You know how you lie awake in bed before your drift off to sleep and plan out your next day. We had done just that but our plans went well awry.
Things started well with a most luxurious breakfast befitting of any five star hotel. It was then onto our bikes to head to the bike shop where Di’s e-bike was hired from and to return it. Fraser also took his bike as he needed help to remove the pedals and rotate the handle bars in preparation for putting it into the bike box. Horst followed us in the car so that we could transport the bike back to the house.
Di and Elfi have always had this tradition of doing a jigsaw puzzle each time we meet up and in this instance it was a 1000 piece comic design one. We started the puzzle before we left on our bike trip and left it at the house, completing it today. Unbeknown to us, Horst had squirrelled away two pieces of it which saw us looking under the couches and behind the the cushions. He received a thumping from the two of us once we discovered what we had done.
Meanwhile, Fraser was in the garage loading up the bike box with his 🚲 plus a couple of panniers and other bike paraphernalia. He was right chuffed with himself and it turned into quite the jigsaw for him. So the latest update on the bike is that it should be picked up by DHL tomorrow and delivered to the apartment we are staying in in Paris around the 29th to 31st July, all going well. DHL wanted a French phone number for delivery and we were concerned as this would involve having to purchase a French SIM on our arrival into Paris. Lateral thinking Fras remembered that his neice Imogen, is currently living in Toulouse in southern France so asked if we could use her as a contact. She is also immersing herself in French culture and learning the language, so for us, this was a win/win.
After another food fest, it was back to Di, Elfi and Horst having a sudoku playoff to determine the ultimate winner. There was a first, second and third placement – no more will be said about this.
It was then out for a bit of tourist activity. We have been to Aschaffenburg about four times in the past so are quite familiar with the city. The guys mentioned there was a new city addition down near the castle which they hadn’t investigated, so off we went.
It was quite striking. It’s significance was that it took you from the top of the castle ramparts down to the river so that you could walk along the Mainz. Apparently, it was done at great expense, as most of these city projects seem to be.
The earliest remains of settlements in the area of Aschaffenburg date from the Stone Age, so it has been around a while. It is a little difficult to condense such a long history. The Schloss Johannisburg which is in the background was built 1605-14. Now, it is predominantly a museum.
Aschaffenburg usually is not on the tourist route except for the large river boats. It was heavily bombed during the Second World War and has been extensively rebuilt. The central part of the city was recreated “as was”, prior to the bombing and has a nice feel about it.
On completion of our tour and a lovely light dinner, we followed Horst to what was a mystery location in the city. We walked into this very alternative, Bohemian café with lots of retro stuff all over the walls, raising our eyebrows as we descended down into the basement. There was a very small room with 16 chairs arranged in front of an eclectic set of instruments. They were an electric guitar, keyboard, acoustic violin and an accordian. Hmm, we were wondering what Horst had taken us into.
It turns out they were an Australian group who come to Germany for three months every summer and do the folk music festivals and little unique places like the one we saw them at. Live music isn’t really our thing but these guys blew us away. They had a powerful and unique sound and played pop-rock-punk music and wrote all their own lyrics.
This piece of footage didn’t actually capture it that well but the girl on the violin was classically trained and goodness could she make that thing talk!!!
So with Horst and Elfi we have done the elegant classical musical evening in Bad Kissingen in the baroque style grand theatre; followed by the 100 piece Bavarian brass band playing movie scores and popular music in Volkach and finally The Beez who blew us away the most. We didn’t realise we were on a musical tour for this part of our trip.
It was then home to some 43 liqueur which we have developed a taste for. Elfi added in the final pesto Gouda and mustard Gouda cheese we had purchased for them as a gift. Our friends Ali and Ads in Hilversum in the Netherlands introduced us to this, which really was a very bad idea. Don’t talk to us about our waistlines – we have serious rectification work to do on our return home.
Step – 5,966 but a lot of staircase steps.
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