Contiki: Day 19 – Prague to Rhine Valley

// May 29th, 2008 // Contiki, Czech Republic, Germany, Netherlands, Travel

Today was an early one. We woke up around 6:45 and headed down to breakfast by 7:00. The breakfast was just OKAY. Pretty much the same junk as yesterday but again, better than many breakfasts that have been served to us on the trip.

We loaded the coach and headed out around 8:00AM to head for St. Goar which is located in Northern Germany in the Rhine Valley. The trip is just over 600 Kilometers so it’s quite a ride. We expected about seven or eight hours driving before arriving in St. Goar.

We drove about three and a half hours before our first service stop in Germany. As usual with most places in Europe you have to pay to use the bathroom. Today it was 50 Cents. Through out this whole trip I’ve noticed that the prices of toliet visits have ranged anywhere from 20 Cents, to 1 Euro (approx. $1.55 Dollars) per visit. Pretty rediculous if you ask me. If you were to charge to use the restrooms back home in the US, people would burn the place down. It’s robbery!

We spent about 45 minutes at the rest stop and everyone grabbed some food and drinks for the road. We had another three and a half hours to go. The good thing is that we’re doing really well for time so our tour manager told us that he changed the plans around a little for tonight. We’ll be going to a shop in Germany where you can buy the official beer stein’s, and all sorts of other german souvenirs. After that we’ll be heading to a unexpected river cruise on the Rhine River before checking into our hotel and having some dinner.

The Beer Stein demonstration/shop was okay. Although the steins were outrageously priced at anywhere between 50 – 120 Euro. They also had the largest beer stein in the world inside of the shop. There was also a cuckoo clock shop, and Birkenstock shop across the street. The cuckoo clock store had the largest cuckoo clock in the world. There wasn’t too much to see in the area. We boarded our Rhine River cruise about an hour after arriving in the Rhine Valley. A few of us grabbed a beer and relaxed as we cruised down the Rhine River. The scenery was pretty cool, there were lots of castles up in the hills along the river.

After the cruise we boarded the bus to head to our hotel. When we arrived at the hotel, everyone thought our tour manager was messing with us. It looked like the size of a house, with a few extra rooms attached. We checked in and the rooms weren’t as bad as I thought they would be. They had everything that was necessary, a shower, a door, and 2 beds. Sweet. Only problem was that it was so hot and humid in the room all day, and all through the night.

We went down to the Contiki Included dinner at our hotel around 5:30PM and it was alright. There was Pork Schnitzel, Potatoes, Pasta, and Turkey mixed with Rice. The food was better than previous dinners on the trip so I can’t complain. I think most people enjoyed the meal.

After dinner we headed to the Contiki Optional: Wine Tasting. St. Goar (Rhine Valley) is famous for their Riesling Wine and Eiswine (Ice Wine). The wine tasting demonstration was great. If you are visitng St. Goar, you have to do this optional, whether you’re a fan of wine or not. I’m not a wine drinker myself, but I decided to attend this optional. I never drank wine before joining this Contiki tour and since the beginning of the trip we’ve been getting wine with most of our meals whether it’s white or red and I’ve enjoyed a few glasses so far. Tonight we tasted a few different wines like the famous Riesling, Eiswine (Ice Wine), a red wine, and a few others. Everyone had a great time at the tasting. Most people ended up buying a bottle or three after the tasting. Some finished the bottles tonight, and some bought them as gifts.

I cannot believe that tomorrow marks two more nights left on this trip. It has absolutely flown. We’ll all be spending our last 2 nights in Amsterdam and I’m really looking forward to it. We have quite a bit planned so far including a bike ride through the countryside, a walking tour of Amsterdam (including the Red Light District), dinner at the Sea Palace, and an Amsterdam Canal Cruise on our last night.

Sunday I fly back to Dublin where I’ll spend about 3 days before I’m off again to Southern Italy/Croatia for three and a half more weeks. I can’t wait! This trip might be over, but my travels are no where near over…