Every Picture Tells a Story #11 - Down on the Rhine, August 1986.

I was sent into the attic to extract the Christmas tree and I found a box with some old photo albums. These had probably been there untouched since we moved in, 16 years ago. There were lots of photographs of biking trips we had done years back and these certainly brought back some memories. 

This photo is of me on my Suzuki GSX750 in August 1986. Of note is the blue inflatable cushion on the pillion that Gwen brought to make things more comfortable for her. Maybe too comfortable. After one large German lunch of (I guess) sausage, sauerkraut and beer we were back on the road when I was hit of the back of my helmet. Gwen had fallen asleep and headbutted me!  

Also I'm wearing a satchel. This was to carry my camera since, from experience, they fall apart if carried in a pannier.

(picture from Wikipedia) On the back of the photograph it only says "The Rhine" but I tried to find out where this is exactly. I hoped that Google Street View would help in this but, due to privacy laws, this is not available for Germany.

I then typed "church with twin steeples on the Rhine" into Google and it came up with Church of St. Severus in the town of Boppard. From my notebook I still have I found that this was on the 4th day of the tour en route from Koblenz to Würzburg. Boppard is a very pleasant town in a winegrowing region and attracts many tourists (like us)

This tour followed a familiar route for us. We took the ferry from Hull to Rotterdam then south through Germany to the Alps, into Austria, then back via Lake Constance, Heidelberg, then into France to get the ferry from Calais to Dover.

I recall a funny incident at our destination that day in Würzburg. The campsite was some way out of town. We got the bus in for some food and drink and a taxi back. I didn't know the name of the campsite so I told the driver to go to the campsite beside the river. This he did but it was a different site. When we explained this he switched off the meter and took us to the right one. When it came to paying the fare there was a slight argument because I thought he was trying to cheat us. Turns out it was my fault for thinking he wanted fünfzig (fifty) DM when he was asking for fünfzehn (fifteen) DM (about £4)

At the German/Austrian border

 

I started off this ramble with a Christmas tree so here it is and this seems a good time to wish all you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.