more corners, castles and kilometres
by Rachael
Rasthof outside Koblenz, Germany
Would there be as many today?
First corner….a castle.
Second corner…..another castle.
Third corner….surely not, but yes, yet another castle.
Fourth corner…..yep, you guessed it.
I think it was about the seventh or eighth corner that there was merely a stone-faced tunnel through the hill, the outside made like a castle, complete with parapets.
And very very occasionally, there was a church in place of a castle.
Other than that, it was Just Like Yesterday Afternoon.
We were more successful at pulling over to hop out of vans and snap pics too:
Not so successful at actually getting TO a castle to look around, and before we knew it, we were in Koblenz. The castle stretch was over. Not yet being even lunchtime and with another day up our sleeves, we backtracked to Koblenz’s castle. As usual, backtrack involved detour and turning around on narrow roads, and when we got there the castle was closed. You would not believe how many roads and castles are under reconstruction in Germany.
We still walked up the hill and wandered where we could gain access to, and found an old stone church with graveyard.
And the castle too!
The afternoon found us doing a rerun somewhat reminiscent of Heidelberg. Agitation levels increased accordingly! But instead of getting stuck going in circles we managed to discover an industrial estate, which seemed a not-so-bad place to park. Who woulda thunk we’d be looking for journals and external hard drives in Koblenz? But the warehouses were right there and so we did.
Do you want to know that we then headed for our Stellplatz, only to discover it didn’t have the advertised facilities and instead of being free now attracted a pretty 7.50euro fee? Nah, I didn’t think so, not exactly riveting writing is it? Nor’s the next bit. We drove on and found a free Rasthof, where we threw together a delicious macaroni cheese with lots of yellow cheese, white goat’s cheese, sour cream and cabanossi. The littlest three kids made a fantastic salad to go with it and we sat between the autobahn and a wheat field with the sun warming us up for the first time today (it was a particularly nippy eleven degrees this morning – and never really increased much all day, actually – what’s with that? It’s supposed to be summer!!!!) A police car pulled up, inspected our dinner and drove off. We will go to bed tonight wondering if they will return and tell us to move on – we’re not really sure if we are *supposed* to overnight in these spots!
Time on the road: 6 hours 45 minutes (lotsa castle stops)
Distance covered: 95 kms
Tags: children, food, history, postcard: Germany, postcard: Rhein Road Trip, recreation, weather
rayres
Koblenz Germany, My best friend in college was a Koblenz. I wonder if she’s ever been… Thanks for taking me away from my work. Now back to the grind.