Return to Blighty with more photos of Cologne.

The main entrance to the Hotel Anker overlooking the Moselle River.

Our last day in Germany started with an early alarm so as to get our cases down to the coach for loading before breakfast. The hotel didn’t start to operate until 0700hrs, so no porter and only 30 minutes for breakfast as John wanted to be on the road by 07.30hrs.

Xmas painted glassware but it was so delicate.

German style china clay houses.

John opted to use a different route to the one we used when arriving in Brodenbach but this turned out to be his downfall. In a moment of idle thought he took the wrong turn off and even though it took us to Brussels, it took longer, as the other coach we were travelling with arrived in Calais before us even though they left Brodenbach after us. One reason for the longer travel time was that there had been a lorry and trailer jack knifed on the opposite side of the Autobahn. This didn’t affect us directly, just the rubber necker’s slowing down to have a good gawk at the accident scene. It took the best part of an hour to travel about 5km’s. The tail back behind the accident went on for about 10km’s.

These guys were brilliant playing the classics.

Golden Tomb of the Three Kings believed to be the Three Wise Men in Cologne Cathedral

All the way back to France we had numerous snow storms making driving conditions atrocious. At one point John pulled into a service centre to allow us to stretch our legs and for him to refill the window washer bottle which had become depleted due to heavy use. By this time the windows on the coach were so filthy from the road grime we could barely see out. At Calais we all had to pass through the Customs shed to show our passports but this only took about 10 minutes and we struck lucky in that we managed to get on an earlier sailing saving us an hour.

One of several entrances to Cologne cathedral.

Beautiful stained glass windows in Cologne Cathedral.

Arriving in Dover just after dusk and the driving conditions got decidedly worse. With the M20 closed by snow our only alternative was the the A2/M2 which hadn’t seen a snow plough or grit lorry for heaven knows how long and it was only one useable lane so it was a case of follow the leader through the slush. None of the drivers had any idea where the lane markings or the edge of the road was so it was a case of stay in the centre of the road. These abysmal conditions didn’t improve until we reached the Dartford Crossing. By this time John had phoned ahead to re-arrange the change over point with George,the relief driver as he was fast reaching his driving limit. 

Floor tiles in Cologne Cathedral.

Inter City express at Cologne.

Upon change over George complained that the window screen washers were not operating but John just left him to sort it out. Instead of fixing the problem George just carried on driving with a filthy window screen which was not very professional. I certainly would not have driven like this. Once again George did the drop offs in what we all considered to be the wrong sequence even though we pointed this out to him. We arrived back in March at the expected time of around 22.00hrs, but the Skegness passengers didn’t arrive home until after 03.00hrs, which was confirmed to us by a phone call from fellow travellers. A very long day for them.

Rail bridge's over the river Rhine outside Cologne station.

Hog roast at the Cologne Xmas market.

Despite the long travelling days to and from Germany and the fantastic driving of our tour coach driver we thoroughly enjoyed the 2 days in between. The highlight would have been day 2 visiting Rudesheim.