Germany 2010 Ride report

[Sharribee]

We arrived to find Boris and Ben, Jim and Fiona already at the campsite. It was an interesting ride into the town of Bacharach, with steep hairpins and cobbled streets making us all a little nervous (the cobbles were very slippery and thank goodness it wasn't raining at that time)

The campsite was stunning, located along the Rhine River with a little beach area. Next to a main road, railway and what appeared to be the main shipping lane between Holland and the world

Nothing a good set of earplugs and a good few beers wouldn't sort out

We settled in and met the locals









The first day was bloody freezing, every bit of clothing owned was on.
It brightened up the second day and Lady Vader celebrated with a nice new top



The campsite sported a good bar, the first night we eat in, treating ourselves to Brachvirst, Sneztles and Frickadells (Vader will be along shortly to correct my German )

Over a few beers we recounted the story of our BBQ with Chads and the video of Alan

It deteriorated from this point, if you didn't answer to your name being called you were hailed by 13 people shouting Alan, repeatedly.

The second day we decided to abandon the bikes and take a boat trip down the river, walking to the ferry terminal, and I have to say that watching these huge barges navigate the river was incredible. The current was extremely strong and the captains threw these huge boats around as if they were made of lego

We jumped on a ferry and travelled up river to Rudesheim

As we travelled along the river we were directed to the various (and many) castles that scattered the river banks


The size and architecture of these buildings were breathtaking.









It all got a bit too much for some of us




At Rudesheim we were treated to an ice cream, yummy

We then visited the Torture Museum. This was quite a gruesome experience with in depth descriptions of what we as the human race are capable off. Some of the torture methods are still used in areas of the world today, I find this extremely disturbing.

Some examples

,





Torture Museum, Middle Ages, Ruedesheim, Rhine, Rheingau, Germany - Come and view the instruments used for torture in the middle ages. Learn about the methods of torture, witches, funeral piles, witch-hunts, witchcraft, the Inquisition, and the Medie


We then had a wander around the town and found a lovely (if Italian) beer garden

Vaders comment when the beers arrived with some drinks missing "no wonder we lost the bloody war" It's great that he can be so sensitive to other nationalities








We headed back down the river on a paddle boat (refurbished because apparently we destroyed the original in the 1940's, Vader seemed to be a bit miffed at this )

Boris got chatting to an American tourist on the route home.

That's it for tonight, I'll post more tomorrow

[winxp-master]

Good stuff Sharrie... more more more...

[Lutin]

Looks and sounds (reads?) like you had a great time.

[Sharribee]

Part 2

I keep remembering bits so bear with me, it was an excellent adventure Lutin.

The first night in the campsite (Sunday) on the Rhine was not without a few beers, I don't have any photos of this but I know that Vader does so he can post them later. Anyway, after the 2am start Caitie M was knackered so I packed her off to bed, being a good mother I went with her to make sure she went to sleep, despite Vaders best efforts to keep me drinking. Poor old Boris helped by drinking some of my beers Jay followed a little while behind us, and Jaimee-Lee had already retired. Apparently the drinking continued until the early hours.

The next morning Jay on his way to the loo was stopped by an irrate Brit in a camper van, to be told that he was a drunken noisy and selfish lout, and we needed to keep the noise down during the night. The rest of us found this very funny as Jay was the only one who doesn't drink and he went to bed early.


OK then, Day 2 (Tuesday)



We decided to go for a little ride along the German roads along the Rhine then across the river. We rode down the river to the Ferry crossing, at which point Geoff pointed out he hated boats

We waited on a very steep road for the boat to come across the river, again watching these massive boats navigate in that current was incredible



The trip for the day was to a castle in the middle of the river



You can see it just behind me here, there are those with better pictures of the inside of the castle, I was too busy running around hiding from my reprobate of a husband.

The castle inside had different levels, as myself, Debs and Fiona were on the second level we heard a cry "I'm the king of the castle from above" looking up, there was Jay hanging out of a window. We giggled and went to walk away, to his dismay so he yelled again and we turned to see his bear arse hanging out.

There was a group of German Tourists below - they were not impressed

From there we pottered down the other side of the river, the roads were incredible



As was the scenery

We went from the castle to a big church




From here we did Whispering lane, (I think) a fantastic piece of mountain road through a valley to a large monument.




There are some fantastic photos on other cameras which will be posted later. It was at this point Geoff bought Vader a little pressie, unfortunately Peter is without internet but lets just say, we called him "Alan"

MoM if you have photos of Alan please post them

We did a maximum of 40 miles that day, exhausted from the trek we returned to the campsite, the vaders, Jay and myself popped over to Lidl to sort out supper

We came back with Sausages ( yummy, we eat lots of sausages) and a BBQ



That was our meals sorted for the rest of the holiday, oh and there was quite a bit of beer consumed as well.

[Sharribee]

During the BBQ Vader started the Word of the Day

See if you can work out what it is

streicholzschachetel

[ian porter]

looks like a great trip,

During the BBQ Vader started the Word of the Day

See if you can work out what it is

streicholzschachetel

well you would need to light the BBQ somehow.

isn't Google great

[Buggles]

Sounds like a good time was had by all, except maybe the man with the campervan...

He was probably just jealous

Intrigued by the "Alan" story, will keep an eye out for the next installments

JB

[Sharribee]

Sounds like a good time was had by all, except maybe the man with the campervan...

He was probably just jealous

Intrigued by the "Alan" story, will keep an eye out for the next installments

JB

Bollox, I knew I'd forgotten something


Back in time to our early morning start, we had a very kind invitation for breakfast in Belgium.

We arrived expecting maybe a coffee and croissant to find a table full of coffee, breads, hams, the most delicious bagettes chocolate and cakes. There was enough to feed an army, and we made a pretty big dent

Thank you Buggles and to your lovely lady it was a very welcome and extremely generous breakfast.

I know there are photos somewhere of your table bowing under the weight of all that food.

[Lord Vader]

still without internet oh the pics i have to add

[francis_geoff]

Great report Sharrie. Vader will be pleased that I have remembered one "word of the day" - Kipper!
Was knackered when I got home, stopped at Winchester for a short nap. It appears that we have all returned with no misshaps, which is more than the lads in front of me on the tunnel had happen. They went to the Nurnburg and 2 cars and one bike did not return - no hospital cover so one of them was on the back of his mates bike with broken ribs!
Many thanks to Vader for the translations - we would not have had such a good time without his local knowledge. Although I am still curious as to what he really said to some of the people we encountered!
I have never been so hot on a bike as the journey through Germany and Belgium - went through 3 litres of water and loads of cola. Will post some pictures when/if I can