After 4 days off grid at the Last Night of the Prog, during which the campsite showers had degraded to very cold water only, we returned to Camping Loreleystatd. After a frantic pack and some proper showers we hitched up the caravan and were sent on our way by Isolde (campsite owner), complete with a couple of bottles of local red wine – still to enjoy.

We chose our first site just around a 100 miles away at Saarbrucken. A nice easy tow arriving at Caravanplatz Muhlenwieher (or Camping Kirkel may be an alternative name) late afternoon. We paid our 14 Euros to the Ferryman for safe passage across the Rhein to St Goar from St Goarhausen.

The site owner at our Kirkel campsite was very amicable and helpful, letting us use his commercial washing machine for free as the chargeable ones were in use. His recommendation for dinner (Campsite restaurant is closed on a Monday) was the local tennis club where we enjoyed some nice Italian pizza.

A prompt start Tuesday morning and we headed to Camping au Bord de l’Aisne, arriving at the site north of Rheims late afternoon.

The Caravan site had been booked nice and easily on the Caravan and Motorhome website and we set up quickly and headed for a walk along the river Aisne.

Dinner was at a local bar / restaurant with a great selection of beers – not to be messed with! Le Relais.

Another early start and Google was forecasting our arrival early afternoon at the second CAMC site we had chosen to use as a stopover.

As Joe had just received a slot for surgical removal of a problematical Wisdom tooth on Monday, we decided to abandon the stopover site at Honfleur and taking advantage of the Brittany Ferries flexi-ticket, brought forward our return ferry crossing by a day.

Our ferry was the Brittany Ferries Contentin, which is old, small and mainly freight which meant we really didn’t need to arrive 4 hours early to get in the boarding queue. But with van and caravan to park, this seemed like our best option. There were probably only about 20 – 30 private vehicles on this predominantly freight operated service so boarding was as swift as was disembarkation.

We were back home in East Devon sometime after 11:00am. A couple of days to sort things out before next weeks op.

This was our first and last visit to Night of the Prog Festival because this weekend was the “Final” Night of the Prog. This natural amphitheatre alongside and high above the Rhine river in Lorelei is undoubetedly one of the most spectacular music venues in the world. Probably Red Rocks in Colarado, just beats the setting. Brit Floyd have recorded some magnificent shows over in Colarado.

Anyhow, no Pink Floyd this weekend, but a feast of prog rock bands. We know Pendragon and Arena really well and the Pendragon set was flawless. Sad to say, but Arena definitely missed the magical guitar playing of John Mitchell who’s otherwise engaged on a US tour.

Of note, Steve Hackett, the gentleman of Prog Rock, Karnataka, Lazuli, Cheeto’s magazine, Sylvan were all impressive. But the Steve Rothery Band were fantastic (Steve Rothery of Marillion fame).

The venue has a capacity of some 15,000 and whilst I don’t think it was a sell-out, it can’t have been far off.

After a fantastic weekend we returned to Camping Loreleystadt and shortly after lunchtime, headed on to a small town near Saarbrucken. This would just make the return journey to Le Havre a little bit easier.

Sunday we took the train to Koblenz and experienced another frustrating day in the life of a train traveller in Germany. Germany’s railways may even be more dysfunctional than the ones in Blighty! The train to Koblenz was late and the trains back (which should have been every hour) were delayed by 35 minutes and then just didn’t arrive at all.

In the end we travelled to Sankt Goar and caught the ferry back to Goarhausen.

In Koblenz, we rode the cable car to the Ehrenbreitstein (why are German words so long!) fortress which was built in the 16th century.

The original baroque castle which was the predecessor of the fortress dates back to the year 1000. The fortress was utilised by the Prussian army until 1918 and was part of a system of fortifications securing the Middle Rhine Valley.

The Deutches Eck can be seen clearly from the cable car descent back to Koblenz. This is where the rivers Mosel and Rhine converge.

We later visited the “altstadt” before embarking on the epic return railway journey!

Today we headed in the opposite direction to Koblenz – to the pretty town of Rudesheim. Our plan had been to catch one of the river boats back to Goarhausen in the evening but as the day wore on, the weather became a little colder and wetter so we decided to cut our losses and travelled on yet another delayed Regional train.

We actually disembarked on the outward journey at the town of Assmanshausen, where following a short walk through the town, we came across a chairlift. No-one spoke any English but there was clearly an issue afoot. Anyhow, we were not able to understand what this was so we bought our tickets and set off. Joe doesn’t like heights at all, add height and a fairly basic chair lift and this journey was way beyond his comfort zone.

At first, we floated across the gardens of houses as we left Assmanshausen behind. You could almost touch the plants.

