We are a retired couple who after living abroad for 5 years are now living in Levin, New Zealand. From October 2006 we cruised the inland waterways of Britain. We sold Narrowboat Gypsy Rover in July 2010 and continued our travels around the UK in our new Motorhome. In August 2011 we returned to New Zealand ahead of our motorhome which arrived in October. Although now land based we will be continuing our travels throughout New Zealand when time allows.
Fancy rail tunnel portals that were built during WWII as Allied bombers agreed not to bomb castles. That is what they look like from the air.
Vineyards clinging to the side of a mountain in the Rhine Valley.
The are still plenty of castles in the mountains along the Rhine Valley. This is Castle Cat owned by a very wealthy family.
Dot at the Lorelei Cliff above St Goar.
Statue of the Lorelei maiden.
Beautiful churches and castles adorn the Rhine Valley.
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.
The largest life sized Nativity scene in Europe.
Rudesheim's St James church which was bombed on 25th November 1944 and has since been rebuilt from 1946-56.
That's a cracker of a cuckoo clock. Only € 4999.
Vineyards up the hillside in the Rhine valley.
Wednesday morning and the snow still lay around “crisp and deep and even”. Our driver, John, gave us an unplanned option of how we wanted to travel to Rudesheim. We could go the boring Autobahn route or we could travel over the mountain between the Moselle and Rhine valleys. The latter would entail a ferry crossing of the river Rhine at the princely sum of 2 Euro’s each return. Luckily everybody agreed so we had a fantastic trip over the mountains to St Goarhausen.
St Goarhausen with vineyards on the hill behind
This is a busy shipping highway. The Lorelei statue is at the end of the spit by the sheltered harbour.
A view down the Rhine Valley.
The trip up the mountain was, for those that are familiar with the road, like driving over the Rimutaka hill from the Hutt Valley to the Wairarapa. John, our driver took it all in his stride and made it seem so easy. The only difference was that there were lovely little villages along the way. Going over the top so to speak and it was white as far as the eye could see.
German architecture around Rudesheim.
Product of Finland with a lady in traditional dress.
At St Goarhausen we caught the ferry across to St Goar and onto Rudesheim via a visit to the Lorelei cliff high above the river Rhine. The ferry only took about 3 minutes but was a real spectacle in the way the skipper manoeuvred the ship in the fast flowing river. The embarkation ramp latches down onto the landing dock and as soon as it was lifted the ship was caught by the current. Mid stream the skipper did a pirouette and turned the boat ready to dock on the other side. The ship virtually travelled sideways all the way across. Driving the ship into the dock and holding under power until the ramp was lowered and locked onto the dock again. John said that he had never seen the skipper miss the dock.
The local hotel in Rudesheim.
The centre of Rudesheim's Xmas market.
At Rudesheim the streets are mostly narrow pedestrian alleyways running between 2 main streets where all the market stalls were set up. The town was much more interesting than Cologne in that it was more traditional in architecture although the church had been destroyed during WWII and since rebuilt. The stall holders were from all over the world,Finland, Mongolia, Holland, Belgium just to name a few which we never saw in Cologne. However Cologne does have 7 markets of which we only saw one.
Narrow cobbled streets in Rudesheim.
Hot chestnuts.
Xmas tree decorations.
After dinner we took a 2 hour cruise from outside the hotel up and down the River Moselle. Being dark there wasn’t much to see but the main intention was down a few steins and be entertained by a local musician whose repertoire was somewhat limited, at least he tried.
The Goldstuck on which we did a 2 hour cruise.
Cologne's sight seeing train.
Cologne railway station.
Inter City express at Cologne.
Floor tiles in Cologne cathedral.
Cyclamen flowers pocking through the snow in Cologne
Christmas in Köln, Germany
Brodenbach, Germany.
Looking over the river Moselle outside the Hotel Anker.
