Day 19 – Thursday 9 June 2016

Today was a long driving day, leaving Rothenburg at 8am we travelled north through more rural wheat farms & fields of solar panels, as far as the eye could see, interspersed with a few farm houses & the odd patch of forest, it is all so green. Also lots more wind generators dotted around the landscape. At Wurzburg we turned westwards & crossed the Main River, one of the major rivers of Germany, then joined the Autobahn. This is a great road system, 3 lanes in each direction & in some parts no speed limit. Some cars went past us travelling very fast, our coach is travelling at 100km/h & they zoomed past. Near Frankfurt the Autobahn passes between the Hilton Airport Hotel & the Frankfurt Airport, there are lots of large planes taking off & landing with our road tunnel under the runway. We slowed down at times for roadworks, but overall we made fairly fast passage. Near Mainz we turned off the Autobahn & followed the old highway along the Rhine River. This is a very pretty part of the river with deep gorges, small towns hugging the riverbank & castles around every bend built in commanding positions. We stopped at St Goar for an hour for lunch & a walk around the main street. We found a butcher that sold bratwurst in a fresh roll & went in to buy some for lunch. This butcher had silver cups & certificates for winning prizes for best bratwurst in various competitions. The bratwurst tasted really good.

Brian our tour director got us a surprise today because yesterday we tromped around in the rain sightseeing at Rothenburg he felt that Insight could shout us a cruise down the Rhine (this cruise was not on our itinerary). Today the weather couldn’t have been more perfect, sunny 24C.

At 1.30pm we boarded a cruise boat for a trip on the Rhine River. The river was running very fast & in flood, we were told that here it was 7 metres above its normal height. There were a lot of barges travelling up & down the river, the ones going upriver were making really hard work of it, the current was running at least 8 knots. We journeyed up river for a little while to the Loreley Rocks, a very narrow bend of the Rhine notable for many shipwrecks over the years & according to legend, the home of a siren that lured sailors to their deaths with her serenades. We turned around very quickly as the current was roaring around this narrow bend in the river. We enjoyed a glass of red wine as we floated downstream basking in the sunshine, though there was a very strong headwind pushing waves up against the current. Each small town we passed was radiant & exuded different charms, all with a church tower. A railway line runs on each side of the river & trains were constantly going past, sometimes simultaneously on either side. The steep mountainsides had retaining walls & grape vines where it seemed barely possible. Our cruise boat docked at Boppard, no mean feat considering the current it was battling.

We drove up out of the Rhine valley & re-joined the Autobahn, past Bonn then near Cologne we turned west again to Aachen then crossed the border to Maastricht in Holland. We pulled up at the Crown Plaza Hotel around 5pm after a long day travelling. After checking in we gathered for some drinks with our fellow travellers then went for a walk along the riverbank of the Maas River, right next to our hotel. We were amazed at how many people are out enjoying the sunshine & the number of people riding bicycles, people of all ages. We walked a little past a museum before turning & returning to our hotel & joining some of our fellow travellers outside at the riverside café of the hotel. It was a lovely setting & great food, with good company & as the sun was setting at around 9.15pm we headed off for our room. Another great day.