Germany, August 2003
As the weatherforcast for Scandinavea was not good I opted for Germany instead. Between Koblenz and Wiesbaden is a nice stretch of the Rhein river. Very scenic, lots of vinyards and terraces aplenty. Here's a typical view of the river Rhein. And of the historic figure of the Lorelei. The legendary nymph that caused vessels to sail into the rocks and sink as she distracted the skipper with her singing and her golden hair.
Don't ask me for the name but this is some sort of a castle in the middle of the river. Obviously. I stayed in the very touristic (and scenic) town of Rüdesheim. This view from the hills behind it gives as good impression of what it looks like.
I stayed in the old towncentre in the hotel 'zum grünen Kranz'. Nice place with not a bad restaurant and a winegarden. And with the good weather I happened upon you could sit there in shorts and shirt till midnight without getting chilly. The most famous alley in town is the Drosselgasse. Famous for the live music as well. Infamous I'd say. The music and singing could hardly be any worse. Oh no, John Denver is dead, so it can't get any worse than this. So steer clear!
15 miles away is the Kloster Eberhart. As I had heard that large parts of 'The name of the rose' (featuring Sean Connery) were recorded here I took the guided tour. If you remember the scenes where the monks were writing, yes that is the room on the right. Just out of sight at the back right is the door that -in the movie- led to the library. Curiously enough there aren't any medieval books left in the Kloster. Nor is there any wine stored in there, even though they exploit famous and very extensive vinyards. Very confusing.
The famous Nurbürgring is only about an hour away, so I thought I'd go and watch some proper racing. It is the only racetrack that I know where you can just pay and do a lap. As I was there by diesel car I only planned to watch. And what impeccable timing! This particular weekend it was 'Rad am Ring'. Some annual bicycle race. Just my luck. However, on the way back to Rüdesheim I ran into a classic motorbike rally. A timed event so I watched it from one of the stops where they had to get there cards timestamped. The bike that impressed me most was this 1939 Nimbus 750, what a sound! Some basic searching on the Internet told me that this was a danish (!) motorbike manufacturer. Lovely bike. Talking about lovely bikes, in September I'll be back in Germany for a long weekend on the Honda Hawk at the international meeting in Pegestorf.
