Four weeks since the last post, and we’ve had a very enjoyable trip down the Rhine valley from Basel in Switzerland, through French Alsace, German Rhineland, and on to the Netherlands.  Along the way – castles, rivers, vineyards, medieval towns and villages, stunning scenery, great food and wine, and beautiful summer weather.  What more could we ask for? Our plan was to broadly follow the River Rhine from its source in Lake Constance to the mouth at Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

Basel is the highest point where it is still navigable going upstream.  Not far up from Basel there are the Rhine Falls which effectively stop all commercial traffic at that point.  So we started at Basel after a short drive from Thun.  Mike knows Basel reasonably well, regularly visiting one of his Datapoint call-centre projects here at SwissBank in the 90s, so it was nice to revisit as a tourist instead of on business. The city straddles the Rhine with bridges and ferries crossing at various points.  The Rathuis (townhall) has always been impressive, painted a deep red, and flags all over the town promoting a military tattoo also made a nice display.

Basel – Munster & Mittlere Bridge – River Rhine

Basel – Rathuis (Town Hall)

Basel – tram queues

Trams everywhere too, there seem to be more trams than people at times, with queues of them in the streets.  It was a hot Saturday when we were in the town and many people were cooling off by jumping in the river, then floating downstream (often with a bag containing their clothes) and climbing out further down.  Not without risk as the river is quite fast flowing, but not as fast as we saw in Bern last year. Our next stop was Freiburg in Germany.  One of the features of the red stone cathedral is the grotesque gargolyles decorating the outside, some of them rather rude, especially when spouting rainwater.

Freiburg market in Munster Platz

Freiburg market – if you’ve lost your marbles then they are probably here!

Freiburg Munster gargolyles

Freiburg – Guildhall & Munster

We also caught up with friends in Freiburg that we met in Basel – John & Wendy from Manchester.  Lovely people we shared meals, beer and wine with on many occasions over nearly a week in their company. Over the river and back in to France then to Colmar in Alsace, a truly picturesque medieval town, with most buildings in the old town dating from the 13th and 14th centuries.

Colmar – one of many medieval streets and squares

Colmar – Pfister House (1537)

Colmar – Fisherman’s Wharf

Colmar is also famous for the ornate shop and business signs hanging in the streets, and Mike has added many photos of these to his collection. One treat we really enjoyed was a local version of Rosti for lunch, with local pilsner to wash it down.  Rosti is a dish of shredded potatoes with a choice of other ingredients, cooked like an omelette then put under a grill to finish – Mike’s portion here includes mushrooms, cream cheese, ham and eggs, with a Gruyere cheese topping. (No calories visible!)

Alsace Rosti

Still in France we headed north along the Alsace wine trail, stopping at a few villages along the way to see the sights.  The major wines of Alsace of course are Riesling and Gewürztraminer, however many of them from this region are too sweet (or floral in the case of Gewurz) for our tastes, but we sampled a few to make sure anyway.  Lovely scenery along the route, and one favourite village we found was Chatenois, with a most unusual four-cornered church tower (and beautifully decorated little church), plus an old chateau wall gate and tower with a large storks nest on top.  Storks are endemic in this region, but it was unusual to see one nesting at this time.

Alsace wine route – vines, villages, hills & castles

Chatenois, Alsace

Chatenois, Alsace – old chateau wall gate/tower

Chatenois, Alsace – stork in residence

Chatenois, Alsace – d’Hobby enjoying a rest

And so on to Strasbourg, still in France, and a major crossroads of Europe, and the seat of the European Union Parliament.  This was our 3^rd visit to Strasbourg over the years, and we enjoyed it just as much as previously, although it was very crowded with Saturday shoppers out for the summer sales.

Strasbourg on a busy Saturday

Strasbourg – Maison de Tanneurs, Petite France

Strasbourg – Place de la Cathedral

We had dinner in the evening beside the river in the old town and afterwards took a twilight tour cruise around the canals, which also took in the EU centre to the north of the old town.  As we made our way back to the tram stop after the riverboat we passed by the cathedral square which was the scene of a light and music show – the finale being “Bolero”, with magnificent lighting effects on the cathedral façade.  The only drawback was we got caught in the crush of everyone leaving and only just made it to the last tram and bus home.

Au Pont St Martin – restaurant, Strasbourg

Strasbourg twilight cruise – Les Ponts Couverts

Strasbourg Cathedral – ‘Bolero’ finale

Back across the river then to Baden Baden, in Germany.  Just as well there are no borders in the EU now otherwise we would have been going through border controls every couple of days.  Baden Baden is a famous spa town – very expensive hotels and houses, with exclusive brand shopping, and café prices to go with it.  We stopped for lunch only as there are no campsites nearby, and we had to park outside the town and bike in anyway. Then on to Heidelberg, which is on a tributary of the Rhine – the Neckar, and our camp-site was 10km further upstream from Heidelberg at Neckargemünd.  Our pitch on the site was right beside the river, and we could sit and watch the big barges chug past, usually full going upstream, and mainly empty going down again.  We figured they were carrying cargo to the industrial areas around Stuttgart.  We were also befriended by a gaggle of Chinese geese and a pair of swans who lived on the riverbank, and who took a great interest in us at mealtimes, but studiously ignored us at other times.