After disembarking the chairlift, we walked the 3 or 4 km through the woods to the Niederwald memorial which enjoys high, beautiful and expansive views across Rudesheim and the Rhine valley. On arrival at Niederwald, Joe discovered that Brittany Ferries had just released their winter timetable so we had to find a shady corner whilst we booked our sailings!

The monument was constructed to commemorate the founding of the German Empire in 1871 after the end of the Franco-Prussian War. The first stone was laid on 16 September 1871 by Kaiser Wilhelm I. The sculptor was Johannes Schilling, and the architect was Karl Weißbach. The monument was inaugurated on 28 September 1883, stands 38 metres tall and represents the union of all Germans.

We road the cable car down from the Niederwald, just as the heavens opened so a thoroughly unpleasant journey floating over the vineyards.

We lunched in Rudesheim, and after a walk around town, we decided to change our plans and take the train back to Goarhausen, mainly due to the inclement weather. Again more chaos on the railways and something about a Fliegenbombe. Whilst checking on some spelling today, I came across this on one of the websites. Turns out most of the chaos on this line through Goarhausen was a result of the discovery on an un-exploded bomb! It also explained the commotion at the chairlift station.

Liebe Fahrgäste, 

aufgrund der Bombenentschärfung wird der Fahrbetrieb am 16.07.2024 ab 13:00h in beide Richtungen eingestellt.

Dinner out tonight and then a day to start packing a few things away, ready for festival at Lorelei.

The highlight of Wednesday was a walk into Sank Goarhausen and an evening BBQ. Oh… wait a minute… it was a beautiful day and after spending the late afternoon exploring the quaint streets of this old town, followed by an early evening beer, we debated whether or not to return to base and fire-up the BBQ after all.

In the end, a second beer convinced us to remain in-situ and eat at the restaurant. We both ate Schnitzel. Again. It was very nice but just wondering how long Schnitzel and chips will appeal.

We get the impression that St Goarhausen is the “poor” cousin of the town of St Goar, just across the Rhine on the east bank. Nevertheless, there are some nice buildings located in the “altstadt” and this has been an great place to spend much of July.

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Friday was my birthday and so my choice of activity. Wishing to avoid the weekend, a habit we have adopted since retirement (although it seems places along the Rhine aren’t very busy any day of the week), I chose a cycle ride up the river to Bingen, which lies on the opposite bank to Rudesheim. We found a hotel on the “Bett and Bicycle” (bed and bike) website and set off on our trip early Thursday morning. My birthday tea would be in the evening before the actual date.

The “bed and bicycle” website lists hotels which are bike friendly. By that, they must have secure indoor bike storage and be amenable to stays of a single night. We chose the Hotel Koeppel which satisfied all the requirements.

We had chosen a nice Italian restaurant for dinner but when we arrived, it was closed! We managed to find a typical German affair nearby and avoided the Schnitzel. I enjoyed an Argentinian filet steak whilst Moe ate Salmon and roasted vegetables. Food was excellent.

Some more pictures from Bingen.

On our journey back the next day, we stopped at the medieval town of Oberwesel.

The town wall of Oberwesel with its 16 defence towers is the best preserved rampart on the Middle Rhine and it is now possible to walk over large parts of the city wall.

Birthday lunch (and today is my birthday!) was at a Thai restaurant in the main square.

We had enjoyed a great couple of days away on our bikes.

The Middle Rhine is one of four sections of the river, and flows between Bingen in the South and Bonn in the North. From our experiences so far, there is a complete cycle path on the West bank of the Rhine from the town of Bingen to Koblenz but it’s a little intermittent on the Eastern bank.

There are of course numerous other ways to explore this section since there is a road and railway on both sides of the valley and numerous boats offering trips and regular ferry rides.

On Saturday we visited the ancient rock of Loreley and marvelled at the views down from the rock and along the Rhine valley. There is also a natural amphitheatre here and a weekend music festival in a couple of weeks time. The location is just stunning.

Monday we caught a boat from St Goar to Boppard. Being on the opposite side of the Rhine we had to catch the Goarhausen to Goar ferry first. This runs daily until about 9pm. If you miss the last ferry, it would be a bit of an issue getting back across (train journey to Koblenz or Mainz) and then back along the opposite river bank.

On Tuesday, we decided to visit Marksburg in Braubach. Already struggling to make the 1:00pm English tour, we headed for the train station for the short journey from St Goarhausen to Braubach, complete with bicycles. We would train there and cycle back.

Anyhow, the train broke down for an hour and when they managed to limp into a station we were required to disembark and catch the next service, which of course was rammed.

