Monday 7th & Tuesday 8th April, 2014
We finally hit the road Monday morning, eager to get on our journey and see the sights. We had an easy trip on the Dutch motorways and then into Germany, skirting the city of Koln (Cologne) to our stopover for the night. The camper site situated on the banks of the Rhine, was busy with lots of motorhomes but we found an ideal spot on the edge with river views out our front window. After paying our fee, we had a late lunch and then rode the bikes along the river pathways into the centre of the city. Koln Cathedral dominates the city skyline and it didn’t take us long to get our bearings and find our way to the centre of town. Parking our bikes and chaining them to a post we made our way to the entrance of the massive church. Inside it was relatively quiet, early in the season there wasn’t the hordes of tourists we have encountered before. It was pleasant to wander through the building and take our time examining the statues, mosaics, stained glass windows and religious artifacts unencumbered by other groups of people having a look.
After having an eyeful of the wonders of religious icons etc, we left to have a look around and get a cup of coffee. Remembering from a previous trip a wonderful bakery close by we decided it was a good choice to sit at a table in the mall and order 3 coffees and 2 berlin donuts (2 for 1 price) to share. This was the perfect spot to sit and people watch and we enjoyed watching the passing parade of locals and visitors alike. After sitting for quite a while we returned to our bikes and rode around through some of the older part of the town. Unfortunately there is not much left of old Koln, most of it being bombed heavily during WW2, and apart from the Cathedral there wasn’t much left of the old medieval city. It was getting late now and the air was turning chilly so it was back onto the bike path along the river to the Bunyip (our home away from home).
We had a cosy nights rest and although we had talked about returning to climb up the cathedral for a look at the view, we had a change of mind and decided to hit the road and get to our next planned stop; Koblenz. We travelled on the busy motorway with all the trucks and fast German cars whizzing by, pootling along at our pace, watching the changing scenery of the large town, small villages and German countryside. Arriving in Koblenz we had an unplanned scenic trip through town before finding our planned camperstop/carpark for the night. For those familiar with Tom Tom navigation and trying to negotiate unfamiliar towns, there can be times when the wrong decision made, can take you down some interesting detours.
Parking up in a large mixed carpark, we were informed of the closeness of the Aldi supermarket and decided to restock. That done it was time to walk the short distance into the main town. On the way we discovered another supermarket and checked out the liquor prices and made a mental note to stop by on the way back. Walking along the main road at first we found a Lidl and checked that out. Supermarket fix done we found the river path into town. We soon came to an old wall and walked through into town. We wandered the streets, admired the buildings and statues and stopped to enjoy a coffee and cake (1 piece between 3) before walking back to our motorhome via the supermarket and settled in for the night watching our first episode of Breaking Bad.
