Friday September 28th 2026

This morning I woke up to do my scheduled run: 50 min easy plus 6 strides. I decided to avoid the rocky switchback and ran out along the road and down to Oberwesel before running upstream along the river until I was opposite Pfalzgrafenstein Castle. This is a toll castle built in 1326 on an island in the Rhine. Then I turned around and ran back, stopping in town to meet G at a bakery where he was having coffee. We picked up some rolls for our lunch then walked back up the hill. I had a shower before we headed to breakfast. The hotel had these little glass pots with cooked tomato and an egg in them. helped myself to several everyday we were there. They were really yummy.

After breakfast the Tower Museum was open so we popped in there for a look. It gave a bit of an overview of various aspects of castle construction and life. From the top of the tower we had the most magnificent views over the town and surrounding countryside. Heading back down we pottered in our room and I had a nap.

Around midday I woke up and we got ready to head off for our main activity for the day—a hike along the RheinBurgenWeg to Bacharach. This was a 12.40km hike (from the castle and with a little bit of a shortcut and backtrack due to us missing the path at one stage). There were quite a few steep up and downs as we crossed various streams running through valleys before the final very steep descent into Bacharach. The trail goes through a mix of farmland, vineyards and forest with views at various points along the river. This was a great hike (maybe not the best thing to do a week and a bit from the marathon) but I would highly recommend it. It took us about 3 hours not including our stop for lunch.

Bacharach itself is another very cute town, with half-timbered houses and the obligatory walls, towers and castle. We enjoyed wandering through before stopping at Weingurt Karl Heidrich for food and wine. We had the Flammkuchen mit Speck (a kind of very thin pizza type bread with onions and bacon) to start us off. I had the dry wine tasting and then we had mains. I can’t remember what we had but I do remember it was traditional regional cuisine and good. After dinner we caught the train back to Oberwesel and walked back up the hill (again) to the hotel.

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