Life in the Slow Lane

We explored the town of Bacharach, walking its narrow streets and admiring its well-preserved old town walls and buildings. That's becoming a common theme for us in this part of Germany. Gawk at old buildings, take shortcuts through alleys barely wide enough to walk, find an ice cream shop, check out the playground, and do it again.



Nighttime in these villages is especially beautiful, with the mellow lighting, and people enjoying outdoor dining at one of the many restaurants.



We also took a short cruise downriver to St. Goar. It's also a nice little town but a few too many souvenir stands for our liking.

We stayed one more night in Bacharach then hit the Autobahn and raced south. Raced may be a bit of an exaggeration. A VW van on the Autobahn is kind of like being the designated driver at a wild party--you get the feeling that everyone is having a lot more fun than you are. A lot of Americans are intrigued by the Autobahn, but it's really just a nice, well-maintained freeway with more disciplined drivers. The important difference is that the cars in the left lane can be going three times as fast as the cars in the right lane. You don't find any grannies poking along in the fast lane. On the rare occasion that I need to pass someone, I double and triple check my mirror to make sure that approaching car isn't going triple-digits, and then I whip out and around the slower car as fast as my VW will let me. Unlike my boyhood Autobahn fantasies, all the cars aren't Porsches and exotic sports cars, but there are a lot of big Mercedes, BMW's, and Audis. They can have their fast lane, I'll poke along with the old Fiats, Citroens, and Vanagons.




We arrived in the medieval town of Rothenburg in late afternoon, set up camp in the much-needed shade, and lounged around for a few hours before heading up to the old part of town. Rothenburg is one of the best preserved old towns in Germany, with intact town walls, a moat, and more beautiful houses. According to the "Night Watchman" tour it was spared the doom of most old towns because of two things. It lost its fortunes a few hundred years back and they didn't have the money to upgrade the town and it was just sort of forgotten for a few centuries. Then in the last weeks of WWII, a stubborn German commander holed up his troops in the town and declared they would have to be bombed out before surrendering. Luckily, a fog settled in delaying the bombing and when the stubborn commander took leave for a few days his subordinates surrendered and saved the town.




We awoke this morning to the sounds of goats, donkeys, and church bells. These uber-campgrounds are surprisingly peaceful. From here we plan on taking the "Romantic Road" south towards Munich.