Bonn – Wednesday 14th October 2009

First frost of winter today! It was freezing outside but from behind the glass, next to the radiator and in the sunshine, it was heavenly!

We decided to have a nice easy day today so we went off to Bonn.

Bonn is just below Koln so about 40 miles away but the roads were pretty easy and we made good time. The journey was quite lovely, dipping in and out of the low cloud and bright sunshine, frosty all the way. Nice.

Bonn was the birthplace and home to Ludwig van Beethoven so the place is pretty much all about him.

As German towns go it gets an A* for the shopping. If you need a mobile phone, you can go down one of the streets and see 3 different Vodafone shops almost right next to each other. It has a Karstadt and a Kaufhof and two H&M stores that we found. Parking was plentiful and easy and right in the middle of the town.

The shops were awesome, I need to go back there to buy all new kitchen stuff, and they even had lilac Le Creuset! They were just starting to put out the Christmas stuff too and we were quite tempted by some of the pretties, but Andy kept trying to make me walk near the scary nutcracker men which I dislike even more then clowns. They are evil, no question.

The other thing that I find odd (but lovely) is the number of tea shops over here. Not the cup-of-tea-and-piece-of-cake tea shops back home, but specialist tea shops with blends, fruit teas, green teas, all kind of tea implements, far more impressive than the Whittards type of thing which is all I’ve ever seen back home. Most department stores seem to have a tea section, and most cities have a couple of individual tea shops. In the Karstadt, we were called over by the staff to try the three teas they had on offer, and as they were such nice people (and the teas were lovely) we bought one, and we got two small sample packets thrown in as well. I’ve decided I’m going to start trying more fancy “gay”  tea from now on, it’s a whole new world to be discovered! And I get to have more cake and biscuits. Everyone knows you can’t have tea without cake and biscuits.

We parked at Kaufhof underneath the Munsterplatz right in the middle of everything really. As big towns go, it was pretty small actually and everything was in easy walking distance.

Dominating the Munsterplatz was the giant cathedral (although not as big as Koln by any stretch of the imagination). It really was a lovely building inside and I could have spent hours taking photos, but I didn’t get to take any as there was a man scowling at any tourists entering and disturbing the worshipers. We left pretty quickly.

Bonn is also a university town and the main campus building is contained within a palace, it was pretty cool, a massive yellow building surrounded by bikes and ‘the youth’.

We had a good look at Beethoven’s birth house, it was quite interesting, loads of very small doorways and more scowling guards not liking the photographs, therefore none were taken.

We got to see some pretty cool stuff though. I didn’t realise that LvB was actually pretty much deaf in the end and used ear horns, and they had them in a glass case for all to see! Also various instruments he had actually used and a lock of his hair. Now I don’t proclaim to be a fan, but it was pretty ace. I might actually dig some music off of one of the hard drives and culture myself….

We ended our trip out with a drive along the Rhine down towards Koblenz then headed back to Sunparks via the shops to get some rolls, bockwurst and curry sauce. Yum!

The Vulkan Express (Brohl Lutzing) and Andernach - Tuesday 13th October 2009

I was very excited today about this little trip out. I can’t help it, it must be a boy thing. The Vulkan Express is a private railway that runs from the Rhine at Brohl Lutzing to Engeln, a small town in the volcanic national park. Chuffachuffa chuffachuffa poooop pooop!

Three trains run on the line, now, I’m not going to be able to list what they are, I’m nowhere near to that level, but one is a small steam tank engine, another is a small diesel and the last one is a diesel which has a carriage incorporated into the actual train.

We got to the station a little early for our train, it seems that for most of the summer they run trains on Tuesdays, Thursdays and at the weekend, twice daily. We were a good couple of hours early so we had a little wander round Brohl Lutzing. It was a quick wander. There were a couple of coffee shops and a large (very nice) church, which was about it. For its size it was odd as it had a huge station on a main line and motorway access. Leaving Brohl Lutzing we decided to head down the Rhine a little to Andernach.

