WEEK TWENTY ONE

Week Twenty One – how are we here already?! Only a few more weeks and we’ll be home!

We spent the first couple of days in Annweiler am Trifels at probably one of the best ‘free’ spots to date. To make it on the ‘best spot’ list, there needs to be good parking (obviously), a toilet and be within close enough proximity to walk or ride into town (we don’t ask for much…).

The weather was a bit hit and miss for the beginning of the week but we did get out and explore the town which was ADORABLE and everything I imagined an old German town would be like; from the half timbered houses to the little canal with water mill and of course a huge castle sitting on top the hill.

We walked through the forest to the castle, Burj Trifels, but the weather wasn’t great so the views were mostly covered in a heavy fog. The castle itself was probably one of the most unappealing to date but looks aren’t everything.

We stayed in Annweiler until Wednesday because Peg needed a service and the only day we could book was Wednesday (after going to three different mechanics).

Once we picked her up it was late afternoon so we moved on to a spot not far and ended up in Alzey. A simple carpark, no facilities, no other campers, no photos.

On Thursday morning, we packed up and continued north. We decided it was probably time we showered so refined our search and found Wohnmobilhafen Lahnstein, a small self serve campground on the Rhine. It cost 9.50€ for the night plus 1€ for a shower (that only lasted for a dodgy 3.5 minutes).

We had been avoiding major cities because the parking situations are almost always dicey and the littler towns had been fun to explore, but Lahnstein wasn’t far from Cologne (Köln) so we bit the bullet. We stayed for free in the swimming pool carpark at Bergisch Gladbach, a suburban town on the outskirts of Cologne.

To get into the city, we walked about 30 minutes to the station before hopping on one train to get to central. We purchased an all day ticket and it was about 16€ for the both of us.

The first thing you see as you exit the train station is Cologne Cathedral which google told us was the biggest church in Northern Europe and YUP, it was freakin’ massive! Super gothic and just plain mesmerising. Hot tip: turn the brightness up on your device to check out the pictures because they look really dark because they are really dark (big girl needs a clean).

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this yet or not, but summer is truly over so lucky the shopping district begins right near the cathedral because Jack needed a jacket, pronto. The streets felt like Hunter Street mall only 1848363 bigger and with a lot more people (and fantastic buskers). We quickly found Primark and sorted Jacks situation out before grabbing lunch.

Thinking we hadn’t quite seen all that Cologne had to offer, we headed around the other side of the cathedral, towards the Rhine. Along the river felt more like the ‘old town’ with rows of colourful townhouses and biergartens and cobblestoned alleys snaking off.

We left Cologne on Sunday and stopped at Kleve which is right near the Dutch border. We stayed in the zoo carpark for free and there was a toilet (but with limited opening hours) and town wasn’t too far away.

It was a blissfully cold afternoon so we went for a walk around the perimeter of the zoo and found a tree lined canal and park of sorts. So many people were out and about enjoying the fleeting sunshine. Another great, unexpected stop.

Until Week Twenty Two. Tchuss x