crush of traffic.