Day 22 Dusseldorf - Cologne - Birkweiler

We woke surprisingly at 6.30am Germany time, 5.30am England time after a good sleep. We got up and went for a walk through a lovely park that was a zoo in pre war times and with it being a gorgeous blue sky day. Rudy bought lots of bread buns- dense grain, cheeses and meats. These are the traditional breakfast- very fresh, yum and fill you up for the day.

We wandered back-all the sycamore trees lining the streets are just getting their leaves back which is pretty. Then the boys went to get the rental car while we tidied up. They came back with a series 3 BMW auto- which made it so much easier for driving on the right. Graeme is driving as Rudy and Annas german drivers licenses havent arrived in the post yet & Graeme is happy to drive. Nice car - only about 150 kms on the clock and all leather white seat inside plus a double sunroof so us ladies in the back could see heaps.

We set off through Dusseldorf and after a couple of hiccups we were out of the city and on the autobahn. We firstly drove to Cologne to see the massive cathedral that took 500 years to build- it is almost black with dirt or car soot on the outside and dim and foreboding inside. Was surprisingly free to go in, compared to almost all churches in England, although here you pay for toilets like in Greece and not in the UK.

Beautiful door knocker on the outside door of the catherdral.

Another door in Cologne Cathedral

Had a good wander round the cathedral – saw a big cross on the wall that is 950 years old. Then we drove for about 3 hours down to Birkweiler, only to find we had the correct name and street- but the wrong town haha! The BMW has a GPS but she was confused so we used our tomtom which found us our destination 20 mins south.

We arrived at this quaint little town with authentic style houses - almost have a chalet syle in the archetecture. Our hotel is centred around an outdoor courtyard- really rustic and pretty. A lot of people smoke here, it is quite different to the anti-smoking push back home, so its good there is choice in most places with outdoor seating.

Gates in the village street


We decided to walk down through the village to a winery which was filled with people sitting out I the sun having drinks, so must be very popular in this little region. Had a nice drink then back up to our B & B for more schnitzel for me and a cross between sausage and meatloaf with delicious potatoes for the others. But firstly they gave us complimentary white asparagus soup- so nice. It is sweet and buttery and almost nutty.

Have caught a cold bug I think, the lady behind me on the flight over was sneezing a lot, so think I might have been unlucky. Sore throat and a bit hot in the night but not too bad.