The Middle Rhine is one of four sections of the river, and flows between Bingen in the South and Bonn in the North. From our experiences so far, there is a complete cycle path on the West bank of the Rhine from the town of Bingen to Koblenz but it’s a little intermittent on the Eastern bank.

There are of course numerous other ways to explore this section since there is a road and railway on both sides of the valley and numerous boats offering trips and regular ferry rides.

On Saturday we visited the ancient rock of Loreley and marvelled at the views down from the rock and along the Rhine valley. There is also a natural amphitheatre here and a weekend music festival in a couple of weeks time. The location is just stunning.

Monday we caught a boat from St Goar to Boppard. Being on the opposite side of the Rhine we had to catch the Goarhausen to Goar ferry first. This runs daily until about 9pm. If you miss the last ferry, it would be a bit of an issue getting back across (train journey to Koblenz or Mainz) and then back along the opposite river bank.

On Tuesday, we decided to visit Marksburg in Braubach. Already struggling to make the 1:00pm English tour, we headed for the train station for the short journey from St Goarhausen to Braubach, complete with bicycles. We would train there and cycle back.

Anyhow, the train broke down for an hour and when they managed to limp into a station we were required to disembark and catch the next service, which of course was rammed.

We finally arrived at Marksburg castle just in time for the 4pm tour. Marksburg castle is one of the principle sites of the Rhine Gorge UNESCO World Heritage site and was built primarily for protection, not as a Royal residence. The tour guide was great, made the 1 hour tour interesting and informative. The castle is one of the best preserved castle in the “German Castles association” – in fact one of very few never to have been destroyed during its history – and in fact the German Castles Association has its headquarters at the castle.

The bed in this room is very short. It’s not just because people weren’t as tall in the Middle Ages as they are now but people were afraid to fall asleep on their backs in case the devil took away their life. So they tended to sleep sitting up!

Late in the afternoon we set off back to the campsite which involved two ferry crossings – firstly to Boppard and then after travelling upstream on the West bank, the ferry to St Goar. We arrived at Filsen for the Boppard ferry just 5 minutes before the last ferry of the day. No-one told us this ferry only runs until 6pm!!

Fortunately we arrived at St Goar with time to spare so we ate in the village square. Can’t remember which “brand” of Schnitzel we ate tonight!