Neckargemund campsite by the River Neckar

Neckargemund – friendly Chinese geese

Neckargemund – Chinese geese mealtime

We took a trip downriver by boat to Heidelberg town, and walked around the old streets until forced under cover by a thunderstorm at midday.  The town is dominated by the ruins of a huge Schloss (castle) and very impressive town gates on the old bridges across the river.

River transport to Heidelberg

d’Hobby at Neckargemund campsite

Heidelberg old town

Heidelberg – Schloss (ruins) and old town gate/bridge

Heidelberg – Schloss (ruins) & Kornmarkt

After Heidelberg we cut across country to get around the big industrial areas of Mainz and Frankfurt, and back to the Rhine at Bingen and across on the car ferry to get to Rudesheim.  Our campsite was on the riverside, just a short bike ride upstream of Rudesheim, which is a bit of a tourist mecca, and we remembered visiting there some years ago on a day trip on the river from Koblenz.  The main attraction is the Drosselgasse – a narrow street full of cafes, taverns, hotels and cheap tacky souvenir shops – but still fun to explore.

Drosselgasse tourist

This is the heart of German Riesling wine growing country, and all the hillsides are covered in either vineyards or forest.  We took a cable car ride up the hill behind Rudesheim to the ‘Germania’ monument (commemorates the unification of the German states in the 1800’s), which afforded us magnificent views across the vineyards, river and towns on either side.  On a hot day a 40 minute walk through cool woods on the top of the hill then brought us to a chair-lift down to the village of Assmanhausen, where we had lunch, then a boat ride back up the river to Rudesheim, via Bingen again.  A really nice day out.

Rüdesheim am Rhein from the cable car

Rüdesheim – Germania monument

Chairlift down to Assmanhausen – Berg Rheinstein castle top right

Germania monument & Rüdesheim vineyards from the Rhein

Rüdesheim tourist souvenir

The next day we crossed the river again by ferry to Bingen, and drove north to Koblenz, along the road which runs right beside the Rhine for most of the way, passing through quaint towns and villages such as Bacharach and St Goar, plus the old castles and ruins that abound in this area, which makes it so popular on picture postcards.

The Rhein at St Goar with Berg Kat on the hill. The smaller Berg Mouse is on the opposite bank.

A three night stop in Koblenz allowed us time to explore the town and also to take a day off and do nothing much at all, except to give d’Hobby and the bikes a bit of a spruce up.  We had parked under a tree for shade at the Strasbourg campsite, and got a coating of sticky residue all over the roof as a result, which needed a good scrub.  (Jan is getting quite expert at clambering on the roof and acting like a scrubber!).

Koblenz, with Deutsches Eck in the foreground centre, our campsite on the right (green field)

Koblenz & Moselle from our campsite, July 27

Koblenz – Deutches Eck & Kaiser Wilhelm I memorial, with Ehrenbreitsen Fortress in the background

Our Koblenz campsite was right beside the river again, and just a small ferry ride across from the city and the Kaiser Wilhem I monument.   Koblenz is a pretty city of parks, fountains and statues, and we had fun searching out the best known examples as we wandered around the streets.

Koblenz Marktplatz – Jan & new friends

Koblenz – two old codgers together

Koblenz – Noah’s Ark fountain

Koblenz – Schangelbrunnen

Koblenz – Historiensaule (History column)

Then it was on to Köln (Cologne), which was to be our last stop in Germany.  The most famous landmark in the city of course is the cathedral, and it is really immense – the largest in Germany.  Not only that, it was the busiest church we have ever visited, just crowded with tourists, so we didn’t stay too long, preferring less crowded venues.

Cologne (Koln) – St Peter’s Cathedral

Cologne (Koln) – St Peter’s Cathedral

Cologne (Koln) – St Peter’s Cathedral

We used the free WiFi to check emails at a café while we had morning coffee as the camp-site had no Internet access, then did our usual wander around taking in the sights.

emails via WiFi & Kindle – the tongue obviously improves reception

5 seat kiddie kart in Koln

Later in the afternoon it started raining and we got quite wet heading home on the tram, and having a 10 minute walk across the big river bridge to the camp-site.  A hot shower soon put that right followed by dinner in the restaurant on site – schnitzel cordon bleu with all the trimmings.

Koln – Marktplatz by old town

Koln old town, buildings dating from 1235

Koln – fountains and kids play area near Cathedral, Jan meditates in the background

We said goodbye to Germany the next day as we headed north, still alongside the Rhine, to Arnhem in the Netherlands – and that’s another story. To be continued…