The Black Forest was the last place in this years itinerary. It is now when we feel the trip is pretty much ended.
We are now heading west with the plan of leaving Germany in a couple of days. Although if the weather gets better, we may stop at Boppard to do a via ferrata.
After an hours drive from Bretten, we decide to stop at Heidelberg, Germany’s oldest and most famous university town. I wouldn’t let you miss the chance of meeting with your revolutionary fellows to discuss how to overtake the opulent unjust Capitalist system, Gary jokes.
It is lunchtime, the wind and the rain are now stronger than ever. We park outside the town and have a bit of lunch, hoping the weather calms down.
It does. We have parked at a very convenient place, the tourist information office is only 10 minutes down the road. With the town map in hand and a list of places to see, we get on a bus to the town centre.
Just opposite the bus stop, a building catches our attention; all of it is made with glass, revealing unashamedly the interior of the building: pipes, staircases and lifts. It looks like a Richard Rogers’ building.
The bus leaves us in the Altstadt (Old town) next to the old University.
We head off to the Heiliggeistkirche (the church), only five minutes walk.
I have always been fond of red brick buildings. This material used to be used in old buildings in North Europe. The first time I saw this type of buildings was in London, in the renowned suburbs of Chelsea.
We pop in briefly to the church, we have not visited one for a while. We are quite impressed by the neatness, purity and immaculate whiteness of this one.
We pop in the next church. This one is poorly illuminated. The tainted glass on the windows block most of the light. Darkness and gloominess is a typical feature of traditional churches. Religious people may justify it because it creates intimacy and it brings you closer to god. I would also add that it creates intimidation and fear. Too much light may be avoided because it gives way to joy and liveliness, which may encourage people to interact more and, therefore, make them to forget they are in a sacred place.
This church is more popular than the previous one. I wonder what makes followers to choose one church over another, what makes them to get used to a particular one. Is it the cosiness of the place, the conformability of the benches, or is it, like in any other business, down to the priest’s personality. When I was a child my parents had their favourite church. They liked the priest; he was friendly and charming. But, more importantly, he used to give short and concise services. I didn’t understand that. As a christian, surely you would like to spend as long as possible in god’s house, wouldn’t you?
These art hotels are becoming quite popular and who would ever know it is a hotel! GDR
A few umbrellas start opening up once people feel a bit of drizzle. Is it ever going to stop raining in this country? I can’t wait to go back to France. That country is always bright and sunny.
Heidelberg’s is renowned for its baroque old town.
The Baroque houses have been painted with stronger colours, not with those insipid pastel colours typical of Salzburg. Strong colours make the town more lively and sparkling.
From Kornmarkt, the evocative half-ruined castle reveals itself. In the old days, we would have headed straight up there, to admire the views.
These days neither of us say anything. We continue to walk across the square.
The square contains a circular fountain and an abstract sculpture in the middle. The sculpture looks like one of Botero’s. I love this artist’s work. Some of his masterpieces have been placed just outside Madrid airport. I have also seen a few in the City of London.
We are still on time if we wanted to go up to the castle. We look at each other and head off. It looks like the decision is made. The enthusiasm of travelling and knowing new places seems to be going, as we gradually get closer to home. It looks like our brain is switching off preparing itself with coping with the return.
We have seen the town in an hour. We walk back along the river Neckar, which will be nicer than getting the bus.
German rivers are wide and carry lots of water, making most of them navigable.
This bridge arches don’t seem to be high enough to cope with this barge.
But the boat goes underneath with no difficulties.
Tonight we head off to Schwabenheim, a town between Heidelberg and Boppard. Schwabenheim is one and a half hours drive from here. We could drive a bit longer but we are getting quite tired of being inside Dora . If it is still sunny by the time we get there, we will go for a little walk around the town.
The aire has 10 mains and they are all taken except for one. We’ve been lucky. On the way in to town, we saw lots of people gathering in the Town Hall, so we go to find out what’s going on.
It is another of those festivals with live music, a couple of stands serving wine and beers and a fast food. This festival is a bit bigger than the one at Bretten; there is even a small funfair for the kids. I am starting to like these festivals. Everyone knows each other (except us two outsiders that is! GDR), children play freely on the streets, everything is so relaxed and cheerful.
We want to be part of it and what best way to do so than having a glass of German wine.
We go for red wine. It is actually quite nice. It has body despite its light colour. We take a shot to look for it when we stop next at the supermarket.
It is nice being outside Dora, it is nice to experience local culture, it is nice to do something different.
We enjoy our drinks in front of the live band. They may all be in their late fifties, early sixties. They don’t seem to mind not having a big audience, they are still enjoying themselves. They play mainly country music, and occasionally, British and American old songs. It is hard to tell whether they are singing in German or English, there is too much noise coming from the microphones. But the music sounds good.
We go back to Dora and finish off the routes up to today. All the maps are now ready to be uploaded on to the website.
SM
19/09/2015
For the first time in six days, it is not raining. In fact, it is even warm. We spend most of the morning uploading the map. This task takes quite a bit of time. Although we want to make the most of the sunny day, we wait until we finish the update, as we have good connection here and plenty of energy.
We leave after 14.00, our next destination is Boppard, where the German via ferrata is, a bit of activity at last.
Boppard is a small town south of Koblenz. It is also at the edge of the road that goes along the river Mosel, a beautiful valley famous for producing the finest German wines. That will be tomorrow. Today, we have another item on the agenda: a via ferrata.
But finding the route has taken longer than expected. I wasn’t clear on the directions and when we have finally found it, it was already too late. Very annoying! We will have to come back tomorrow.
The nearest aire to spend the night is across the river but the ferry doesn’t run on Sundays. To get to the other side, we need to drive up to Koblez, 30 kms away.
The nearest aire on this side of the river is in Lof, 15 kms away.
This road takes us to the Mosel valley. We don’t mind driving on this road again tomorrow. The landscape is beautiful around here.
We are enjoying the drive on countryside roads. We haven’t had many chances of driving on roads other than motorways or dual carriageways in Germany. This perfectly straight countryside road seems to be the equivalent of a white road in the UK.
The clouds move quickly but without leaving any rain behind. The sky appears moody with occasional bright patches. It could be a nice sunset.
This road is not much frequented, we have not come across a vehicle for a good 20 minutes. The landscape is very flat in this part of the country, very different from that of the Black Forest. Although we loved it, we welcome the change. We like changes, changes keep you alive.
Finally we get to the Mosel valley. The Mosel river looks very calm and carries plenty of water. Not surprising, the vines grow nice and healthy in this part of the country.
We cross the bridge towards Lof. Unfortunately, there is no space for us in the aire so we cross back towards Brodenbach, which is only at the other side of the river. There are a couple of tolerated car parks, so no electricity for us tonight. Although we don’t mind, we’ve done quite a bit of IT recently. However, we do need water. The tank is fairly empty, we may just have about enough for cooking and doing the washing up.
We go out for a walk around the village looking for a tap. Interestingly, when we get to the docks we find out there are mains for the boats. Are you thinking what I am thinking? I ask Gary. Dora’s plug will fit here.
The meter accepts one euro coins for 2kw. We are not sure how long that will last but it is only one euro.
Look says Gary pointing towards the dock. There is also a tap. It has no handle but we will be able to open it with his pliers.
So, we park Dora at the side of the road, fill her tank and plug her to the main.
But as soon as she is plugged in the LED showing she is connected to 240v lights up. I stop Gary putting the money in the meter.
We love Germany.
SM
20/09/2015
