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So we settled in to our nice friendly camp site, nodded to our neighbours as you do and watched the pleasure cruises and commercial barges passing on the Rhine. Then a caravan arrived with four men in and were going to pitch in front of us blocking out our view. I asked in my best German sign language if they might pitch further over and they heartily agreed. There are no set pitches on this site you just grab a piece of land or platz and set up camp. The men next door then unloaded a domestic fridge from the van, set it up in the awning and plugged it into the mains feed. Beer was unloaded from the car and placed in the fridge and they hung around doing chores waiting for the beer to chill.
Gradually the site filled up with more motorhomes, tents and caravans squeezing in wherever there was space. We came back from a quick shop and a tent was being erected a foot from the back of our van. It was all good natured and everyone seemed very relaxed about it so we thought we would be too. We offered help to
the young couple with the tent, but they were obviously in love and just wanted to get into the tent and chat to each other or something! We didn't see them much for the next two days!! Our view of the river was lost to
two campervans who made jolly hellos to us as they unloaded adults, dogs, bikes, tables, chairs and assorted children from very small campers. The beer was cold by now and the lads next door were doing a lot of laughing and cracking jokes in German. Barbeques were being lit and a procession of families were walking or cycling along the banks of the river. So when in Rome, as they say, we cracked a beer and with a chink of bottles we said ‘Prost’ and sat in our, by now, much smaller camping area and people watched!
The chap in front of us nodded and seemed up for a chat in his best English while we spoke louder and slower to help him. He explained that the 17
th May is Ascension Day and it’s a national holiday. Being a Thursday the schools close for the weekend so it’s a big holiday. They
also combine the holiday with Fathers day and most people we met seemed to celebrate the Fathers bit more than the Ascension bit. I’m not sure that drinking large amounts of beer for breakfast (we discovered this ancient ritual next morning!) is how you celebrate Ascension day. The place was heaving next day as a tractor convention set up amongst the campers and everyone seemed to have a good old time. Groups of men cycled around in fancy dress shouting things in German and some people had what looked like old ice cream seller’s handcarts that they had decorated for the occasion. They had music players on the top and inside the cart were buckets of ice, glasses and booze everyone was very friendly and we never felt uneasy or uncomfortable. (Mind you, we have no idea what they were saying to us, it could have been very unpleasant for all we know!). There was also a classic car rally in the area.
So we stayed for three days and went over the Rhine on the ferry with the car and we think we actually found the best site after all.
We might just add that
at 11 p.m. the campsite was quiet and there were no unruly goings on to be heard!! What a pleasant change!
We were recommended to go and see a wine seller not far from the camp, as we wanted to try Rhine wine and bring some back. So we went to see Weingut Hemmes, they are a family business growing wine in the area and selling it through tasting sessions at their converted school. We tried several wines, haven’t got the habit of spitting it out yet, seems a waste! So ended up buying 30 bottles of assorted whites, rose and red. At an average of 5 Euros a bottle we thought was quite good value. See the pictures of Dee before and after the tasting session!!
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