Our Holiday to Germany - Taking It Up The Rhine - Part 2

Continued from Part 1

Monday

Today we find ourselves with a day of leisure, no organised excursions, which is good as we need to rest after the mammoth 15 hour coach journey of the day before. First of all though we need to pay Jason, our driver, for the optional excursions we are taking in the week and then head off into the breakfast room to fill up on cheese, ham bread and scrambled egg. Forget toast though, as there's only one 2 slice domestic toaster available and it's slower than me opening my wallet to buy a round!

After breakfast we head off to explore and I should point out at this juncture that it is just myself and Mrs Dave on this holiday, we've left Little Miss Dave at home! Our first proper holiday together for years. Sorry Little Miss Dave.

Anyway, back to exploring, we walk from our hotel down to the banks of the Rhine and take in the sunshine and the warmth from the sun, it is an idyllic location, all kinds of boats cruise up and down, cargo ships, holiday cruises, tourist boats. This area of the Rhine is flanked by roads, cycle paths, foot paths and railway lines on either side, so you can sit and watch all modes of transport flitting up and down the valley. No sitting for us though, we walked up the Rhine towards Koblenz for about half an hour, stopping off at a little gift shop for the obligatory peruse of various German flavoured gifts and a bottle of water, need to keep hydrated with temperatures in the 30's. We then headed back again, this time walking right by the waters edge for as far as we could. It was lovely, tranquil and just perfect.

Assmanhausen chairlift.

We nipped back to the hotel and freshened up, then went out again, this time we went away from the river, taking the short walk uphill to the Assmanhausen chairlift, that takes you up to the top of the valley, where you can, and we did, take a 40 minute walk through the forest up to the Niederwald Monument which overlooks Rüdesheim.

Niederwald Monument.

This was such a glorious, sunny and cloudless day, that it got really warm up top in the full sun, so we decided to purchase an ice cream each and descend down into Rüdesheim via the cable car. They are only small open cable cars, but they were perfect for gently floating down the valley side over the top of the myriad of vineyards with row upon row of grape vines that stripe their way across the whole of the Rhine Valley. Rüdesheim is a larger town than Assmanhausen, with more shops and restaurants and after a few stops at some gift shops, we found a small restaurant hidden up a shady side street where we decided to have a spot of lunch and a German beer. And what a lunch? And what beer? Totally delicious, in a beautiful setting, with the mellifluous tones of a piano being played purely for our entertainment. If we were to pick one memory from this holiday, it would possibly be this day, as we sampled many contrasts and enjoyed so much of what this lovely town and country had to offer.

Anyway, moving on, we need to inject a bit more humour into the proceedings, but before we move onto Tuesday, a quick word about hotel dining. In this particular hotel, it only had accommodation for about 50 - 60 guests, so almost all the guests were from our coach, so like it or not, you soon got used to everybody. The dining room had tables that seated varying numbers of guests, up to 7 seats in fact, so you just had to put up with communal eating and chatting. This doesn't sit that well with me, as I'm rather shy and not very good at listening in a busy, noisy room, as I tend to listen to the conversation behind me, rather than the one in front, so I end up smiling and nodding a lot, hoping that the smiles and nods come in the right place. Still it was a free bar!


Tuesday

Today we are all aboard the coach for a trip to Koblenz and Linz. Koblenz is situated on both banks of the Rhine at its confluence with the Moselle river. The weather was slightly overcast as we drove to Koblenz, a total change from the previous day, so although we had dressed for sunshine, it looked like rain was imminent.
We took the cable car across the Rhine up to the Fortress Ehrenbreitstein high on the opposite bank and this i where the rain started to fall. We briefly looked around the area, taking the opportunity to avail ourselves of the free toilets next to the museum shop, before heading back down to Koblenz town for a warming cup of coffee and a chance purchase of an umbrella, as it was now, as they say in Germany "regnet katzen und hunde"! Then it's all back on board the coach to head to Linz.

Now, I make notes as we travel around, writing down snippets of information of where we have been, what we have done etc. Looking back in my notes for Tuesday I have written; "Why is it that when old people are stuck together on a bus, that they talk a load of old shit?"

I might need to explain that.

Whilst most of us managed to get back to the coach on time, after spending a couple of hours wandering around a damp, but pretty Linz, we had managed to "lose" one elderly couple. 4 o'clock came and went and there was no sign, this obviously started the hear'say, conjecture and speculative theories that started emanating from the coach;
"Summinks 'appened".
"The drivers gone off again".
"Is that 'em now?"
"I bet there's been an accident".
"Look at that rain, it's really coming down".
"I bet summink 'as 'appened".
"He didn't look well at breakfast".
"Where's the driver gone?"
"They've probably gone back to the hotel".
"We should go without 'em, keeping us waiting!"

Oh for goodness sake shut up!! I was all for getting together a mini search party, but thought I would just sit quietly and listen to the diatribe of drivel. I thought if someone mentions the war or a "Dunkirk spirit", I'm walking back to the hotel!

What did upset me somewhat, was one of our lone passengers; Peter, who was, for the want of a better phrase; a little special. Maybe that's not fair, he was articulate, knowledgeable, with a mind full of memories of places, names, times, facts and figures, but he had no social barometer and although he was quite often and quite cruelly ridiculed by the narrow minded and mostly old contingent on the coach, he did not think they were laughing at him. Anyway, Peter hopped off the coach whilst we were waiting for our lost souls to return, which started a ripple of discontent amongst the moaning old gits; "oh where's he going now?", "bloody David Bailey's off again". This latter comment was aimed at the fact that Peter never went anywhere without his camera and lens bags hung closely around his neck, beats me that he was ridiculed for taking photographs of everywhere and everything, he was only recording his holiday, as he had no one to share his memories with. Anyway, he disappeared behind some bushes and well, we think he let nature take it's course, as he returned adjusting himself and pulling his shorts back up, which sent a howl of derisive laughter around the coach. Old people can be so cruel sometimes, especially the narrow minded old codger sat just behind us, he laughed and guffawed and declared when Peter returned to his seat, that "... it's alright, he's back in his box!" I really wish I'd said something now, if that had been one of the old boys on the coach who had got caught short, I'm sure there wouldn't have been so many cruel catcalls.

They say travel broadens the mind, some of the old buggers on the coach clearly need to travel some more!

Anyway, the old couple finally appeared, soaked, bedraggled and the worse for a couple of falls apparently. They were provided with the requisite amount of tea and sympathy from their fellow passengers, even the old ones who were moaning about them not 5 minutes before, two faced old gits!

An hour late, an hour away from the hotel and an hour before the free bar opens, get your foot down driver!


To be continued - Part 3