Rolling the Rhine

We inspected one of the best Wine cellars of the region, Ing. Juergen Stassen, dotting the cliffs hugging the river and later slid down the current on a cruise to Boppard from St. Goar. Deutsch's Ecke in Koblenz at the meeting place of the Mosel and the Rhine, dwarfed us with the Willheim statue while the Loreley cliffs with their lovely siren lured us into sailing history as we gawked at the stunning vistas from the Rheinfels Castle Restaurant above St. Goar.

Quick Tips:

November in Rhine River Valley can be a little chilly and damp, so bring the umbrella and waterproof coat, but this will be offset by the relaxed attitudes of the locals and the stunning lack of tourists. Ah yes, if travelling by train a Europass will get you tickets on the Cruise ships of which only a few run after the end of October. Schedules are sporatic so please check with the tourist office in St. Goar. Take a train ride to Koblenz or further down the River and concentrate on the castles, so many, and some are closed except on weekends, so check in advance.

Best Way To Get Around:

There is no best way to get around here since all the transportation is excellent, as the Germans are noted as the best in public transport. Trains run on time and stop almost eveywhere as do the busess. If you like going off the beaten path, for scouring the wine villages then opt for a car, just remember gas in expensive. Hiking and bikes are the favorites for the paths on both sides of the river, but not so popular in November and of course in off season the cruise ships do not offer many options. Travel from one side of the river to the other usually done by bridge, between Bingen and Koblenz is done by passenger and car ferry scattered along both banks ofthe river. Best not buy a round trip ticket because you will need to come back to the same ferry for the return trip.

Welcome!, Welcome! Willkommen!, that is how the Family Alfred Lambrich made us feel from the time we arrived at their steep doorstep and fell into our comfortable room on the second floor with tv, telephone, ensuite toilet and shower and wide double joined bed with warm down comforters, needed for the chilly nights. Inside the door was clothes cabinet to the left and the bed to the quick right with small table with the telephone. On a table to the right of the end of the bed was the tv just beyond the double windows at the foot of the bed. Past the clothes cabinet on the left opened the tiny bathroom, with toilet right inside the door on left squeezed next to the shower and on the other side of the corner shower the basin and sink next to the wall with a window to the pine trees. Everyday the maid service was quick and towels were plentiful, even though Europeanly small.

Every morning the hotel serves a lovely buffet breakfast in the restaurant down stairs in the older part of the building. On the menu were cereal, milk, rolls, fruit, jams, jelly, cheese, cold cuts, coffee, tea, juice, and boiled eggs, and plenty of it.

Other amenities for the guests include a dry sauna and of course German bowling(kegelbahn)upstairs from the restaurant. The local ladies Tuesday night league offered to let us have a turn with them and Robert promptly bowled a strike while I embarrassed myself with a total gutter ball.

Herr Lambrich wiil give you all the information on wine cellers, boat rides, and many of the castles, plus make inquiries for you. The hotel boasts a website at Hotel Bergschloesschen

Just inside the door of the Hotel on the right in the tight foyer is a swinging door with a glass panel down the right side giving you a peek at the warm, cozy, spetacular restaurant inside. We found not only the warmth from the oven, but the warmth generated by owners who really enjoy being hotel and restaurant keepers. The Innkeepers we might say. A barren patio staring at the stark wine yards beckoned from across the room beyond the door, but the chilly rain said wait for another day. This pleasant restaurant with huge picture windows closely guarded by a row of wooden booths on the left and a cluster and a sprinkle of tables, all covered with pristine deep pink cloths, was the answer to a travelers nightmare.

Where to eat every night???? Decisions, Decisions!!! We had heard of what Europeans refer to as Pension and thought it was just a another type of accommodation, well seems to be a bit more to it. Called Halbpension and Vollpension. What a wonderful idea!!!! Every day when we would leave for our tourist jaunts, Frau Lambrich would inquire as to our dinner plans. We needed only to leave a message to what time we would return and when would we like dinner to be served. And Served it was. Always a steaming creamy soup, brocolli, onion, cauliflower or a crisp salad , baby spinach, with vinagerette followed by, would you believe, a roasted suckling pig for our farewell dinner. Of course we completed the feast with local wine every night from the small but well stocked bar in the left corner where in the afternoon we whiled away the hours with Bitburger from the barrel and refreshed our German grammar with each member of the family.

