The world and all its people belong to him.’
Day 10, waking up in Munich, Germany – was unreal! And we couldn’t help but feel sad that our whirlwind trip of a lifetime would soon be over. And to be honest, the only other country apart from Australia, I’d ever visited is New Zealand. Iamo on the other hand, had been to Singapore and Thailand before.
And to think on this one trip alone, in the first 9 days, we had been to five different European countries, ticked off some iconic cities and landmarks, and even caught a glimpse of the Pope – it was overwhelming and truly amazing!
We never took our travel plans for granted! We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into when paying the instalments right up to the final due date, which was 2 months before the start of the tour. Hence we always prayed about our trip plans to God. How good is our God! His ways wondrous and His grace never ending 🙏❤
So on the morning of day 10, like other mornings where we had a road trip, it was the usual drill – wake up, dress, pack bags, take them down to hotel lobby, have breakfast, load bags and off we’d go on our next adventure.
All breakfasts were included in the tour price and we never had any complaints about them; there was always lots of choices. In some places where there were more tourists like us, there might have been a bit of a wait, or a few items on the menu may have run out. But that didn’t really bother us, because there was always something else to eat. I must add though, I think this place in Munich was one of the few we came across, that had notices discouraging people from packing and taking food away at breakfast 😅.
Apart from that, what I’m trying to say is that on trips such as the one we were on, low budget, adventurous tours – keep an open mind and open heart. And most importantly appreciate every experience – be they good or bad – absorb & learn the lesson each has to offer ❤.
Our journey from Munich to the Rhine Valley started @ 7.30am, straight after a hearty breakfast. This time we were ahead of schedule so our lunch stop at a rest area called Raststätte Am, Hockenheimring Ost was much longer than the normal 30 minutes. It had Burger King, MacDonalds, Coffee Fellows, just to name a few places available to get lunch from. I’m pretty sure, like most of the rest stops, they had a souvenir shop as well.
After lunch the journey continued and it was pleasing to realise that we didn’t have to travel far to get to our next stop – Sankt Goar, Rhine Valley. It was a scenic drive along the river, what a lovely place. I don’t know where the river starts or ends – all I could see is that it is the livelihood of the many people who live alongside it for centuries on end.
Sankt Goar, Germany:
Sankt Goar is well known for its central location in the Rhine Gorge, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since July 2002. Above the town stand the ruins of Burg Rheinfels, one of the castles for which the Middle Rhine is famous, and across the river lies the sister town of Sankt Goarshausen with its own castles, Katz and Maus (“Cat” and “Mouse”). The famous Lorelei
rock is close-by, slightly upstream on the opposite bank.
Wikipedia
We saw the Lorelei rock and also the statue as well on the river bank. Most of the photos were on the memory card I lost, unfortunately 😒 These few photos of the rock itself were taken from the coach on Iamo’s iphone, as we drove to Sankt Goar!
Lorelei, German Loreley, German legend of a beautiful maiden who threw herself into the Rhine River in despair over a faithless lover and was transformed into a siren who lured fishermen to destruction. The myth is associated with a large rock named Lorelei, which stands on the bank of the Rhine River near Sankt Goarshausen, Germany, and is known for producing an echo…
Britannica
We visited a Montag Steins and Clocks shop, which has the world’s largest hanging cuckoo clock out in the front. It had a lot of souvenirs, from beer steins to cuckoo clocks and many products. They can even arrange to have your purchases delivered anywhere in the world – you pay for it, of course – if you don’t want to carry around the authentic German products on a tour bus.
After buying a few souvenirs and taking a few photos here and there, we walked over to Pier 6 to wait for our boat – yayyy, we were going on a river cruise along the Rhine! Our destination Boppard where we would stay the night. The cruise was lovely and thoroughly enjoyed by all! We took a lot of photos too.
I love the bible verse shared in my 1st picture! Where we were right at that moment reminded me of how big the world is and how small my own little corner had become. Inspite of the role that German played in the history of the world – here was a psalm reminding us that the whole world and all its people belong to God. As a Christian, that verse brought so much context into our being there 🙏❤
It started to drizzle while we were on the cruise but that didn’t stop us from stepping outside to savour every moment. An hour or so later, we reached our destination, Boppard, Germany:
… One of these historic towns and wine-growing centres is Boppard, a UNESCO protected World Heritage Site. It is here that many of our multi-country tours to Germany stop for travellers to take in the serene landscape, cruise the Rhine river and taste true German wine such as Riesling, Spätburgunder and Pinot Noir. Owned and managed by the Macchaus family, the Vineum Wine Shop offers an impressive variety of wines from the region, as well as one of the lesser-known jewels of Deutschland- ice wine, or eiswein as it is known in German. Prepared from grapes that are harvested in the coldest months in winter, this traditional, sweet dessert wine is made by allowing the grapes to freeze on the vine naturally, at temperatures below -7 degrees celsius….
Expat Explore blog
In Boppard, we were told about a wine tasting activity – so I was expecting for us to be driven in a bus to a vineyard. To my surprise, the wine shop was just a short walk from the pier, in town. As described in the blurb above, there was an impressive variety of German wines, which we had the opportunity to taste, after a short presentation of how eiswein or ice wine is made. Interestingly that was the first time we’d heard of and tasted eiswein.
We had a couple of hours to spare so our tour leader allowed us to do more sightseeing and souvenirs shopping in Boppard. Iamo and I went looking for an ATM and luckily we found a English speaking local who pointed us in the right direction. Even though they don’t speak English, the locals are very friendly.
We were back on board the coach by 5.30pm for the trip to the hotel, Wyndham Garden, Lahnstein Koblenz, which was up in the mountains about half an hour from Boppard. We had dinner in the hotel restaurant and then went to check out the bar area to see if our friends were there.
I recall sitting in the lobby and singing with Vanessa and Jordan while waiting for the others. Unfortunately I don’t have photos of that. Anyway, we didn’t stay long at the bar – we left earlier, leaving the young people to enjoy themselves. That was day 10 for us, another funfilled day of experiencing German food, beer, wine, history, culture, etc. What a day it was ❤
Idau Hahine 