On the Road Again!

Given the problems with cruising at the start of the pandemic, I expect a lot of people have decided to take a back seat and let it pass for a while. I have seen a few programmes on the TV where river cruising has been the main subject.  Either the Rhine or the Danube.  Both look attractive if not a little pricey. As with most things it is cheaper to go outside the school holidays.  As I work in Education I have a contract that means I have school holidays off. That is really good as I finish in late July and go back in early September after a long summer.  Of course, I get paid less than I used to when I was on a 52-week contract with paid leave. Claire is already retired and able to go at any time.  I retire on 23rd December 2021.  Unless the Government changes it again I am a wage slave a little longer! So it makes sense to look at cruises and holidays in 2022 when it will be cheaper outside the tie of the school holiday system! Where to go? I like the i...

It's a bit early to start wishing everyone a " Froehliche Weihnachten", but it is essential to the planning that is currently taking place. Please do not snow until after Christmas. That's all I ask. Claire has always wanted to go to a proper Christmas Market. We have them in the UK but maybe a nice German square would be better than a faceless shopping arcade in London? We'll see. I am looking at the one on the Rhine at Rüdesheim. I have made a pencil booking on a hotel on the river front with booking.com and that has the usual cancellation policy. Rüdesheim Booked the C arathotel Traube Rüdesheim in the end but still with the cancellation option.

I had to get up in the night to check on the bike as it was parked on dirt... As it rained heavily for a few hours. We should be used to this by now.  In the end it was pitch dark and I had two disc locks to get off, then I could see f.a. and took it down outside the main entrance. When I came to shift it later in daylight, I found I was only about 2ft from nice firm tarmac! Bugger! Today is boat trip day, 1020 from St Goar. Let's see how it turns out.

Well. As is now the norm we set off in waterproofs. Waterproof over trousers and Hood Kevlar lined jeans do not make for happy motoring pleasure. Betty Swollocks within minutes. At least on the positive side Doris has got over last week's problem of losing the sats every ten minutes. And so she led up from Switzerland into Germany. Swiss petrol was reputed to be cheap, but the fill up I did just before the border was 118 cents a litre. So about 55p a litre. No wonder there are so many American cars about with Swiss plates. Once in Germany we hit the motorways. Getting to St Goar was more important than scenic touring! One small detour was forced on us when I chose the wrong Rüdesheim from the two options that Doris had in her city finder. I had a 50-50 chance and chose wrong. In mitigation I have to say that both were about the same miles from where I created the via point AND are the only two in the entire Atlantic base maps and 16 miles apart! As a result we added 20 miles...