roemin around

Time to put in some miles and head towards the black forest and Lake Constance. While we were shopping the heavens opened making the autobanns around Frankfurt a very unpleasant experience. We pulled of into Offenbach until it stopped before continuing along the River Mainz and then the Romantica Strasse route to a camping cheque site near Rottenburg. Not a very pretty site, needs a bit of gardening, but very friendly and helpful owners and plenty of nice facilities.

Rosemary bonded with a german lady who married a chap from Portsmouth and had lived in Hinckley for six years. This platz had electricity and water on every platz, bread available to order and an ice cream van visits. Some people stay here for weeks on end apparently - 7.5 euro per night with electricity! We walked the 2 miles into Bingen in order to find a cruise up the Rhine. We managed to get half price pensioners rates on a 5 hour afternoon round trip on a 900 seater cruise boat as far as the famous Loreley rock, passing all the castles and landmarks we had driven past. They do look much better from the water. It was a very hot day so we did not spend too much time on the open top deck. It was much cooler walking back and we arrived back just before dark.

Left our castle on Sunday morning to drive down the East bank of the Rhine. Stopped at Assmannshaussen, a small wine village, which had a Dutch jazz band playing and lots of stalls selling snack type meals and local wine. It just happened to be lunch time on Sunday so I had a German style pizza called Flammenkucken, Rosemary had grilled prawns and we shared a glass of local reisling. The 'pizza' base is much thinner and crisper than Italian/English and smothered in creme fraishe before the toppings are put on. Very tasty.  The oldest guest house in Germany, the Krone, is here too. Stopped again at Rudesheim which is the southernmost point of the middle Rhine scenic route and a popular cruising terminal and tourist trap. Many nationalities here frequenting the ice cream and coffee shops. It was childrens day in Rudesheim and there were many activites for kids, many of which would have been impossibe in UK with 'elf and safety'. We carried on as far as Weisbad...

This site is high up on a hill overlooking the Rhine and and Lahne rivers and right next to Burg Larrech, a fine old castle with restaurant attached. We were pitched on the lower terrace looking out over the Rhine, with Koblenz and Lahnstein below and a fine view of a fully restored castle on the opposite bank, which was beautifully floodlit at night. Sitting up here one of the Rhine's shortcomings became immediately apparent. It is the busiest railway route in the whole of Europe and has trains thundering down BOTH sides of the river until late at night. With such a wonderful position we didn't move much over the weekend. Just walked over to the castle, which was closed for a wedding, then chilled in the sunshine whilst counting the barges and trains. Had a BBQ and watched Man Utd be humbled by Barcelona on the satellite, which is still bringing in a surprisingly good signal on Astra 2D.

Koblenz is a large town with light industrial outskirts and an old part where the Mosel meets the Rhine. This is known as German corner and is dominated by the statue of Kaiser Wilhiem mounted on a horse and is a huge monument to German unity (could do with cleaning up a bit!) Most of the Rhine cruise boats stop here so it was very touristy. As it was Friday we had a fish and fried potatoes lunch in a Nordsee restaurant on the main shopping street. Its a good quality fast food chain specialising in fish dishes.   Only stopped for a few hours, crossed the Rhine, on one of the big bridges and moved on to an Alan Rogers recommended site at nearby  Oberlahnstein for the weekend.

Moved on to Cochem today the most lively and touristy town on the Moselle. Went the 'back way' ignoring the steep hill, narrow road and 2t limit sign and ended up in the pedestrianised square in front of the Rathaus (old town hall). Entertained the customers of the pavement cafes turning round in the confined space and retreated back up the winding hill. Eventually found a spot on MH parking strip by the river and walked into town. Lots of tour buses including English ones and a centre for picking up cruise boats, which we did later. Topped up the Euros and had a typical German lunch of Bratwurst (for him) and a slice of roast ham (for her) in a back street cafe, much cheaper than on the front. The river levels are very low due to the drought and cruises are very restricted especially on the Moselle where they have closed all the locks for a week (to do some maintenance). We could only do a 1hr round trip around Cochem but it was nice to get out on the river and a photo oppor...

vineyards right down to the waters edge in places Stopped in another lovely spot by the river in an ACSI campsite with free WiFi. Had time to do some washing and showering yesterday  after 2 days on stelplatz's. Today its our wedding anniversary so walked into village for a celebratory lunch and yet another big glass of local Riesling. Portions of food and wine are generous in Germany and prices lower than Netherlands. This site has Dutch owners so it is like being back  in Netherlands apart from the scenery. Its also hot, sunny and strawberries and ice cream for tea. What more could you want.