Monday (25 August) we drove in to Cologne, a visit to the cathedral, followed by lovely cakes and coffee. Then a walk around the old town and a river cruise, interspersed with a couple of beers!
On leaving the car park, we heard a slightly strange noise, it sounded like a plastic bag trapped somewhere on the car.
Tuesday, we headed out to the local town for a walk, but quickly changed our minds and headed to the local Volvo garage as the noise had got worse. Thankfully our friend is an engineer, (not a motor engineer but more of an engineer than either of us) who diagnosed the problem! Spoke to the Volvo dealer who had some spare time to have a look later in the afternoon. We went back at the allotted time, and within 1/2 hr they had removed the offending part which was causing the noise, (the air conditioner compressor clutch housing lid!) this means that the air conditioning no longer works, but the car is drivable. They would not provide us with an invoice, and asked for €10 in the staff tips jar!! Now that is service! We decided it was probably not a Volvo approved/Sanctioned repair, but we were very happy.
Due to the issues with the car and the time it took to sort the issues out, we cancelled our plans for the day and headed back to our AirBnB and had a glass of wine/beer or two….
Wednesday, we headed to Castle Drachenburg, on the outskirts of Bonn. A ‘recently’ restored Castle, with lovely views over the River Rhine.
We then drove into Bonn to the University Botanical Gardens, Bonn was a nightmare to park in, lots of the land was owned by the University and you could only park with a University pass. In the gardens, we have never seen quite so many plant labels, everything had one!
Thursday, we headed to the local town of Nuenkirchen for a walk, coffee and cake. However it didn’t happen in that order as we parked near Cafe Stommel, so had coffee and cake first. There were lots of families with children walking about, and the children were all carrying brightly coloured large cardboard cones, full of treats. We finally worked out, with the help of Google that it was their first day of school, and the cardboard cones are a local tradition.
Friday, after starting the packing process, we went back to the Pancake restaurant for lunch!
Saturday, packed up and left our AirBnB, a 4 hr drive, to a village near Strasbourg in France, an uneventful drive, a few bits of road works but no real delays. Pretty warm due to the lack of air con, so with memories of 1970’s holidays, we just drove with the windows down ! We are staying at a family members house, whilst they are away on holiday.
Sunday, as we drank most of the wine last night, we ventured out to a recommended ‘cave de vin’ , Mosbach to taste and buy more wine in Marlenheim. We met friendly locals who told us a little of the local history while we tasted the wine. Purchases made we then had a stroll around the village, it is nice to see that most shops are closed because it is Sunday.
That evening English friends of the family who live in the village, came around for drinks, so we could get more local recommendations.
Credit for some of the photos must go to our friends.
Travurple 