After another day of tramping down the damp Rhine we goggled at the massive platter of steaming broasted chicken legs that appeared on our banquet table. As it was Wednesday, Herr Lambrick's son, aspiring chef, had prepared luscious apple tarts and we drenched them in cream.

Every night we marvelled at the secrets we had spilled at the bar in the afternoon as all our favorites made it to the nightly feast. Frau Lambrick also introduced us to some of their own homemade wurst(sausage) and the German noodle(Spaetzle). As the evening groaned to an end Herr Lambrick would invite us to bar for a fiery brandy on him, finally presenting glasses to us as gifts and on a return trip from Frankfurt on our last Bitburger afternoon gave us our own Grosses Deutsch Worterbuch (English-German translation).

Cost per person per day for half pension or dinner every night was a mere 18 Marks, 9.50 Euro, a bargain anywhere, wine and beer not included. Herr Lambrick accepts Visa, MC and Amx, plus can make arrangements to rent a car.

So!!! the Restuarant at the hotel is closed on Thursday and out we had to go. If you are going to go out this is a rustic local Weinbau right on B9 with lovely view of the traffic on the Rhine. Plopped at the edge of the access road of B9(the main drag for rolling along the river north to Koblenz) Furstenburg has a huge parking lot with monster steps leading to the terrance atop the garage and finally the main entrance.

Thursday is special night here and all the entrees are 12.90 marks, or close to 7 Euros. Also they serve their own beer Fursten-Pils in lovely tall slender glasses. Great for sipping while you wait for the kitchen to prepare the meal and gaze at the blue-grey river sliding by.

Our waitress, the owners wife, politley delivered our steaming meal, hefty pork cutlet smothered in a lush gravy crawling with onions along with the ever present crispy fries and a spicy and light salad with beats, green beans, carrots with juilanne celery to our cozy table by one of the three picture windows opening onto the Rhine. Our subdued room was filled with light oak chairs and tables, rectangular with rustic design cut into the chairs and tables splashed with white table cloths and tiny vases with fresh carnations in the dead of November. The owner himself was the chef and the bartender and offerd advice on the wine for dinner, one of the few red wines(8 Euro) grown along the Rhine. It was a little on the light side, not heavy like some of the Burgandys from France.

After a crisp and sweet apple strudel shared for dessert, we were invited to the tiny three stool bar at the rear of the room by our host. No credit cards here and remember that 16% is already added to your bill, but it is considered polite to round off the ticket. We had a great meal and conversation for 54.60 Marks (27.92 Euro including the beer and wine) which is almost the same as dollars. What a find!!!!!

After a damp morning wandering the curly roads through the plateaus between the Rhine and the Mosel rivers we were in need of warmth and food. We had started out just to tour the vineyards, but we ventured farther than we thought and there was the Mosel and Cochem with its mighty Reichsburg Castle beaming at us.

With a little searching we discovered the buzzing little cafe, bistro Noss. Tucked in between a tourist shop and a dull doctors office facing the Mosel promenade was a warm red door with a small paned window filled with wine bottles and menus. Also there was a menu pinned to the window box to the left of the door.

A push on the door and the smells and bustling waitresses, engulfed you along with all the jolly animated customers. They gestured, they laughed, and they ate. Huge platters of sausages, with potatoes and beans, saurebraten with gravy, salads brimming from bowls and every one eating with gusto. All seemed local and we stood out , but we did get the only table left in the entire room. In the back next to the restrooms and the kitchen, but it was warm so who cares.

A harried young Fraulen took our order and slipped off to bring our drinks. We are not big eaters at the lunch hour, unlike the Germans, their big meal of the day, so we ordered Tomatensuppe and gulaschsuppe, which arrived promptly and steaming in huge platter bowls. Creamy and spicy with swirls of cream stirred on top and a dark crust of bread and I was good to go. Robert devoured his goulash and mummble how wonderful, but then he said, "I thought goulash was Hungarian food!"

