In Trier Germany

Saturday, 1 May

Went for a walk in the morning down to the new convention centre (everything is new in this area), then to a small park and back to the hotel for breakfast. Buffet including eggs & bacon and the best baked beans ever (Korean?). Bus to the airport at 10.30am, back across the amazing Incheon Bridge - not sure of the length but it takes 10 minutes to drive. Seoul airport, on an island, is big and ultra modern (Louise impressed with the automatic toilet seat covers). Short stay in Korea leaves an impression of a very well off, well organised and safe country. Left on time at 1.00pm, good flight, landed around 6.00, no customs. Train into the central station which was full of drunken football fans drinking beer on the platforms, watched by police. May Day public holiday combined with a big Franfurt footy game making for a wild night. Taxi to our hotel, Maingau in Sachenhausen, just across the river, small and cosy. Walked down to the old town, wall to wall bars & cafes and wall to wall people who all had a pretty good head start - very rowdy but good natured (at least at that time of night). We ate outside, about 15C. Louise not impressed with the local apple wine, but beer and merlot good. Falling asleep at the table as about 5.00am by our body clocks.

Sunday, 2 May
Walked down by the river then back to the hotel for breakfast - excellent - great bread of course. Taxi back to the station, train to airport, shuttle bus to Holiday Inn. Picked up our brand new Peugeot 308 manual diesal and nervously headed off on the right hand side of the road for the first time in Europe at about 12.00 noon. No GPS so plenty of scope for marital discord. Headed on the autobahn towards Cologne, turned off somewhere, got lost, back on track. Pot luck on a small village for lunch - Argenthal - very good. On the right road towards Trier. Called Magdelana and by some miracle she met us on the road with her dad and we followed them to their village of Rascheid. All up a bit of a stressful trip, with heavy rain towards the end, but we made it. Their village is near Hermeskeil which is about 30 Ks from Trier (on the Mosel River) which in turn is very close to the Luxemberg border.

Met Magdalena´s dad, Gerhard, mum, Margeth and brothers David & Johannas and younger sister Maria at their lovely home. They laid on afternoon tea for us - beatiful home baked cakes and brewed coffee - fantastic. We also met the dogs. David and his girlfriend are both studying to be rangers and they have a German long haired pointer and another hunting dog of a spaniel variety. Plenty of deer and wild boar in the area. We went for a walk around the village (needed several more Ks for the cake) - picture post card, rolling green hills, forests, farms, small chapels tucked away - population of just 550 but we soon learned that villages like this are scattered all over the place. Timber is a very big part of life here - everyone has huge stacks of it for their fires and most of the home are timber. We drove to our hotel about 10 Ks awaz - Zur Post in the village of Kell am See - great.

Back to Magdalena's for dinner. BBQ pork, cooked over an open fire in the back yard - really delicious. The beer and wine flowed, except for the driver, with Schappes to finish and home made dessert. The local beer is Bitberg by the way. We cannot thank Magdalena's mum and dad enough. Found our way back to the hotel in the dark.

Monday, 3 May
A good walk on a chilly morning along a cycling path, which ran into the forest within 1 K. Saw a buzzard. The hotel specialises in catering for cyclists and mountain bike riders. Breakfast at the hotel - continental plus a boiled egg (but no toast for soldiers!). Margareth and Magdalena drove us to Trier via Mosel vinyards which are grown on amazingly steep ground. Trier is the oldest city in Germany with Roman ruins, then medieval, then beautiful barroque architecture.