THE RHINE VALLEY AND ST GOAR

I spent two days biking in the Rhine Valley, leaving Koblenz around 10:30am on Friday, arriving at St-Goar around 2pm and then back the next day, taking the ferry across the Rhine at 8am and arriving back in Koblenz at around 1.

Nuts and bolts. 
In order to do this, I left my big heavy bag in a locker at the Koblenz train station, it was 4 Euros per 24 hrs, so it cost 8 Euros in total. I rented a bike at a shoppe that was a small walk from the main station, it was 10 Euros per day. The ferry in St-Goar was 2.20 Euro to cross the river. So total extra cost for this biking adventure was 30.20 euros. When I went to rent the bike, he let me choose out my beauty, when I asked the difference between the different bikes, he said that the cruisers had back pedal brakes, then I asked if they had gears (yes... I asked if, not how many) he replied SEVEN. I was sold on the red crusier. It was quite the upgrade from what I was used to. It was pretty relaxed too, they just photocopied my drivers license, and no safety deposit.

RHINE VALLEY
Basically, after getting a bit lost (I don't think I can go anywhere without getting a little lost), I just followed the Rhine south along the west bank. The path was pretty obvious, you just stick to the water, except for at one point where I found myself in a trailer park. But the detour allowed me to get some free water.
From the west bank you can see all the castles on the east bank, which is pretty cool. They sit a top of the hills, watching over the villages below. I think my favourite was the Burg Maus (or Mouse Castle) it is really cute, and currently is privately owned and has a falconry and eagle yard. It was coined as Burg Maus because just as it was build,  upstream an even bigger castle was being made, so they were Castle Cat and Castle Mouse.

Marksburg

Castle Maus

Another thing that is crazy are the vineyards, I don't even know how the farmers can work on such a slope. But it does make for some cool contour lines on the face of the hills.

Vineyards

ST- GOAR
So stopping briefly, a couple of times, to hydrate -and get lost in the tiny villages trying to find a depanneur to buy water (which sometimes turned out to be soda water). I made it to St-Goar no problem. My first stop was tourist info, where I got some handy dandy info about the local castle, as well as some info about the local castle ruins, Burg Rheinfels. Pamphets in hand (literally) I biked up the hill towards Burg Rheinfels.  About halfway up, the youth hostel I was staying at was located.
The hostel was pretty nice, it was clean and I got a room to myself, which was a nice change (especially since I probably didn't smell so lovely after biking all day). The showers and bathroom were down the hall, but were also clean enough.

Sankt Goar

I managed to muster enough energy to go up to Rheinfels. It was 3 Euros for a student, and pretty cool. I had been there 10 years ago. I don't remember if there had been a hotel then, but there is now, and it probably has the most amazing view from the room windows. The view from the top of the clock tower is pretty amazing.

Rheinfels

Rheinfels

View from Rheinfels

I think it's a shame that it is in ruins now, basically after the last soldiers that occupied it had surrendered without a fight, the french bombed the ba-jesus out of it. And it has been ruins ever since. You can just tell that it was massive though, there was the main castle, but the fortifications around it just overtook the whole hill. It is way more massive then the Ehrenbreitstein, but, in ruins.

After leaving the castle, I had no desire to walk ALL the way back into town, to find everything probably closed, so I had some peanut butter rice crackers for supper and called it a night.
The next day, breakfast was served at 7:30, which I was really happy about. It wasn't much of a breakfast though, honestly. I ate cheese on bread and cereal. But the early start meant I was able to take the ferry across to St-Goarhausen at 8am. The ride on the way back was much more direct. I knew that I needed to get back to Koblenz on time to get the train (which I was actually ridiculously early for) I stopped at Lidl (Grocery Store) to stock up on water, fearful of Carbonated water, I got some type of sport drink/flavoured water, which apparently had vitamins in it, it was yummy.

There also wasn't a continuous path the whole way. Some parts you had to bike on the side of the autoroute (which I've become unaccustomed to) but there were some really nice gardens and paths near the villages that you bike through. Particularly nice, was the path as you were approaching Kolbenz, after crossing the Lahn.

Ferry

Rheinfels

All the willow trees had hair cuts, this one wasn't so bad though

I debated biking around Koblenz a bit more, but decided that had been babied with the bike paths in the Netherlands, and city biking was making me uncomfortable, so I returned the bike, and grabbed some lunch from the grocery store in the Lohr Center before leaving Koblenz.