Shop till you drop

Yesterday was a serious shopping day, we started by shopping at Lidl down the road and bringing it back before getting the car ferry from Kamp to Boppard then going left to a shopping centre where we bought the weeks breakfast and a variety of German sausage for tea. There are also clothes shops and other shops where I bought a variety of seeds to grow herbs and green leaves. My Dad enjoys looking at all the local sausage as it reminds him of his upbringing. He was so keen to get going that he locked the apartment door locking in my Mum who was in the toilet for a last minute pit stop. After the car was full we went back to Boppard for lunch in the Chinese restaurant near to the ferry point on the Rhine where everyone but me had their usual port steak in mushroom sauce with chips and salad while I tried the beef stew with potato dumplings and baked apples. As usual the others made the right choice but I still had my backup of about a third of Mums meat as she can’t eat very much.

Lunch over, we were back on the ferry to Kamp where we unloaded then Claire and I were of up the mountain to visit 2 castles, Sterrenburg and Burg Leibenstein. There is a little footpath at the edge of town that leads to the first castle, its quite steep and rough but I found it so much easier than I did the last time I climbed it 2 years ago. If you walk through the grounds of the first out onto the road you meet a road junction where there is the 2 signs so you can go to the second one. As I knew we would be doing this walk in advance I had the foresight to take the photos with a long lens from the other side of the Rhine during our shopping trip. The first castle has had extensive rebuild but the second is more original. However, once you are in the grounds this is not as apparent as from the outside; the first seems to have far more character than the second. Once down the mountain again we stopped off for some liquid refreshments in the Garden hotel where last time there was a bus load of disabled people staying there so there were plenty of characters about. This time it was much quieter with few people around until just before we were about to leave when a bus pulled up outside containing the next weeks guests. The first one off was a monk wearing a habit followed by some fairly ordinary looking people for the hotel along with 2 others dressed as monks. They all sat down in seats around us and were immediately served fresh coffee and huge chunks of strawberry flan with big dollops of thick cream. I was dribbling, it was all quite surreal until the landlord came and sat on our table to explain that he has this bus load of pilgrims come to stay with him every year.

After our return we all played cards in the evening and talked about the war and the period shortly afterwards where my Dad talked so much he went horse. I have never heard him talk so much or get so emotional in all my life, probably because it is the day after seeing his brother for what he thinks is the last time. He is convinced that this is the last time he will visit Germany; lets hope not.