Andernach is an old walled city that has just been modernised over time and before anyone realised what had happened, they had made a couple of architectural mistakes, the new town hall (Rathaus) for example. It looks a little bit inside out. It is a steel and glass building which, in the 70s and 80s was probably very modern, now it just looks dated and very ugly. Other than that the town is quite pretty. It’s a nice place to wander round and shop. Don’t miss the town square and the old town hall as they are very pretty.

We stopped for a little while to get some lunchables in the form of currywurst before heading back to Brohl Lutzing to the train.

On our return we found that the small diesel tank engine would be pulling us up the mountain. Attached were a small freight car, the passenger carriage and a dining car.

The passenger carriage was split into two halves. Both halves were the same and were wood panelled with wooden seats with overhead luggage racks.

The trip was about 1 hour, twenty minutes each way. The train took us up the hills through loads of little towns and stops and through the countryside, fields and meadows. I think that in May, if you get good weather, it would be even more pretty. All the alpine flowers would be out and the fields would all be green rather than ploughed. Never mind, the views were still outstanding. There was a man turkey-herding!

On reaching the top there was a small exhibit about fossils found in the area and a tea shop. Coffee and cake for us! Today’s cake was a cherry cheese cake, baked with icing on the top. As we found from our Black Forest trip, we only ordered once slice, which was more than enough for the both of us!

The fossil thing was rubbish. They’d carved some shapes into some rocks and then had a very badly designed “giant frog” and “iguanodon” made out of concrete.

After playing peek-a-boo with a small German child we got back on the train for the return journey. The sun was shining, and it was warm inside the carriage so the return journey was nice and relaxing.

It costs €12 per adult for the return ticket and I think it would be an ace way to spend an afternoon with kids. The company run a Christmas Service to meet Santa and they also do party nights where there is live music and dinner at the end of the train ride and endless amounts of booze. These are quite expensive but undoubtedly very fun!

The drive home was clear and we made it in about 45 minutes. Realising we actually had no food we decided to go over to the complex to the pizzeria, expensive but nice food the menu was not very exciting and the drinks were over priced but not a bad meal to be honest.

Vianden and Luxemburg – Monday 12th October 2009

Happy Birthday to ME! And for my birthday, a trip to Luxemburg was on the cards. It took us about an hour to get over the border due to our junction on the motorway being shut. This was not really a problem, we just had to go cross country and the scenery was stunning. It is a bit like Bedfordshire, travelling along roads where you can see the landscape for as far as the eye can see to the volcanic mountains in the distance.

It was a bit wet and rainy but this cleared up when we left Germany and got into Luxemburg, travelling through Diekirch (where they mainly make beer) to get fuel (at 86.1 cents per litre) and then on to our first stop, Vianden.

I’d seen the name on the map and it rang a bell, I don’t think I have ever been there before but we were not disappointed when we arrived. It was a very quaint little town in the bottom of a valley with a river running through the bottom. The old town was classically cobbled with lovely old buildings, good for a wander should you wish to.

Above the town was a dominating castle which was in the process of being renovated however it had got past the stage where scaffold was needed so it looked quite pretty actually.

The castle was a complete ruin up until the end of the 1970s when funding was found to bring the place back to life and work continues to this day.

In the cellar of the castle all of the archaeology was on display. The ancient Roman walls of a fairly modest outpost that were originally there had been built on top of over the centuries until the large castle was formed.

Much of the renovation consists of concrete replacement pillars in the darker more rough areas where the servants would have existed, but in the real places that mattered the stonework has been recreated to the original specifications and the castle looks pretty much as it would have done when brand new.

Probably the most impressive thing about the castle I can think of was a large gallery in the main building. It is covered by the pitched roof and is as wide and as long as that section of the building. With a flagstone floor and large open windows running along each side it was a sheltered, light room that looked like it belonged in “Theed” from Star Wars (Where Queen Amidala is from in Episode 1)

We were at the castle for just over an hour before we left and continued the drive to Luxemburg.

It was our second trip to Luxemburg. We went there with Sean and Laura this time last year but this time the weather was completely different. Today we were blessed with puffy white clouds and sunshine. We could see the whole valley and the park at the bottom of the old city ramparts.

