Stuttgart to The Rhine

Stuttgart

Popped into the office in Stuttgart to pick up the lonely planet for Germany, which we had to get sent (thank you Ant!) since this was one of those important items we knew we needed but didn’t quite get around to buying before leaving the UK; winging it for a few days is fine but throughout Germany would have been a little tricky! Since Stuttgart has fairly decent shopping it also gave Andrew a chance to birthday present buy…


Heidelberg

Its still raining, actually chucking it down as we arrive in Heidelberg. Our camp is a little way out of the town but in a little village that turns out to have a decent boozer with great grub, so we were happy. The next day we head into the town and chance upon a local little festival, men dressed in quirky costume, a classical band which later lapsed into the ABBA repertoire (no complaints from me, cant beat a bit of ABBA!), sausage and beer – perfect!

The rest of the town was lovely, quant streets, great bars and plenty of them, lovely old buildings and far too many steps up to the ruins of a lovely old castle.

The day before my birthday and we were deliberating whether to have a good meal out tonight (it being Saturday) or tomorrow (actual birthday). We decide on tonight and head back to camp to change etc. As with all the best plans, we get back, have a kip, cant be arsed and end up eating a dodgy kebab (fondly termed Kebaps out here) which is all we can find open locally. Tomorrow it is then...

St Goar – The Rhine

After a special birthday breakfast cooked by my delightful fella we move on. I am not sure how he managed it, but after days of rain it seems Andrew managed to buy me the sun for my birthday; a girl can’t ask for more than that!

We are now heading further North via the Rhine. We decide to head for St Goar, which is in a section known as the Romantic Rhine. It’s a sweet little town and today it turns out they have closed the whole 120KM section of the Romantic Rhine to allow cyclers and roller bladers the freedom of the road, and they are out in force.

There is an old castle, very traditionally restored as a hotel and restaurant so we head there for my birthday dinner.

It’s posh but not pretentious, has fantastic views over the Rhine and the food was excellent. Far from being a lover of German wine, with only terrible teenage memories of Leibframilch or similar, decide we should try local since we are in the region of the Reisling grape after all. Opting for a medium dry from the local town of Bacharac, we are rewarded with the best bottle of white tasted in a long long time. Sadly we will never have the chance to taste such wine back in England, since around here most of the wineries are very small and don’t export; the only ones which do are the large producers who combine several grapes together to make mass, hence the vinegar we receive at home (of course not meaning to offend any fans of German wine!)

A beautiful birthday, thank you honey.