TUESDAY 3rd JULY 2012

GERMANY

After a very early five forty five wake up, we were on the road at seven thirty and heading for the Black Forest. We made a stop at the Rhine Falls, which although not very high, had a very impressive flow of water over them due to the heavy rain over the mountains in the past few days!
The clear green water was thundering over the rocks, with spray going everywhere! We had a coffee at the riverside lookout and saw dozens of large trout hanging about waiting to be fed!
We then drove across the border into Germany, a couple of people having to file tax claims for goods purchased in Switzerland, and then we came into the Black Forest area. The name comes from all the fairy tales that originated in the region - told by the Grimm brothers etc - causing people in the early days to reckon it was all black magic! That was the theory Victor gave us anyway!
Lunch stop was at a horrid little place in the middle of the forest - totally commercial and bursting at the seams with tourists buying cuckoo clocks and other crap - where we fought the hordes of very rude Indians and Koreans to have (of all things!) a very ordinary cheeseburger!
Once out of the Black Forest we travelled along the wonderful German Autobahn, passing Stuttgart and numerous other well known cities, and some very prosperous looking rural regions.
Our afternoon stop was in Heidelberg at about four thirty and we had time for a wander about and sample a German beer, before fighting the heavy traffic around Frankfurt and getting to our nice hotel - Ramada Micador - at about six thirty.
Our room was modern and big, a rarity on the tour, and we made the most of a ripper shower to freshen up before the provided dinner.
Luckily the weather, which had gone from rain in the morning to a beaut, fine twenty five degrees in the afternoon had cooled down, because once again there was no form of cooling in the room. We opened the decent sized window to get a bit of breeze and left it open while we were at dinner which cooled down dramatically!
The hot rooms have been the worst part of the tour - you can put up with a small room, small bed and thin towels, but twenty six or so degrees is very uncomfortable to try and get a much needed sleep in and there have been many complaints!
Our dinner was pretty good and afterwards we went for a walk to stretch a bit after the long day in the bus, realizing that we have only two days left of our tour!!!