We wandered round having a look in the shops. Anna found an H&M which (by being in Luxemburg was tax free) and they had a 50% off sale, score! I didn’t buy anything though!

We also caught some things we missed the first time like the beautiful park below the town and we also went to have a look at the court complex.

The courts were very interesting. It seems that they have county, magistrates, high and youth court all in the same courtyard opposite each other. The site looks very new as well. It has polished stone floors and the buildings were Daz white.

We grabbed a couple of Geocaches whilst we still had light and we headed off to Prüm for my birthday dinner.

I love Prüm, mainly for its Post hotel Restaurant but it has a lovely looking Abbey. To my despair and disgust, the Post Hotel had been made into a coffee bar and a chaps fashion shop, RUBBISH! We shared meals at that place with Sean and Laura and Chris and Faith and the food was always brilliant, home cooked and in man size portions. It was the kind of place that locals would come as a complete family for a regular meal. The other thing we liked about then was they sold really nice Schnitzel in every style known to man, veal, pork or turkey with creamy mushroom, Jager and cheesy sauces to name but a few.

With no glory food of wonder and joy, we had to find another place to eat as we were starving. We happened upon a place next to the Abbey called “The Old Abbey”.

Inside the bar was pretty cool actually. It was wood everywhere and furnished as if it were an old brewery with copper pipes and drums everywhere. One of the booths had been cut out of a massive copper vat and seated about 8 people inside.

It looked ace, so what about the food.

We Anna had a pork schnitzel with cream and mushroom sauce. It was pretty nice actually but it didn’t come in the same quantities as before. I on the other hand had a turkey schnitzel with a cheesy sauce. It had some chip shaped vegetables in the sauce but we couldn’t work out what they were. I think they must have been turnip or some such. It wasn’t obvious from the menu but hey, it tasted nice so I wasn’t overly bothered.

The whole thing, including drinks and coffee came to about €30, which was very reasonable!

We left Prüm after food, and made our way back to Sunparks where we discovered that most of the world had descended for ½ term week, joy!

Burg Eltz and Cochem – Sunday 11th October 2009

Another sensible get up time for us today meant we had a full day ahead of us to get out and about. We decided to head down the road to Burg Eltz, probably the cutest castle in the world.

We parked up near to the castle and went on the ‘Wanderweg’ through the forest along the side of the valley. After about 20 minutes of walking we rounded a corner to see our destination.

The castle is a proper fairy tale one in the middle of the valley on a rocky outcrop with a river running at the bottom. It has round turrets and it looked (as we found out later to be true) like it was a mix and match of buildings joined together.

As we got nearer, it was clear to see that the Sweeney Family curse was once again coming into effect. Probably one of the most beautiful places of the holiday so far had an entire wall covered in scaffolding. Frustration set in as we got closer and we found that the entire castle was being held together with giant pins to renovate and stabilise the schloss.

The scaffold was there for a reason and I was happy with the reason, without it, the whole place would fall apart and it would be lost.

We had a good look round. I would, when taking a camera, make sure you have a decent wide angle lens (a 10-20mm would be ideal) or make sure you have panorama software to get the inside courtyard shots.

The team at the castle do tours in German, Dutch and English, we had to wait for ours for about an hour but it was worth it in the end. We spent some of the time looking at the treasure collection; it was full of very pretty shinies!

We were taken round the castle with a large group (which was a little too large to be honest) and we were forbidden from taking photos, (boo). There was little to take photos of really. Most of the rooms inside were covered in plastic sheets as the interior was being renovated.

Hopefully in time, when the works are finished, the place will be awesome and we will have to come back. There is no expected finishing date for the work.

All in all, it is a lovely place to go. The parking is €1.50 and the adult entry fee is €8.00. It’s not so bad but probably worth waiting a few more years for the work to be finished.

Anna got us an ace little fridge magnet for home and we started the long walk back up the roadway to the car. I’d say, it is easier to park and do the Wanderweg both ways as the gradient is a lot less steep.

Knackered and back at the car, we decided to pop over to Cochem.

