Tuesday
October 11, 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 cities before so I am as curious about them as I was about
seeing Munich, Germany earlier today.
As on Monday, we drove
for a couple of hours and then stopped for a quick bathroom break. We were on our way 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 operation wanting, no doubt, to determine whether Vincenzo had
obeyed the rules set out for 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, the bus’s
and the driver’s activity log. They had
the right, apparently, to ask whatever they needed to ask and to examine the
bus’s computer readouts. Why this took
forty minutes is beyond me. Anyway, at
last they let us go and we drove away again.
Rosie told us that this
incident would not take away from our free time in Rothenburg, which she told
us was a fabulous place that we would enjoy spending time in. She was right except that I didn’t intend to
spend money. However, I did buy 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 different reasons. I also stopped for lunch at a tiny café that
looked more like a bakery than a cafe. I
had half a small pizza and tea and a piece of apfelstrudel, which I’d been
dying to try. I knew I’d like the
dessert though and I did.
After this incident, we
drove again for a while until Rosie told me 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 use), you press this 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 funny at the
same time. I can’t wait to tell my son,
my 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’s name that we would stay at
tonight is called NH Hotels – a weird name for a hotel chain if you ask me, but
it’s a nice hotel, which we did not reach until 6:00 pm. Dinner was at the hotel. It was a lovely meal which we ate together at
7:00 pm.
Tomorrow, 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
our 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. Rather, I could do
my laundry if I get the chance and a laundry service or facility is available
at our hotel. You wouldn’t believe how
much dirty laundry I have to do.
copyright 2016 - Anne Shier
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