Tuesday
October 11 and Wednesday October 12, 2016:
Today (Tuesday), we
have to wake up early again (for me, 5:45 am), get our baggage out the door at
6:45 am, have breakfast at 6:45 am, and leave for Rothenburg and Rhineland,
Germany at 7:45 am. I haven’t been to
either of these places before so I am as curious about them as I was about
seeing Munich, Germany earlier.
As on Monday, we drove
for a couple of hours and then stopped for a quick bathroom break. We were on our way again to Rothenburg,
Germany when a police car indicated to our driver, Vincenzo, to pull over. The police wanted to examine the log record
of the bus’s operation, wanting no doubt, to determine whether Vincenzo had
obeyed the rules set out for all bus and truck drivers, especially those doing
long distance hauls. Well, to everyone’s
surprise, we were kept there by the police for about forty minutes while they
asked Rosie and Vincenzo all kinds of questions about us, the passengers, and the
bus’s and the driver’s activity log.
They have the right, apparently, to ask whatever they need to ask and to
examine the bus’s computer readouts. The
readouts are supposed to indicate that Vincenzo (and the other relief drivers)
took their rest stops when required and for the specified time period. Why this whole examination by the police took
forty minutes is beyond me. Anyway, at
last they let us go finally, and we drove away again.
Rosie told us that this
incident would not take anything away from our free time in Rothenburg, which
she told us was a fabulous place that we would enjoy immensely spending time
and/or money in. She was right except
that I didn’t intend to spend a lot of money there. However, I did end up buying some postcards
(no surprise there) and then, I also bought two winter hats – one for almost
sixteen Euros and one for only five Euros.
I liked them both for totally different reasons and they were practical
purchases for myself. I also stopped for
lunch at a tiny café that looked more like a bakery than a cafe. I had half a small pizza, a cup of tea, and a
piece of apfelstrudel, which I’d been dying to try. I knew I’d like the dessert and I did.
After this incident, we
drove again for a while until Rosie told us we were stopping again for a
bathroom break. Only this was no
ordinary bathroom break. The toilets
were awesome! What I mean is – if there
is such a thing as “new toilet technology”, the Germans are excelling at
it! After you’ve used the toilet (which
costs 20 Euro-cents to get in to use), you press this small, flat “button” over
the toilet on the wall, and some water dribbles into the bowl and then, the
toilet seat starts rotating around and around!
Then, just as you think it’s finished doing whatever it’s supposed to be
doing, you discover that, with a wave of your hand over a silver plate
positioned over the toilet on the wall, the flushing process starts! It’s really amazing to watch and very funny
at the same time. I can’t wait to tell
my son, my other family members, and my friends about it. I’m sure I don’t understand how this
technology works and why, but it’s very amusing to watch it at work!
After this second
bathroom break, we were now bound for our final destination of the day –
Rhineland, Germany in a little town called Bingen. The hotel chain’s name that we would stay at
tonight is called NH Hotels (Bingen) – a weird name for a hotel chain if you
ask me, but it’s a nice hotel, which we did not reach until almost 6:00
pm. Dinner was to be at the hotel. It was a lovely meal which we ate together at
7:00 pm, then retired for the night.
Tomorrow (Wednesday),
we get to “sleep in” till 7:30 am! The
baggage will have to be put out the door at 8:00 am, and we will have breakfast
at 8:00 am. At 9:00 am, we will then
depart for a Rhine River cruise! The
hotel faces the Rhine River and the view is absolutely outstanding. I’ll bet it looks even better in the morning
light! After the cruise is over, we will
then continue on our journey towards Amsterdam, Netherlands. There is a walking tour excursion scheduled
for tomorrow night through Old Amsterdam’s Red Light District, but I did not
sign up for this one. Most of the tour
group will prepare to go to the airport in Amsterdam and return home on Friday
October 14th. However, Maree,
Kitty, and Jeremiah are staying an additional night and won’t be returning home
to Australia until Saturday, which means they won’t actually arrive home until
Sunday due to the length of the flight (twenty-two hours) and the significant
time difference (ten hours). I, myself,
have to prepare to leave Friday morning for the Eurostar train station in
Brussels, Belgium. Globus will look
after getting us and our baggage there on time for the train.
I could do my laundry in
Amsterdam if I get the chance and if a laundry service or facility is available at
our hotel. You wouldn’t believe how much
dirty laundry I have to do, but I am so exhausted – most of us are – that I’m
not sure what I have the energy to do anymore at this point.
copyright - 2016 - Anne Shier
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