Cochem is a very pretty town with lots of nice Tudor style buildings and cobbled streets. It is on the banks of the Mosel River, one of the most important waterways in the area. Also, a lovely wine region, yum!

It was packed. Hundreds of elderly people shuffling round looking at the tat shops, lace and leather merchants and going for coffee and cake. It was brilliant!

We had some Currywurst with Bratkartofflen and then we stopped for some coffee and cake with some of the elderly populous.

Once the rain started, we headed off quickly to the car and back home.

It was a shame when we realised that Cochem, (being a staging post for German forces during the war for the Ardennes), was completely flattened by the RAF during the 1940s. The town has since been lovingly re-created in a similar style to the original.

Why could Stevenage, Hertfordshire, UK not have been done this way! It would be beautiful!

Even the large Burg that overlooks the town is a re-creation as the original burnt down in 1689.

The rough guide describes Cochem as “Averagely uninspiring”, I kinda agree but it is a generally ‘nice’ place to go. There’s just not that much there apart from the food places and crappy shops. Bit of a shame. We didn’t fancy sitting on the chairlift in the rain to get to the top of the hill to look over the town either. Ah well. At least I saw a dog that looked like an ewok, so it was pretty cool in the end.

Blankenheim and Bad Munstereifel - Saturday 10th October 2009

After going to bed at child o’clock we got up at OAP o’clock, we were awake at about 6 but dozed until 7ish.

We decided to head out to Blankenheim, we had a leaflet for it that we picked up somewhere so decided to have a look and see what it was all about.

Arriving pretty early on a Saturday we thought that it was a bit quiet, it looked like it could be a pretty busy coach party style town so we got on and had a good wander about before the expected crowds rolled in.

I suppose I would describe Blankenheim as a bit like Monschau but smaller, a lot less touristy and it is not permanently Christmas. It has lovely cobbled streets and only one building, albeit a lovely one, was covered in scaffolding. The rest were a mixture of Tudor style white with beams and more modern, shapely concrete, 50’s style ones which are common as post war rebuilds in West Germany.

The town has a large “Berg” or castle overlooking the town. This one unfortunately was not open to the public and was instead a youth hostel (inhabited today by the local scout group).

The castle’s once ornate gardens were now a meadow inhabited by local horses (who were very pretty indeed). The region has a large amount of sandy/light brown horses with really blonde manes and tails. There’s a field of these sandy ponies not far from Sunparks, I reeeeaaaaallly want to go and see them. When we drove back today, they were walking over to investigate a carload of hikers that had stopped near them, so I think they’re very friendly!

We went for a short nature walk and saw some pretty little snails all over everything, we had to be pretty careful as most of them were very young and VERY small.

I’m sure Anna will chip in with some more! Oh the snails! They were brilliant! There were loads of them, in all kinds of colours – yellow, orange, swirly stripes and all kinds of sizes from a couple of centimetres down to barely five millimetres! There were so cute! The path we found them on also had some proper fairy sized mushrooms and some very odd snails that were quite oddly shaped – they were small with very narrow conical shells, we tried getting a photo, but they were so small the camera had trouble focussing on them.

Back into town and the coach parties had not arrived, nor had anyone else really, I’m sure towards Christmas time the place will be heaving but October is good if you want a hassle free wander.

Bad Munstereifel is on the river Erft and is also similar to Monchau but bigger. The streets are wider and there is a definite route through where Monchau is a bit twisty with loads of little snickets.

Munstereifel is the place to go for food and shops. There was far greater choice and it was a lot busier than Blankenheim.

I can imagine the place being completely mental come Christmas as thousands of little old ladies from miles around are shipped in one coach at a time to spend their hard earned retirement monies on useless tat that they will never use and try to palm off on unsuspecting family members.

There was a cool little ninja kitty on our walk through town – he was trying to get in a closed window, as I don’t think he’d realised it wasn’t the one he came out of. As we watched he was doing that crazy look that kitties do and I was a little worried that he might jump off the windowsill after whatever bug had caught his attention, but then he managed to figure out the way back over the canopy to the open window. He was a silly kitty.

