fíne wine by the Rhine

My boyfriend arrived Wednesday for a ten day visit. This is his first foreign adventure (I don't think going to Canada counts, especially since he grew up in Buffalo), and it is refreshing for me to see things through a new traveler's eyes...he is amazed by little things I might consider ordinary, like old stones, and good croissants, and the sound of certain German words.

Yesterday, we took a day trip to the villages of St. Goar and Bacharach, along the Rhine river. They are the kind of places you see in postcards, with tiny train stations and narrow cobblestoned streets that seem ghostly quiet in the evenings, but life pulses inside the walls of little wine cellars and cafes if you know which doors to open.

In the afternoon, we climbed the hill above St. Goar to explore the ruins of Burg Rheinfels castle, where I had been once before with my grandmother but certainly did not mind seeing again. The misty weather seemed to suit the place, I felt like I might discover a knight or a watchful archer peeking through a slit in the stone wall. Instead, all we discovered was an old man selling postcards...oh well.

We took a train a few minutes south to Bacharach for dinner, and enjoyed some of the fine local wine with our meals. For only 3 or 4 dollars a glass, you can get some delicious whites, especially Riesling! If I lived there I might drink a lot more...I am guessing most of the locals do, since the place is named after the Roman god of wine and revelry (Bacchus)!