[Idyllchat] (no subject)

Sat Mar 17 15:11:18 EST 2007

Hi David:  I am replying from a remote computer (with some techie glitches) so hope this gets through.  We are currently in Arizona enjoying baseball spring training (at over 97 degrees).  They promise middle 80's next week thank goodness.  

We stayed at the Castle last May/June.  You have a wonderful experience to look forward to.  Baron Manfred and Baroness Lilo are terrific hosts, as well as the family dog, Moritz!  You will have a candlelight breakfast which serves as an orientation the morning after you arrive.  As for smoking--no one smoked in the Castle during our tenure.  Would assume it is "no smoking".  Having spent time on other trips going down the Romantic Road, we spent two days in Nurnberg, which we loved.  Great museums, art galleries, and we spent time at the Dokumentation Center (relatively new) near the Zeppelin Field.  Recommend going early in the morning to go at your own pace, without crowds.  Do not miss the famous Nurnberg sausages (with horseradish)!  Ansbach is a beautiful town.  Good restaurants around the area--and the cost of living, compared with other areas in Germany is moderate.  

When I return home next weekend will send you a message which allows you to go to the Kodak Gallery to see our Castle photo album.   If you have any other specific questions, let me know.  Cheers.  Joan.  

----- Original Message ----
From: David Bouchard <boucharddm at cox.net>
To: IdyllChat at lists.untours.com
Sent: Saturday, March 17, 2007 12:55:19 PM
Subject: RE: [Idyllchat] (no subject)

I'm so glad to finally see conversations discussing Germany, not Italy!
My partner and I will be taking our first Untours vacation in August to
Schloss Sommersdorf in Northern Bavaria.  

We're both excited, but for perhaps different reasons.  For him, he's
never been to Europe so he's itching to seen something that will be new
to him.  For me, I was stationed in Nuremburg back in the early '70s and
then again in the early '80 as a civilian in the Ansbach area.  I'm so
looking forward to this trip - I can hardly wait for August to roll
around.

We would like to hear from anyone who has stayed at the apartments in
Sommersdorf recently - we'll be staying in the apartment called
Jeannette.  We are non-smokers and I'm concerned that this might not be
a non-smoking room - had a bad experience with that issue in Quebec
recently.  I plan on bringing my laptop to download digital pictures
from the camera, but would also like to know if there is internet access
there.  Been trying to keep up with the cell phone discussions that have
been going back and forth so I can figure out what will be best for us.

Years ago I would just pack my bags and go and not worry about anything.
Now that I'm older, I like knowing about things in advance, and I like
to be comfortable.  Any advice or recommendations would be appreciated. 

Thanks,

Dave Bouchard
Rhode Island

-----Original Message-----
From: idyllchat-bounces at lists.untours.com
[mailto:idyllchat-bounces at lists.untours.com] On Behalf Of haggart
Sent: Wednesday, March 14, 2007 5:35 PM
To: IdyllChat at lists.untours.com; NORBBARB at aol.com
Subject: Re: [Idyllchat] (no subject)

Ah - the famous "Christmas" apartments in St. Goar. 

We had the pleasure of staying there a few summers ago and enjoyed it
very
much. We had the mid-level apartment and found it very nice and brief
views
of the others gave a good impression. It may still be the case that the
owner keeps a stock of bottled water and soft drinks in the basement
that
you can use - he tallies up at the end of your stay. There was Internet
service available at 

St. Goar is a tourist town and thus has a lot of "junk" for sale, but do
check out the clock shop at the end of the main street (off the
highway). 

You are directly across the street from the Rhine and can spend any
number
of hours just watching the people and the boats. 

There are any number of nice eating places right in town and all have
their
menus posted in English for you to make your choice. 

Don't miss the wine tour sponsored by Idyll - it is in the Mosel river
town
of Winningen - If it is still being done - the lunch and the wine are
out of
this world! 

We made good use of both boats and trains and found them both reliable
and
good transportation. As I recall your train station is about a 10 minute
walk and is an "unmanned" station. The trains run on time. 

Some special places: 

Castle Burg Rheinfels located above the village and up a very steep
hill.
You can take a trolley. 

Rüdesheim – a very touristy town – but it has a great Christmas shop. We
took a chair lift which took us over acres and acres of vineyards to the
Niederwald Dentanal – a monument to the establishment of the German
Reich.
There is a great view at the top looking down to Rüdesheim and across
the
Rhine to Bingen. We followed a marked trail on a 30 minute flat walk
that
passed through the Niederburg National Park (hard wood trees) that led
to
another chair lift that took us down the hillside to Assmanshausen – the
red
wine capital of the middle Rhine. It took awhile to find the train
station –
not very clearly marked – and then we trained back to St. Goarshausen. 

The cathedral in Cologne (just 90 minutes away) 

Remagen - the site of the famous WWII bridge and now a Freedom Museum. 

Trier – about 2 hours away has many interesting places to visit
including
some rather complete Roman baths 

Mainz. With the help of the information office we bought a day pass (for
two) for the city transit system and marked our map for the places on
our
itinerary. First we went to the Gutenberg Museum. They have three of his
original Bibles from 1542 – two old testament and one new – in a room
that
looks like and in fact is a vault – big heavy doors. All is under glass
with
special lighting – very impressive. They even had working replicas of
his
early printing presses, displays of later presses; plus hundreds of
documents that were done with different printing methods. So it was also
a
history of printing and paper (and other printable materials) and ink
museum
too! After lunch we took a bus to the Roman Ship Museum. This was
fascinating – they found parts of Roman ships when digging foundations
for
new buildings – enough to get a good idea of how they were built and
what
they looked like – so they made full-scale replicas of the ships
alongside
the old remains and then provided drawings or the details. You could
also
watch craftsmen at work on the models. We then walked to St. Stephens
church
and along the way, while looking at the map, a gentleman came up to us
and
offered help in finding the right street – this happened many times on
our
trip – people were very friendly and helpful. In St. Stephens are 9
stained
glass windows done by Mark Chagal – they are blue and they are glorious
works of art! 

Oberwesel (just a few minutes south on the train) the Catholic church.
People were cleaning up and doing maintenance chores inside the church
and
they opened up the inner chapel for us and turned on the lights. What a
sight! There is a gold triptych alter dating from 1322 with 56 carved
figures on it. We were just amazed at the beauty of this church in this
tiny
Rhine village. There are also many other religious relics in this
magnificent church 

You will enjoy St. Goar and the Rhine 

Peter and Margaret Haggart 
haggart at moscow.com 
-------Original Message------- 

From: NORBBARB at aol.com 
Date: 3/14/2007 12:57:42 PM 
To: IdyllChat at lists.untours.com 
Subject: [Idyllchat] (no subject) 

We are interested in hearing about the Rhine Valley, Germany. My husband
and
I are booked in the Christmas Apt in St Goar August 29th- Sept 12th. Can
anyone recommend places to eat in that area? I know we will receive info
from Idyll about things to do in the area but is there something that
stands
out as "not to be missed"? Has anyone gone into Belgium from there? This
will be our 3rd trip with Untours. The first two were wonderful. 
Thanks 
Barbara G in Massachusetts 

AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free
from
AOL at AOL.com. 

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