As we settled ourselves in the huge main saloon of our jaunty ship, thinking let's go, departure was delayed, but finally our shipmates arrived, a bus load of tourists (as if we were not tourists). They crushed themselves down the gangplank and we were off from St.Goar to see the Loreley Statue, before we reached Boppard.

Our shipmates, even with the temp hovering in the 50's and clouds with a slight drizzle, took themselves to the upper outside decks and we gratefully stayed in the snug warm cabin and gazed as the mighty Rhine slid by north. A pleasant waiter served us beverages and chatted as we asked questions. We told each other about our lives, worked on our German, and made new friends along with talking about the castles and the river. Another member of the crew, over the speakers, kept a running commentary in several languages of the hovering castles and Loreley legends to keep us informed.

Around us and the bar, large picture windows surrounded us and the bow while multi rows of green and brown booths( big enough to seat at least 8) lined the bulk heads below the windows. Plenty of viewing space to admire the charming villages scattered on the banks seemingly shuttered down for the coming winter, but still as charming as a Grimms fairy tale. The mighty Burg Katz on the east bank at St. Goarhausen gave us a send off and Burg Maus was close behind. Again on the east shore, the dual castles of Die feindlichen Bruder (friendly brothers) greeted us across the river from Boppard high above the Kloster Bornhofen

Before we had left the vicinity of St. Goar, we slowed as we passed the dusky Loreley Statue, just south of St. Goar, sitting on its jutting pinnacle of land beneath the craggy steep cliffs. Legend has it that the beautiful mermaid Loreley would lure sailors to their death with her siren song. As their ships approached the shoals of the cliffs she would start to sing and they would try to find her and lose attention while their ships crashed on the shoals. We left her to the cold rain as we headed for our destination of Boppard. Here you can disembark and stay for while and catch the next boat back, about an hour. We opted for the trip back as most of our shipmates rushed with their umbrellas to enjoy the sights of Boppard. Within minutes we were headed back upstream and we relaxed and let the hum of the engines and the lapping of the Rhine rock us gently home to St Goar.

The Ship has a total gift shop with brochures, maps, guide books, t-shirts, caps and cafe serves almost any hot or cold drink you can think of along with snacks and some of the best spicy goulash I have eaten.

A short hike up the hill from the Hotel Bergschloesschen tucked left into the green hillside with the vineyard crest splashed on the mossy cave entrance is the Wine Cave of Ing. Juergen Stassen, Hauptstrasse 33, 55413 Oberheimbach, Germany. Telephone (0.67.43) 62.37 Fax (0.67.43)65.09

With a short phone call Herr Lambrich from our hotel arranged for the next afternoon a personal wine tasting of the gentleman's wares. Unusual in the summer but we are there in November. In summer we recommend a longer notice and you will be included in a scheduled tasting.

On Wednesday we hefted our feet the 1/2km to the door of the cave and were greeted by Mr. Stassen in a really cool, long, low room pushed into the side of the hill. After a short introduction and brief tour of the bar and cavernous serving area we sat at one of the long wooden tables filled with glasses and 10 bottles of his best. For his intro Mr. Stassen carefully labeled each of the wines(Spatlese,Auselese,Riesling and the famed red wine of the Rhine, Spatburger). Slowly swirling each of the sips over his toungue and inhaling as he did so,he then discarded the wine in a blue wine pitcher and expounded on the virtues of each as he poured us a sip and described the harvesting of the grapes and the difference the time of harvest can make on the quality and the sweetness of the wine. He rinsed with water between wines and provided water for us to freshen the palate and recommended plain crackers as the best way to changed from one taste to another.

We sat in the hollow tube like room dripping sometimes with moisture and sipped our way through all ten wines and aquired a nice mellow glow. Our purchases were delicatley wrapped and boxed by Mr. Stassen for transport home and we thanked him for most of all the information of the wine business. On weekends Weingut Stassen opens at 6 on Friday and Saturday and 11 on Sunday. His establishment also houses a Pension with rooms for rent with splendid views of the vineyard.