Blogs from Bad Salzig, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, Europe

Matt: A lot of my mates in London were surprised when I told them that Ed and I were doing a road trip around Germany over the Easter break. For some reason, the British seem to have a pretty bad opinion of all things German. If you believed them, Germany is a country filled with nothing but humourless BMW drivers who live in dull grey cities and have waning libidos. I guess the whole two wars in one century thing can get you down on a country - even if you did win both! In fact, faced with a barrage of negative comment about wasting our precious four days off, the main thing I was looking forward to was the black A-Class Mercedes we had booked in advance. And so after arriving at Munich and being ... read more

Today we went for a walk on the east bank of the Rhine. We took the ferry across the river and went up the other hillside. Temps were a steady 29C again, but the trees afforded enough shade. On a microclimatological point, various signs along the way indicated how the local micro-climate had a distinct influence on the vegeatation, according to the slope aspect. There is loads of info about local fora and fauna too. The hillside side opposite Boppard was particualry hot and dry, with mediterranean type vegeation, scrubby trees which were prone to fire. Temps hovered around 30C. A couple of kms or so further on, we descended by a shady valley, and temps dipped to around 24C (I had a pocket electronic thermometer, just for fun/scientific interest) and on the track there was ... read more