Day 12 - Creglingen to Düren

The YHA at Creglingen was relatively cheap for an en-suite twin room. Breakfast was the usual German youth hostel fare; rolls, cheese, ham and salami plus cereal and coffee. The coffee was some of the best all trip and I gorged three cups.

The plan was to spend all day to meander to the Etap at Düren. And we did. The first part was along a bit more of the Romantische Strasse and then across the 'green' routes on the Michelin map towards the Rhein. First stop was Rüdesheim am Rhein. We have been here before, but on a river boat trip not by road. We had lunch. Here I learned that rindwurst is beef. Once again we had sausage and for the first time (and last!) chips.

A walk round the tourist heart wasn't complete without another Käthe Wohlfahrt visit. In Rothenburg our beer was served in lidless steins and it kept it cooler longer, so I was on the lookout for one. In the end it was the afore mentioned shop that had them, and more surprisingly they were cheaper than any I had seen. Photos to follow.

From Rüdesheim I pulled the "I'm a foreigner" trick and exited the car park via the admittedly wide entrance to avoid a one way street going the wring way...

We made our way up the east bank of the river. Claire snapping away with the little Sony at the castles and stuff moving on the river. The Lorelei might have escaped as she was a bit far away and there is purposely no parking on that stretch!!

We stopped further up for a coffee at a riverside imbiß. A weak coffee but a chance to watch the boats go past.

Then the final leg up to Koblenz and the motorway to Düren.

As expected the Etap was no great shakes. It seems that no smoking is alien to the master race. Maybe we should have saved ourselves in WW2 and they would have all smoked themselves to death?

The bathroom stank heavy of cigarettes and lavender on the bedding took the smell away temporarily. Dinner was a Chinese buffet in Düren itself. The place was riddled with dead ends and road works that made it almost impossible to get out once you had mistakenly entered the centre.

The buffet was excellent and made up for the hassles getting there.