Oktober 12 - Oberwesel

We slept in a bit this morning but had Frühstuck and then took a nice, long walk around Baden-Baden. Vegas could only wish it was this authentic. Lots of Germans take their 'wellness' here. Doctors will regularly prescribe a few days of wellness to help improve mental or physical stress...so they come to places like this to enjoy the thermal baths. 'Bad' in german means bath or spa so you see a lot of towns called Bad Stürbingen or Baden Baden.

We checked out and got in the car to drive to our castle...however we stopped at Altes Schloß or Old Palace which is high above Baden-Baden and is just a bunch of ruins. Most of the castles in Germany were destroyed systematically by the French (I think during Napolean times) and that's just a sad fact. However, from this castle you can see into the valley of Baden-Baden and into the valley that borders France....so essentially we saw France! The ruins were a treat.

The drive from there was pretty bleak...lots of industrial towns and it is a main throughfare between Basel (Switzerland) and Frankfurt where cargo goes onto boats to go up the Rhine river to the North Sea and then to the Atlantic Ocean. The autobahn in Baden-Würtemburg (the state we were in) is not as pretty or maintained as in Bayern (Bavaria). Ryan did well navigating the big Lorries (what they call trucks) and after about 3 hours arrived in the Rhine river valley. Suddenly we were surrounded by hills and driving up the river to our castle....

Right at the end I started taping with the camcorder and when we show it to you then you will experience a 10 minute segment of almost getting smashed between Lorries, taking the wrong exit, Ryan having a meltdown and complaining that I should have known where I was going and me saying 'Well, the last time I was here....' Haha too much fun.

Oberwesel is a tiny town but high above it is the Castle Schöneburg...it was built around 900 and destroyed by the aforementioned French )schlecht( and rebuilt through the 19th century to become a hotel and restaurant of the 4 star variety. We had the Falcoln suite which is at the top and has a view of the Rhine...we sat and drank local Reisling wine (which comes from the grape vineyards the stick to every hill clinging for life) watching the barges and trains go up and down the river.

The dinner was amazing as well...fantastic! Had one last glass of wine sitting atop a centuries+-old castle wall and watching the fog envelop everything. We felt like lords.