Well, it was finally time to leave the Black Forest.  Kathie and I woke up early to get everything all packed and were treated to a beautiful site as we were able to watch the morning fog melt off the Black Forest.

After about ninety minutes of packing (i.e. cramming) our luggage in the car, I thought we were doing quite well until I realized we still needed to pack our trash down out of the mountain.  Somehow (I'm still not sure how), we were able to accomplish this (please note the window in the back seat of the car), with an almost comical scene of us stopping at every little bus stop coming down the mountain to throw away a little trash here and a little trash there.  As I said - almost comical if you were following us. 

We made it up the town of Boppard right around lunch.  I had selected this town as it was about 75 minutes from the airport for our flight the next day and it was right on the Rhine River as it went through the Gorge.  We checked into our hotel, the Hotel Bellevue (see picture to the right).  The review here is mixed.  On the one hand, I highly recommend  the hotel--beautiful property with a staff that spoke English and was located across the street from the Rhine (we had a room on the fourth floor with a balcony that faced out onto the Rhine)  The problem was Boppard.  The positive is that it is in an EXCELLENT location for exploring the Rhine and Mosel Valleys, but it is a tourist pit--not horribly authentic and many (but not all) of the locals seemed a bit jaded towards us

Anyways, after checking into the Bellevue, we then went to get some lunch and went to one of the local winery shops before hopping on one of the Koln-Dusseldorf ships that cruises up and down the Rhine.  This was something I had fairly vivid memories of doing in 1978 with my family and was quite certain that Victoria would enjoy.  Everything seemed to work out perfectly on this cruise!

We took the boat for a ninety-minute cruise down the Rhine to the town of St. Goar.  Although I think I would have liked it if we could have gone a bit further, we had a wonderful time.  The weather was gorgeous and we got chairs up on the top deck to watch the towns, castles, and vineyards float by.  An absolutely delightful way to spend the afternoon.  We got to St. Goar around 5:30 and caught a train back up to Boppard where we grabbed some dinner (FINALLY found a place that had some great bratwurst!) and headed off to bed (after Victoria and Kelley had a quick dip in the pool). 

The next morning, we made it safely to the Frankfurt airport and onto the plane for a long flight home.  We were all exhausted, but had had a wonderful time and were ready to go again.  Especially Victoria, who routinely asks when we're going back to Legoland!