Category Archives: Unkel

Assmannshauser, Unkel

Unkel 2 Assmannshauser – August 14, 2015

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We leave Unkel with a hotel booking in Assmannshauser. No pressure to get there.

We find a beautiful little town called Linz. We park in a public parking lot. The railway is elevated above us. There is a man up on the tracks who starts talking to Stu in the language of the area, German. Then some other people who are parking across from where we parked get into the act 🙂 After a lot of discussion one of the people parking near us tells Stu to open the door to our car, he then pulls out of the pocket in the door a time parking thingy. Apparently you set the time you will be back so they don’t give you a ticket. A little parking lesson in Germany!

DSC_6548It is the busiest little town we have come across along the Rhine. It has very quaint half timber buildings in lots of bright colours and crooked buildings. In this one when you drop anything it will roll downhill to the left I’m sure.

 

 

 

 

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There is an interesting fountain where you can pose the figures arms and hands.

 

DSC_2842We carry on south down the Rhine. Stopping next at a beautiful castle up on the hill. We drive up and pay our 6 euros each to take  the tour of the castle. Very interesting hearing how they lived in the middle ages.

 

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There are amazing views from up on the castle hill.
DSC_2855Off we go on our way to Assmannshauser. I think Stu picked this place for it’s name. We find our little pension but have a bit of trouble finding where to park our car. We got this place through HRS.com for 49 euros (about 72 CAD). It is small and quaint. Once again we are on the top floor. At least the steps can handle a normal human foot! We hope to stay in this town tomorrow night as
well.

This IS a room with a vew!!DSC_6583

Unkel

Cologne 2 Unkel – August 13, 2015

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We pack up and leave our beautiful room and head back to the train station where we are to pick up the rental car. There are other
people in line. How rude (ala Jar Jar Binks). It is a bit of a zoo at the Budget office. Other rental companies in the same office
have no one. The Budget line has 4 in line. It takes almost an hour to finally finish our transaction. We have a great conversation
with the agent at the desk. She is having trouble printing our documents. Then she says they are probably printing in India. Then
relates her experience getting a call from the help desk and her inability to understand what they are saying 🙂 It made us laugh.

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We have a Smart4four. Cute little red and black one.

 

 

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Technical difficulties with the GPS on my phone meant it took us a bit longer to get out of the city than we anticipated. We want to
avoid the Autobahn if possible. Just a gentle drive down the Rhine, that is what we want. Hahaha. We wiggle our way around, stop
for a bit at a park along the river. Sit on a bench and watch the traffic on the river. It is a very busy river.

Back in the car we decide on a destination. Unkel. Our little book says this town is famous for “Unkler Funkler” wine. Says it can
be tasted in the many wine bars in town. I think we need to taste it!

We drive into town looking for the Tourist Information office. We ask directions from a couple of locals and find our way there. It
is really not open, but they have sheets that tell you where the accommodation and restaurants are. There are many one way streets so we make a few circles before we finally find the main town parking. Off we go with our accommodation list to find a place to stay.

DSC_2783We find one place that was built in 1787 (almost 300 years!) that has a vacancy. It seems a bus tour of little old Germans has just arrived at the restaurant/bar. The hotel lady hurries us up to our room so that she can go and help in the bar. Lots of old Germans, lots with walkers have converged on this place. We head out to find a place for a beer that is a bit quieter.

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We sit down at one of the wine bars and the lady that comes to serve us is one of the people we asked for directions.

 

 

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The bus people have left and the town is VERY quiet now.  We don’t know how they survive with this little traffic.

 

 

We have only traveled 58 Km from Cologne, but it was the slow way 🙂

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This town is very quiet.  It seems to depend on tourism, however many of the restaurants are closed.

 

 

 

DSC_6532We have noticed that English is less spoken outside of Cologne, very little here.  We ordered dinner without knowing what would arrive.  We tried a “phone a friend” to our daughter-inlaw Nicole, but the Facebook message didn’t go through.

 

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When our food arrived we were very happy with what we had chosen.

Our room overlooks the dining area.  We are in our room listening to the conversations.  None in English.  Not loud just life happening below us.