We stopped off for lunch at a place called Amadeus where we both ordered the food of glory and wonder, schnitzel. This was Champignonrahmschnitzel to be precise which came with a starter salad and a huge side of chips. YUM YUM YUM YUM YUM (repeat till fade).

After basking in the glow of awesome and joy for an hour, and trying a new non-beer called Stauder (from Essen), we left and made our way back to the car to come home.

The way back was rainy, sunny and foggy (all at different times, duh!) and was on some of the best roads ever. They seem to have resurfaced everything recently and we made rapid (but safe) progress down to Nurburg (where we got a crate of Bitburg for Katie and various non-beers for me).

Nurberg is great but no ring today as there was BMW racing on (which could be heard from miles away echoing round the valley).

About 15 minutes later we were in Sunparks and snoozing. Tonight we went to the swimming pool, which is a lot smaller than Vielsalm, but it was worth it to fill an evening and wake up a little before heading back to the flat for dinner and bad comedy on the TV.

Sunparks – Gunderath – Friday 9th October 2009

And off we go on another trip to Germany! I’ve been really looking forward to this one. We are staying in a Sunparks in Germany this time as opposed to the one in Belgium.
The park is in Gunderath which is in the Eifel region. This is on the western border with Luxemburg and is a volcanic area with loads of hills, valleys and craters, awesome!

It was a nice early start (but late for us at 0630hrs). Got to the chunnel in plenty of time and were across in no time. We did a quick trip to Auchan for fuel and munchies (most importantly Lion Bar cereal and milk!)

The drive itself was nice and quick, about 5 hours through France, Belgium and into Germany. We didn’t stop for lunch as we had loads of sweets and pastries to tide us over.

We arrived, got our key from the check in lady (who looked pretty tired and cold by the time we got there (but she had just been filling her happy German face with sweets!) and found our pad. We pretty much have a studio apartment with a small kitchen and bathroom. Just what we need for the two of us.

The buildings are older and look worse on the outside than the Vielsalm houses but on the inside they are a lot more cozy. In stead of being cold and tiled throughout, there is carpet in the entrance hall and laminate in the living room and it has some of the largest radiators I have seen in AGES! Huge bed too!

The centre of the site is a lot busier then Vielsalm with much more to spend money on. The site prices are a lot more than the local shops so we need to do a trip out tomorrow for supplies.
I am looking forward to going there and having the all you can eat German Buffet though, sounds ace!

We went for a walk round the site and down to the Stausee, a small dammed lake at the top end of Gunderath. I think we went there at just the right time, the sun was setting and the reflections on the lake of the sky and autumn colours were a photographers wet dream,… (except for doing a nude shot of Girls Aloud - lol). Don’t forget the crazy fish! I shall explain…

As we were walking around the lake getting some photos we heard a heavy splash and saw some big ripples spreading out, but none of the ducks looked like they’d moved, so we ignored it and carried on round. Then, as we were just passing over the dam we just turned to look at the water at the right time and saw a fish jump fully out of the water! Twice! Not sure what type of fishy he was, don’t think it was a carp as it was slimmer and quite silvery, perhaps a trout? I dunno, I’m not much of a fish person, but it was certainly big enough to feed a couple of people quite well. I think it was trying to catch the bugs on the surface. We waited for a while in case it did it again so we could get a photo, but it didn’t. Shortly after we met a man and his excellent dog. It was big and hairy.

Gunderath is a very small town that has a couple of restaurants supplying people that need to get out of the prison camp with normal German food at a reasonable price. Everything was below €10 and from the menu looked TASTY. Will definitely be going there for din dins soon.

On the way out we saw some gentlemanly graffiti saying “Gangsta” and some pretty little ponies. We thought the place would be excellent for our mate Mr J. He really wants a small holding and almost every home in the town has a paddock and access to a stream. It was brilliant, and really quiet as well.

We headed back to our flat and had a sit down with some tele before, at about 2000hrs, my eyes closed and didn’t open again until the following morning, lightweight.

It rained super hard during the night and woke me up once or twice, but it sounded very cool.