Bye bye Germany

For our last night, we stayed in a delightful little hotel on the banks of the Rhine at St Goar. We spent the afternoon cruising the ‘Romantic Rhine’: up river past the Lorely statue, past numerous castles, little towns, medieval toll collecting houses, and vineyards planted on ridiculously steep slopes. And with a constant stream of traffic on the river, heavily laden container ships going down river, ferries crossing the river, and in the valley, with trainlines and roads on either side. We spent an hour wandering around Bacharach before getting the paddlewheeler back.











So we are back in England now, or at least I am. Adam has already gone back for the final.

When Australia were still in it, the stadium may have been a haze of smoke, but no one was smoking around us. Once Australia got knocked out, and the games were all European, the smoke and haze was everywhere. This is despite the big no smoking announcements. We also had more of a taste of German ‘efficiency’ as time went on. Example: ordering food on the train (also the smoking carriage, cough splutter), several minutes to convey to the person what we want until they come out to view the menu, pay for food, after ten minutes let them know we are still there, ‘just a minute’, five minutes later they let us know they are out of what we ordered…

It was a great holiday, but it is nice to be home with the kittens (not that the England is so great compared to Germany, they both have their issues). The weeds were waist high, and the pumpkin vine has grown from a seedling to several metres long with 2 pumpkins growing, and several more flowers. I have spent the weekend easing myself back into smaller breakfasts – from four course buffets to muesli bar on the train in just 4 days.