22/5 All fine on the Rhine

Tuesday 22 Fine on the Rhine

Up at 6.30, hoed into the brekky buffet and walked to the jetty. Met a couple from Texas and chattered away until we cast off at 8.45. It’s a very large and comfortable boat, with a big open deck and underneath an air-conditioned dining area which would seat about 400. We started with about 6 but people keep boarding in drips and drabs as we meander downstream, stopping every few  km.

It’s a very fine sunny day and there must be hundreds of worse places to be. There are cycle paths next to the water (which are obviously dead flat level) and caravan parks at regular intervals. I can see how a cycling holiday would be extremely pleasant. Vineyards everywhere – all meticulously laid out in tight straight lines. Some on very steep slopes running down to the river.

 The castles have started coming thick and fast – the river is winding between rolling hills and the castles are nestling up the slopes. Some better preserved than others. Mostly smaller than I expected. There is basic recorded commentary in German English and Japanese.

The building on the water edge was a customs building.  It is shaped like a boat.

The river is very busy – dozens of barges full of containers , coal or oil.  Each one has a car on the back, which would have to be placed there by crane. There seems to be a rail line either side of the river and plenty of passenger and cargo trains. Villages at frequent intervals and scattered houses in between but the region is not densely populated.

The great bulk of passengers got off at noon and the Texans followed at Koblenz, a large city astride the confluence with the Moselle. The terrain flattens out after that and there haven’t been any castles for a while. A few bridges though – I cant remember any since Mainz until recently – hence duplication of rail and road either side of the river. A couple of times we pulled up to a jetty on one bank then swirled across the river to one on the other side.

The last couple of hours were a bit of an anticlimax after the earlier flood of castles and picture perfect scenery. It was still a very pleasant cruise  There was also a fair amount of industrial activity. We had to change boats, which was a simple process of walking direct from one to the other. We are becoming adept and resigned with dragging huge bags up and down stairs. I had a big stretch out on the upper deck which drew the tigntness out of my back after carrying J’s backpack in Innsbruck.

We reached  Wessling at 7pm and found Elisabeth waiting for us. She drove us to Brule and waited while we had a shower before we sat down with a drink to plan strategy for the next 2 days. In fact it turned out to be 3 because Elisabeth has insisted on driving us to Dusseldorf on Friday. We had an initial wander in the twilight until 9.30 and saw the gardens and outside of the schloss/chateau and parts of the town.  We had been eating salmon and cheese sandwiches all day and didn’t need dinner.

This is a May tree.  On 1st May, young lads who are sweet on a girl place a decorated tree in the front yard/street of where she lives.  At the end of the month the girls father pays the lad a couple of cartons of beer to remove the tree.  A very quaint tradition.