Bacharach-- living in a castle!!

Next stop- Bacharach on the Rhein (Rhine) River. When I came to Germany in high school we stayed in a castle converted into a youth hostel and I loved it so much that I talked the others into including it on our trip this time around. It took us 15 minutes to schlep our luggage up super steep, muddy steps carved into the side of a hill, but it was definitely worth it!!

Our castle!

The view from the castle. The hills are covered in vineyards and the whole area is filled with small medieval-looking villages. We did a wine tasting in town and decided we really like the wine from this region!

More beauty. That's our castle way up on the hill. We spent our days here wandering around the town, lounging in the sun by the river, and playing cards with some other students in our hostel. It was a much needed relaxation after the craziness of finishing up our language course, packing, planning our trip, registering for classes at home, choosing classes to take at the University here and finishing up the last of our beaucratic tasks before heading out of town.

Just a cool sign I saw. It means: stairs ahead. The Germans really like to make signs for everything so that everything is very orderly and nobody is taken by surprise when they find a staircase in front of them.