Day 7 - Amsterdam to Bacharach along the Rhein River

Amsterdam Day 2 / Bacharach Day 1
We woke up to the sunlight coming in our window overlooking the canal. And our alarm clock, but that's less romantic. We slept like rocks, we were SO exhausted from the previous day and lack of sleep on the night train.
Breakfast at the hotel was basic; cereal, toast, cold cuts and cheeses and soft boiled eggs. We walk just a few blocks to the Anne Frank house. It's early enough that there is no line, and we walk right in. The house is actually 3rd from the corner, but the museum and memorial take up the other 2 lots. It's a self guided tour through the house with quotes and anecdotes on the walls, TV monitors with excerpts of media footage, friends and family of the Franks. Walking through the house was quit interesting, but reading and seeing what had been done to the house to make the secret annex was incredible. There was a hinged bookcase built in front of the door leading to the secret annex. 8 people lived on 2 floors in the annex for 2 years. I didn't know, or didn't remember until today that there was a 2nd family in hiding with the Franks, as well as one other gentleman. It was evocative and at times emotional. The depth and scope of Anne's journaling are surprising to me, as she was only 13 when she started. The most heart wrenching part of this experience was hearing Otto Frank talk about Anne, and that while they had a very close relationship, it wasn't until he read her diary after her death that he knew and understood who his daughter truly was. And the "what happened to the 8 people in hiding" part was awful, because the sole survivor was Otto Frank, who survived Auschwitz, the most terrible of the concentration camps.
We walked from there to the train station, stopping for a canal side cappuccino. The train we wanted to catch leaves at 12:34, and we got to the train station at 12:15ish. We head to the counter to get our Eurail pass validated and learned, to our surprise, that it's tough to just show up and get on a train without a reservation, esp. on a Friday afternoon. Well, shit! Fortunately, some nice Dutch woman took pity on us and got us in a fast-track line. We made a reservation for €18 and made it to our train with ease, which is where I am writing this now. 
First class train travel is way more comfortable than airplane travel. The seats are large and recline quite far, the foot rests are adjustable, the seats are leather. My only gripe is that we're sitting backward, but it's not bumpy enough to be bothersome. The train ride is actually quite lovely.
We change trains in Koln (pronounced like cologne) and again in Koblenz. Each train is operated by a different carrier. First the big intra-city trains, then the smaller city trains, then finally the little town connector trains. First class is great; comfy seats, leg room, tables, etc. The 30 min. stretch from Koblenz to Bacharach is dotted with castles along the way and vineyards on all of the steep slopes on either side of the Rhine. We try to follow along to the castles in the Rick Steves book, but there are so many that we get to the next castle before we're done reading about the current castle. After 4 or 5 castles, we stopped getting excited, as they are quite literally everywhere. It was a beautiful train ride.
We arrive in Bacharach (make a really throaty sound for each "ch") at 5:00. You can walk from one end of town to the other in 10 minutes, so it takes us no time to find our Hotel Kranenturm, which means Crane Tower. Our hotel is in the old tower that was part of the city wall, and the crane tower was used to lift barrels of wine/beer from/to the train. We are on the river (aka train) side, so the tracks are directly outside our window. Triple pane windows and complementary earplugs should do the trick. The building is old, like 1400s old. Medieval glass windows are put together by soldering flattened glass discs together, as that was as far as Medieval glass technology was at the time. Big wooden spiral staircases and creaky floors. We set our bags down and head out to walk the town.
Following the path in our travel guide, we walk a,long the main street, up through a vineyard and to one of the old town wall towers. From here we can see the entire town, the Protestant and Catholic churches, the castle-now-hostel, and the old Cathedral ruins, as well as the Rhine River and vineyards. The view is breathtaking, the kinds of sights you imagine Princesses dream of in fairy tales. 
We're back into town within the hour and decide on dinner at our hotel, as it's recommended for Kurt's sauerbraten, which Clint has. I have venison with spatzle and lingonberry jam. Both are to die for, and so is our apfelstreudel. We chat with a couple from San Francisco all throughout dinner. At 9:00, the restaurant is closed, so we head out to find a bar.
Two American couples we ran into earlier (because one was wearing a MIZZOU sweatshirt and was uber surprised to learn that I was born in Columbia) said that the streets were dead and wished us good luck finding any place open. This is just a sleepy town, so I wasn't too worried. We ended up at an Irish Pub of all places. Clint had a Kilkenny while I had a federweiss, which translates to feather wine. This is white whine made from grapes picked only 2 weeks ago. It was cloudy and had some sediment, but fruity, sweet, crisp and delicious. Apparently it's only available for about 4 weeks and only in the Rhein region of Germany. Germans eat it with zwiebelkuchen ("z-vee-bel koo-ken" onion cake), and Marcus, the pub owner, brought us a few bites to try. It has a pastry-like bottom with onions and bacon and creamy sauce on top. Sweet, but the kind of sweetness you get from cooking onions, and a little savory from the bacon. So delicious and went perfectly with the federweiss. 
And now it's bedtime. Having a day to slow down a bit has made us realize how fast we have been going, and it's catching up with us now. The next few days will be leisurely, that's for certain.