St Goar

We got off the boat at St Goar for lunch, to do some souvenir shopping and to explore the castle on the hill. 

Giant Cuckoo clock.  This store had little $12 clocks to clocks for $7,000.  It was impressive and definitely a sight to see.

This is Castle Rheinfels... built somewhere between the 1200s and 1300s. 

View from the top of the tower at the castle.  My Mom broke her toe just a couple days before we left on our trip.  The cobble stone streets plus 5-7 miles of walking a day was a little rough on her.  Sometimes we could do things that made it easier.  This time we were able to pay a couple Euro each to catch a ride up to the castle and avoid the uphill hike.  By the time we were done, so was her toe.  She was a trooper, that's for sure.

I think this was Jer's favorite part of this castle.  It was a VERY steep stairway up to another stairway to get to the tower.

A shot inside the tower.

It wasn't too hard to imagine the hustle and bustle of people everywhere when this was a functioning castle.  We explored the stable, Apothecary, cellar, the well, a museum area about defenses and famous visitors, even the spot where they forced all visiting merchants to be baptized before they could stay in the castle. What is hard to imagine is that this was once much bigger.  You see bits and pieces.  I found this drawing from the 1600's by Wilhelm Dilich.  It helps you get the idea of what it was in it's hey day.

 

We climbed the front right tower in this picture.  Now it's the highest point on the castle and it's missing it's roof.  The highest point back in the day looks to be 3 times that size.

 

I kind of loved watching Jer's enthusiasm.  Everywhere we went, he wanted to see more, do more and know more.  I caught him giggling to himself more than once.

Because of my Mom's foot, these guys headed back to St. Goar's while Jer and I climbed the tower.  Here Jer was threatening to flatten my brother Seth with his backpack.

If you look in the window of the bakery right behind us, they have this fun and gigantic collection of tea sets.  They were all very beautifully painted and fun to look at.  The lady didn't even mind if we didn't buy anything, she just showed us into the second room of her shop that was completely lined with tea set after tea set.

One of our few pictures with all of us together.  There was a Japanese fellow on the boat that chatted with us part of the way.  He was a very efficient traveler... trying to see as much in as little time as possible.  We both got off at St Goar and kept running into each other.  He offered to take our picture for us.