Only one week left travelling around Europe in Eileen; now we’ll be counting the days and not the weeks. We packed up fairly early and left Eberbach to drive beside the Neckar River towards Heidelberg. At Ziegelhausen we turned north across country to Schriesheim. It would probably have been quicker to go closer to Heidelberg to join the motorway, but there are vehicle environmental restrictions in some cities of Germany and Heidelberg is one of them. From what we could work out, all vehicles have to be given a certificate and there are four grades of them, these determine where you can drive in those cities. We don’t have time to make an appointment with a garage to get the necessary certificate and windscreen sticker and unfortunately, from the website, we cannot work out which areas and roads are restricted. So, not wanting to get a large fine, we’ll just keep well away from those cities in Eileen, especially as she’s now thirteen years old and might not even get a certificate.
When we finally joined the motorways; the A5, A3, A67, A6 and lastly the A61, we zoomed around Mannheim, up past Bad Kreuznach and on to Bingen. We were now on the banks of the Rhein River and the road ran alongside the edge of the river, past lots of castles and ruins, then just opposite the Loreley Rock, we checked in to Campingplatz Loreleyblick. We whipped up some lunch, put the awning out, did two loads of washing and sat peeking between the sheets and towels strung all around us, at the view of the river. Being another extremely hot day, the washing was dry very quickly so before too long, we were able to watch all the activity along the Rhein.
Rodney went for a bike ride to try and find a supermarket, but it turned out to be 7kms in the opposite direction from which he had travelled. Fortunately, he managed to get a few necessities and we enjoyed a delicious meal outside under the shade of the awning.
We soon realised that this is going to be the noisiest campsite so far; it’s all very romantic sitting in the Rhein Gorge right beside the river, with the village of St Goarshausen and Burg Katz (Cat Castle) across the river to our left, but gosh it’s noisy around here. We’ve stayed in others which have been a little too close to a road or railway line, but this one is exceptional and Rodney is loving it. We’re parked between the river and the main road and beside the road are two tracks of railway lines. On the opposite bank of the river is another busy road and another two railway lines. Along the stretch of the Rhein that we can see, there is hardly a minute without a variety of water-born vessels travelling in both directions up and down the river. There are barges, luxury cruisers, pleasure boats, speed boats, coal carriers, tankers, etc., etc., etc. Then to top it all off, the occasional fighter-jet flies over with all engines revving. There are plenty of cars, trucks and tourist coaches travelling along both roads, though we’re not really noticing them too much. But the railway is incredible. There seems to be hardly a minute when there isn’t a train zooming along one of the four tracks. At one point yesterday I could see trains on all four tracks at the same time, in front and behind me. The cargo trains go on for ever; the record so far was 39 wagons. Oh and they run all night. Rodney says he slept okay, I resorted to my ear plugs and apart from one noisy train that sounded like it had its brakes on, and a helicopter buzzing low, I slept pretty well.
Eileen cooled down nicely during the night, but by the time we got up, we could feel the heat starting to build to another hot day outside. We couldn’t get any internet connection, so we walked over to the reception and paid to use theirs for half an hour, which as it turned out, only lasted fifteen minutes. On the way back, we stopped for a chat with an Australian couple (glad we speak their language) and found out they were originally farmers from Victoria and they’ve been coming over to Europe and spending time in their camper van every year for six months for the last fifteen years! This was to be their last trip and they’re on their way back to England to sell the van.
At lunch time we walked along the river to St Goar and ate a couple of stir fries from an Asian café on the river’s edge. We caught the ferry, which literally danced across to the opposite bank of the river; the current is so fast that the ferry seems to cross it sideways and spins around in a circle as it approaches the slipway at St Goarshausen. We then caught a bus which takes you up to the top of the cliff, 125 metres above the bend in the Rhein which was made famous by the Loreley legend. There is only one bus each hour, so we wandered around the cliff top enjoying the wonderful view up and down the Rhein, we could also see Eileen sitting in the campsite on the far side.
We caught the next bus back down and hopped straight on the next ferry over to St Goar. Rodney popped in to a salon for a haircut, while I shuffled through the one-street village and back to meet him. There are a lot of road-works going on in both of these villages, all because there were some really bad floods back in May. Apparently the campsite we are staying in was completely underwater, which is hard to imagine now, but it must have been awful for the locals.
