We are staying in a town called Neckargemund which is about 8 km from Heidelberg.

Our house is called SchilderHauschen or (Schilder cottage) and was built in 1569 - making it 447 years old.

We even found a little miniature version of it in the house. A house in the house?

It looks very odd and tiny from the street but it is quite spacious. We have the top two floors with the bottom floor used by the owner to run his business.

We did the museum tour on the morning that we were leaving Burg Reichenstein. It costs 5 euro 50 cents each and it was an interesting tour (self guided)

We decided to stay in and just have a simple dinner of bread and cheese and salad and wine.

The salad I had was pretty good - it came in a plastic container and had lots of different salad greens in it and it had croutons and cheese. It also came with a balsamic vinegar dressing all for 1 euro and 60 cents. I added some extras like blue cheese and smoked salmon and it was a nice light dinner.

We drank the bubbly Riesling that we purchased in Cochem.

I read a little about Bacharach this morning and we decided to go back (8km) and see if there was any shops open or not today.

Well there was more shops open but not that many again. Pam had looked at a little beanie in the window yesterday of a shop that was shut and said it would open tomorrow and it was open when we returned.

So for 2 Euro she got a little white woolen beanie which was a pretty good price and pretty nice.

I had read up on something called the Postenturm - this is a strange building that has been around as a Sentry tower for hundreds of years and now is just a good place to get a view over Bacharach from within the vineyards.

We walked along the streets and worked our way to the Postenturm

The view from here is so much better than down in the city of Bacharach as it includes the Rhine river as well.

But the view in the town is also very nice

After coming down from the hills we found a little restaurant which sell their own wine ( Weingut Fritz Bastian ) as we arranged to taste some wines. It took a bit to say we just wanted to try some wines and they tried to offer us some deal of 29 Euro to taste 12 wines. I would loved to have tried 12 wines but 29 euro? and driving? no.

But we just wanted to try something for free and maybe buy something.

http://www.weingut-bastian-bacharach.de/?lang=en

In the end the lady understood us as we asked to try a Riesling Splatlasisse - a sweeter wine.

The lady then bought out 3 glasses and we tried 3 wines.

• BACHARACHER POSTEN 2011 Spatlee  - 14 EURO
• BACHARACHER POSTEN 2011 Auslese - 19 EURO (500ml)
  Framed by vines, a mighty mediaeval watchtower springs suddenly from the steep slope: the Post Tower. Before it, the Rhine spreads like a giant silver mirror to reflect sunlight onto the wine terraces of Posten. This Riesling is a subtle and unmistakeable marriage of ripe, golden fruit aromas with crystalline clarity and mineral elegance.
• BASTIAN SCHEUREBE - 7 EURO
  For a long time, the Scheurebe grape was believed to be a cross between Riesling and Silvaner. Now we know that Georg Scheu created this classic new crossing of modern grape variety  from Riesling and Bouquet Blanc. Scheurebe exudes an enchanting scent of blackcurrant, grapefruit and gooseberry, while its spicy, peppery palate is dry and refreshing – our fresh and zesty BASTIAN SCHEUREBE is a perfect choice as apéritif or as a simple accompaniment to any party.

They were all very nice (the Bastia Scheurebe being the least favorite).  The lady then offered a dry Riseling and I was happy to say Yes. The 2011 was stunning - 22 euro and the 2012 was quite different and not what I wanted compared to the 2011. We bought neither although the 2011 was great and if I had more money I would have bought a bottle.

We bought a BACHARACHER POSTEN 2011 Spatlese, and also the BACHARACHER POSTEN 2011 Auslese

The vines were like 50m if that from the place we were trying them - talk about a local product.

The last photo is where the grapes are grown - 50m maybe less.

We decided for our first wedding anniversary which was last week that we would hold off and celebrate it while staying at the Berg Reichenstein.

We booked in for 7:30pm and went down to the bar about 7pm for a drink before dinner.

We ordered a couple of bubbles and they were quite now  (tide looked a bit out)

At 7:30pm they asked us to go into the dining room and we asked if there was anyone else eating, and the lady said they had one other booking so rather cold atmosphere compared to the last dining which was in Cochem where it was loud and excited.

We did not order from the multi course menu as the other options looked good.

Chris had

• Salad with Quail and Quail Eggs with Mango - 14 Euro
• Main was a Pork Chop (Pork Cutlet) with a nice jus, cabbage, red onions and potatoes - 25 Euro

Pam had

• White Asparagus Soup with Croutons and Bacon - 9 Euro
• Brown Trout with Gnocchi - 22 Euro

First come a bread course with some very nice warm crusty bread (Germany seems to have great bread) with butter and a piped creme fraiche with paprika.

We then received a little dish which was lovely - can't quite remember what it was exactly but it had croutons and bacon and a potato texture.

Next up was the actual starters - first up Pam's Asparagus Soup

and my Quail dish

YUM

Next up was the main courses - Pam's was the brown trout

and mine was a pork cutlet.

This was the best pork cutlet I have ever had and my quail dish was stunning.

Pam was also very happy with her dish as well.

We were quite full after these two courses so we did not eat desert but they the came out with a little box of two chocolates which were also stunning.

We had a couple of glasses of bubbles each and with the meal the bill was 106 Euro.

Very very good food......

We arrived at the castle shortly after 2pm after stopping off at a town called Bacharach. The town was pretty deserted and most shops closed. We found out later there was just not enough people so they just don't open. 

We checked in and were shown or room which looked nice but was small. We looked at our booking.com sheet which said it had a balcony and also a bath. We were told only the suites had a balcony and baths.

The lady said she would check if you can change....... 15 minutes later we are shown a far better room (a suite - same price) which has 2 windows and a bath but no balcony. 

But it also has a full on river view. Ah nice...

Breakfast was 12 euro 50 cents each and we decided to pay the money even though it is quite a bit but there was a lot of food there.

We also had some water, Orange Juice and a couple of espresso's each,

We woke up early and needed to get some food in for the day ahead. It was very cold - 0 degrees with a strong wind around so I walked to the bread shop and bought a bread stick and a couple of pastries.

We ate them up and then cleaned up the little apartment which only took a few minutes.

We had arranged a CAB to take us to the train station - we could have walked but with 2 bags each and a very cold morning the taxi was worth the 6 euro.

Our train (22 euro) arrived on time to take us to Koblenz and it was a nice little journey of about 40 minutes stopping at 14 stations along the way.

Once we arrived at the Koblenz railway station we bought a couple of espresso at 1 euro 30 cents each and then caught another cab to take us to the Avis car rental depot. Avis did not have a depot at the train station and it was about 200 euro cheaper to pick it up away from the train station. The taxi fare was 10 euro and 60 cents.

Once we arrived we had the option of 2 SUVs- not sure why SUVs probably because they were the only automatics available but we did see a Porche which would have been nice (auto as well).

I choose the Ford as it was a little but smaller than the Suzuki and it only had 6000km on the clock.

We got the GPS converted to English and worked out where we were going and headed off.

After dinner I took this photo from the bridge of the Cochem Castle all lit up at night.