We finally arrived at Marksburg castle just in time for the 4pm tour. Marksburg castle is one of the principle sites of the Rhine Gorge UNESCO World Heritage site and was built primarily for protection, not as a Royal residence. The tour guide was great, made the 1 hour tour interesting and informative. The castle is one of the best preserved castle in the “German Castles association” – in fact one of very few never to have been destroyed during its history – and in fact the German Castles Association has its headquarters at the castle.

The bed in this room is very short. It’s not just because people weren’t as tall in the Middle Ages as they are now but people were afraid to fall asleep on their backs in case the devil took away their life. So they tended to sleep sitting up!

Late in the afternoon we set off back to the campsite which involved two ferry crossings – firstly to Boppard and then after travelling upstream on the West bank, the ferry to St Goar. We arrived at Filsen for the Boppard ferry just 5 minutes before the last ferry of the day. No-one told us this ferry only runs until 6pm!!

Fortunately we arrived at St Goar with time to spare so we ate in the village square. Can’t remember which “brand” of Schnitzel we ate tonight!

We left Schluchsee on Wednesday morning a little before 09:00 in preparation for a 230 mile trip North to the Rhine. The traffic was busy, there were lots of roadworks and we didn’t arrive until sometime after 4pm. We are staying for a few weeks at Camping Loreleystadt in St Goarhausen, between, Rudesheim and Koblenz.

The site is quiet and we have a large pitch overlooking the Rhine.

There is stunning scenery here but the Rhine river and valley is very much a “working” river. Enormous barges are sailing past constantly and a railway line hugs each side of the river edge, as well as roads and cycle paths.

On Friday we headed down the east bank of the Rhine as far as the town of Lorch, where there is a ferry across to the west bank. We arrived first at a causeway on the river, where we were greeted by a 3.3m tall bronze female statue which watches the ships travelling up and down the waterway. She shares her name with the 132m high rock – Loreley. The site of this rock and the curve in the Rhine has destroyed an untold number of ships, including in 2011, the capsizing of a barge carrying 2,400 tons of Sulphuric acid.

Crossing the river at Lorch (the ferry was 3.3 Euros each which included passenger and bicycle) we then headed north to St Goar.

We passed Pfalzgrafenstein Castle which is a toll castle on Falkenau island, otherwise known as Pfalz Island near Kaub. The castle functioned as a toll-collecting station that was not to be ignored. It worked in concert with Gutenfels Castle and the fortified town of Kaub on the right side of the river.

On reaching St Goar, we enjoyed some refreshments and watched the first half of the Euros football match between Spain and Germany, which Spain won 2-1 aet. We then crossed back to our side of the river and ate at one of the local retaurants.

Some more pictures from our ride.

Tomorrow we will pack up and aim for an early start on Wednesday morning for a fairly long drive North. Weather so far can at best be described as “unsettled”… We hope for some dryer days for the next half of this trip.

Today is Monday, the start of a new month (July) and we used our Black Forest Guest Cards to travel by train (and bus replacement) to Freiburg. The station in Schluchsee is just over a 20 minute walk from the campsite and the train / buses were clean, on-time but very busy and we arrived in Freiburg mid-morning.

The morning was fine and dry and we headed into the centre of the old town where we found the Freiburg Munster, or Cathedral. Construction started in 1200 in a romanesque style and continued in 1230 in a Gothic style. The cathedral is famous for its gothic spire.

A market was in full flow around the cathedral square with numerous stalls selling various Wurst sandwiches. And everyone (except Moe) was eating some kind of hotdog. I decided to go with the flow and enjoyed some kind of spicy sausage – a good, if perhaps fortunate choice.

We walked around the old town, through an area where brightly painted houses have been built next to the river, giving rise to the the area’s nickname of “Little Venice”.

We then stumbled across Freiburg’s only Brauhaus, where we spent a couple of hours, just before the heavens opened (yes, again!), after which we headed back to the station and home to Schluchsee. Moe’s new coat came in handy…

The Brauhaus is located right next to Martinstor. The Martinstor, a former town fortification on Kaiser-Joseph-Straße, is the older of the two gates of Freiburg that have been preserved since medieval times. Both gates, the Martinstor and the Schwabentor, are located in the city centre. The picture below is of the Martinstor gate.

Sunday visited the town of Titisee on Lake Titisee. Our two choices of where to stay where either Schluchsee or Titisee and I think we chose the best one. The town of Titisee is very touristy with the usual shops selling Chinese tat. We stayed long enough for a coffee and then headed home again, in rain, just in time to watch England vs Slovakia in the last 16 of the Euros 2024. Hmm. Enough said.