We followed the river edge back to the campsite and settled in for a quiet evening before we pack up and move again on Friday.
After a second good night’s sleep, courtesy of the earplugs, we left St Goar and drove beside the Rhein all the way up to Koblenz. We stopped briefly in Boppard for a stroll and a quick purchase of something for dinner, then we continued north. We had hoped to drive up to Schloss Stolenfells, near Rhens, but the road looked unsuitable for Eileen, so we continued on to Koblenz and looked for the road leading back south to follow the Mosel River.
Unlike the Rhein, there are a lot of bridges crossing from one side of the Mosel to the other and we weren’t sure which side to travel, but as we exited Koblenz, we found ourselves on the south / east bank, so the decision was made for us. The valley itself is also very different with less steep sides, it’s wider and not as deep, plus there are a bountiful amount of grapevines. Some of the towns and villages have castles, or ruins and some look more modern, all of them have churches in a huge variety of styles. We diverted briefly away from the river to look at Burg Thurant (12th C), but we knew we had a fairly long drive ahead, so continued to move on just enjoying the views as we went.
As to trying to decide which bank to drive down, we found ourselves crossing backwards and forwards from side to side and the river has more bends and curls in it than my hair. Our picnic lunch was eaten on the outskirts of Cochem, which seemed to be the most touristy town along the river, and then we passed some villages with great names; Neet, Alf, Wolf, Graach and Dhron.
We had decided to stop at a campsite in Schweich, but we really didn’t need to have done any research because we passed so many campsites and overnight parking areas along the Mosel; it was mind boggling how many there were. We must have passed literally thousands of campervans and caravans and started to wonder if anyone was left in the Netherlands! At 4pm we pulled in to Camping Zum Fährturm in Schweich and as we only wanted one night we were directed to an area near the main road which turned out to be 370 paces to the shower block. Yes, I counted them after two Bacardi and cokes; it felt like half a kilometre. I cooked up some pasta for dinner, then we went over to the bar on the edge of the river and ended up chatting to a couple from Derbyshire. They said they had stayed there before and came back again because they liked the bar; it certainly couldn’t have been for the shower set up. It’s one of those campsites that is really annoying and we definitely won’t be returning. After checking in, you have to wait for someone to come over and plug you in to the electricity; we had to wait nearly an hour to be connected. You are provided with an electronic tag to open the entry barrier and this also operates the showers; uh oh! You only have one tag, so one of you has to go over and then pass the tag to the other person, no showering possible at the same time. And, you only get one shower per 24 hours, so having had a much-needed shower on Friday evening, we then couldn’t have one on Saturday morning, ah thank goodness for Eileen’s tiny bathroom and we used their electricity to heat the water…! When the tag wouldn’t open the barrier for us as we attempted to leave, we were glad to know we weren’t staying there another night.
So fairly early on Saturday morning we found a parking spot on the north-west bank of the Mosel and walked across the Kaiser Wilhelm Bridge in to Trier. The guide book informed us that this is Germany’s oldest city and there are a number of Roman remains; we found the amphitheatre and the Porta Nigra and really enjoyed the feel of the city.
The interior of the Cathedral is quite spectacular and they claim to have the last robe that Jesus wore prior to the crucifixion, but unfortunately we didn’t get to see it. We ate sushi for lunch and then wandered slowly back to Eileen, both glad that we had managed to spend some time in Trier.
As we left Trier, there was a 3km queue of traffic trying to enter the city; gosh we were glad we weren’t going in that direction! We tootled along the motorway and at 2:22pm we crossed the River Sauer and entered yet another country. Luxembourg didn’t instantly look any different; I’m not sure what I expected of Luxembourg and still don’t. We checked in to Camping Bon Accuil in Alzingen, just on the outskirts of Luxembourg City and spent the afternoon relaxing and catching up on computer stuff; there’s free internet here, yippee! When the temperatures dropped a bit, we strolled along the road into Alzingen and back and had pizza and drinks at the campsite café, then returned to Eileen to try and cool her off a bit before bed.