Everybody slept well which wasn’t surprising after yesterdays marathon. Breakfast was on from 08.00hrs and we had to be back on the coach at 09.30hrs. The only problem was there was no hotel provided wake up service and Dot set her phone alarm forgetting it was on UK time. Needless to say it was a bit of a rush for us as we were at least 45 minutes late. The other problem was luke warm showers which didn’t go down well. Still we did make the coach on time and we were off to Cologne. John, our driver did warn us that it could be a slower trip than usual because there had been more overnight snow.
The view from the front door of the hotel Anker.
We arrived at 11.00hrs and had to be back at the arranged pick up point by 15.30hrs. This gave us a reasonable length of time to look around the cathedral, market and the city. Starting off with the market we found plenty of stalls selling hot food and Gluhwein (mulled wine). Due to the minus temperatures they were all doing brisk business.
Cruise ships moor here.
Christmas decorations in glass, wood and terracotta,trinkets,and beautiful wooden carvings of all sorts. Winter woollies both small and large as well as hand crafted linen for the season. There was so much that we would have liked to have purchased but it would be a logistics nightmare to get it back to New Zealand. After a while we headed into the cathedral or Dom as the German’s know it, to thaw out for a while.
Cologne Cathedral or Dom as it is known
The interior of the cathedral was nothing less than spectacular. The colour in the stain glass windows were probably the most vivid we have ever seen and we have visited our fair share of cathedral's and churches. Once we had thawed out it was time to head back out and have a look at the railway station which was close by and take some photo’s of the trains passing through.
Cologne Cathedral.
Cologne cathedral or Dom.
We had about an hour left to wander around the surrounding area which of course has all been rebuilt since WWII as it was all bombed out by the Allies and the cathedral was about the only thing left standing. Cologne is just like any other modern city just about anywhere in the world. Back in the hotel we had a very nice 3 course meal followed by a few ales and a chance to talk to other fellow travellers.
Rides to keep the kid's happy at the Cologne Xmas market.
Derek wrapped up well against the -6.0C temperature.
A Hot Chestnut vendor.
Nativity scene in Cologne.
Our tour coach to Germany with John our driver.
Monday morning and we arose at the ungodly hour of 02.30hrs to catch our coach at 04.00hrs to the German Christmas Markets in Cologne in Germany. There was a bit of snow around but not enough to give us concern of the trip being a non event. The coach was on time which was a wonder as the driver had started off from Skegness around midnight and he wasn’t doing the pick ups in what I would consider the logical order.
After leaving March he headed off to Huntingdon, Ely and then Cambridge but in doing so came back almost to March after leaving Huntingdon before heading to Ely. He was doing so much back tracking it was taking longer than necessary. At Cambridge we changed drivers to our full time tour coach driver due to the first being a temporary fill in driver (thank goodness).We had a good run down to Dover where we caught the 10.00hrs sailing to Calais.
The ferry crossing wasn’t too bad but there was a swell running about mid channel which had passengers swaying around and having to hang onto hand rails to go anywhere. France was sporting a good coating of snow and we had more snow falls throughout the day. We made an unscheduled stop at PJ’s chocolate factory in Belgium to give the driver his rest break. Plenty of chocolate was purchased but the smokers among us were complaining that the cigarette’s were no cheaper than in the UK.
After leaving Belgium and travelling across Holland and into Germany we became slower and slower due to more frequent and heavier snow falls. Another stop was made to refill the fuel tank and empty many rather full bladders. The on-board facilities were deemed for emergency only. We eventually arrived at our hotel in Brodenbach at 21.00hrs, 2 hours late. Luckily the hotel kept the dining room open so we could get a hot meal. It transpired that 2 other coaches also arrived late after us causing untold problems for the hotel.
This is what greeted our arrival in Germany.
We actually felt quite sorry for the passengers who had boarded the coach at Skegness as they had been on the coach for 21 hours allowing for the one hour time change between Britain and Europe. We felt jaded even though we had had 6 hours less travel than them.
More to come tomorrow…
