The 5th day of our trip was a travel day. We left St. Goar to go see another castle nearby. This one was on the Mosel River--Burg Eltz. The Eltz's still inhabit a portion of the castle, so we were only able to tour part of it, but I found it to be really neat. It's built DOWN in a valley next to the side of the river and consists of three separate dwellings connected by an inner courtyard. The furnishings and paintings are all original to the castle and provide a good sense of how wealthy powerful people lived between the 14th-19th centuries.
After leaving Burg Eltz, we traveled a short distance to Triere where we had a picnic with the group. Then we walked into the old town and toured two separate churches (on our own). Triere is the oldest town in Germany and has a healthy sampling of Roman ruins, so was architecturally interesting.
Then we were back on the bus for the several hour haul into Baden-Baden. Baden-Baden is a spa town with a casino. Apparently this is where Germans go for paid health treatments. There is a lovely littel river right in the middle of town and mountains nearby. We arrived just in time to change clothes and meet our group for dinner. The Butlers shop was right next to our hotel and was too tempting to not take our picture under.
One of the things I really like about a Rick Steves tour is that the days we have to travel by bus are always broken up by visits to small towns or other interesting sights along the way. It helps break up an otherwise long and boring day and you get to see into the lives of ordinary people. You certainly wouldn't do this on another tour company.
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