Spring 2019

Brodenbach, Germany 4 May 2019

Woke up to rain and some snow. It was 4°C outside so no chance of snow drifts! Tintin drove to Cochem, ‘the’ tourist town where all the river boats dock and the coaches ship them in. Had a look around for an hour and moved on to Brodenbach. Really surprised to find a free space for the night as t

04.05.19 - Last night, after eating the rest of the chili, made another batch of granola, watched some more Cuckoo, then listened to the rain - and had a fairly quiet nights sleep in the carpark!

I shouldn’t doubt XCWeather, they were right - it did snow. Well, white fluffy stuff fell out of the sky, but as it was 3°or 4°, didn’t have a chance of sticking - thank goodness!

Tintin drove for about 20 minutes, and parked up opposite Beilstein, a place known for its castle. The troops of King Louis the 14th ransacked Metternich Castle and burned it to the ground in 1689. It has remained in ruins ever since.

I had really hoped to say nice things about German people, and have been keeping an open mind. But! When in a long queue at Lidl the other day, another till opened, and the woman behind myself and a few others in front just jumped to the front. Us Brits just wouldn’t do that! Also, the drivers seem pretty arrogant - overtake in stupid places, and tailgate. I wasn’t going to say anything, but the woman in the Backeri today was just so rude and offhand - she was the straw that broke the camel’s back as it were! I’d asked if they sell bread, a definite no - cakes only - and just a generally unfriendly greeting, considering her job is selling to customers. I did buy two apple strudel - but maybe I should have voted with my feet and walked out! In general, as a nation they seem ‘loud’ people - and seem to have far more smokers! So I’m on the lookout for friendly Germans to change my opinions...

Tintin then drove another 30 minutes or so onto Cochem, which sits almost half way between Trier and Koblenz on the banks of the Mosel. We didn’t visit the castle, which was first built in 1130, King Konrad 3rd called it his royal castle. The castle was used to rule the traffic on the River Mosel (and collect taxes to pass Cochem). The castle was overrun and destroyed by French troops in 1688. 180 years it sat in ruins, until a businessman from Berlin, bought Cochem Castle in 1868. He fixed it up and redecorated it in the Gothic Revival Style. Nowadays, it is owned by the town of Cochem. However, due to the erratic weather, and the fact we’d paid for one hour to park, went back to Dave for lunch.

Lidl have a DIY bread slicer which we tried the other day, and we’re still eating the multi seeded bread that’s so dense it must be good for us!

Along the drive, we kept seeing signs which we couldn’t really understand, but got the gist we could only drive to Brodenbach - which was fine as we were going there to a Park4night place. The reason the road is closed, is today and tomorrow they have the ADAC Motorbootrennen going on. Basically people racing in little boats on the Mosel - not quite like the powerboat racing held in Guernsey! Tintin says the boats are hydroplanes. Walked along and spoke with a UK racer who explained they’d just done time trials, races start this afternoon with four different classes, with top speeds 120mph!

Weather looking very iffy, so hot footed it back to Dave just as the heavens opened again. Ate the apple strudels - lots of lovely apple and raisins, but pastry was quite heavy! Sort of worth getting fatter for!

Watched some races later on, me from the comfort of Dave as the buoy for turning around was close.