This was my third Rick Steves� Tour. After the Best of Italy Tour and the Best of Turkey Tour, I should have felt more relaxed about taking trains and navigating through the Frankfurt Airport, but traveling alone always makes me nervous. I flew from Sacramento to Frankfurt via San Francisco on September 15, 2007. I arrived at the long distance airport train station (Fernbahnhof) earlier than I had expected. I showed the printout of my train schedules and easily obtained an earlier train ticket. I was so relieved to meet a couple on the train who was also going to St. Goar � they turned out to be Terry and Donna in my group! Somehow we got separated at the transfer station, Mainz Hbf. After asking three men, I finally got on the right train for St. Goar, and a few minutes later, Terry & Donna showed up on the train. As I feared form previous travelers� feedback, finding the platform 7 was confusing. Having the train schedule with all stops was comforting.
We had our first group dinner at the hotel restaurant. Our group consisted of 12 married couples, a single guy and me. Our svelte tour guide was Rolinka Bloeming, native of the Netherlands, living in France.
I wish I had come at least a day earlier. I didn�t, because I read in one of the feedbacks that there was nothing to do in St. Goar. I discovered that the town celebrated �Der Rhein in Flammen� the night before. I love fireworks, so I regretted that I didn�t do any research. |
