Karen Wright: More challenges to overcome on our latest tour
We made it to our Caravan and Motorhome Escorted Tour in Germany! It was not without more challenges to overcome. We travelled from Hull to Rotterdam and when it was time to disembark the ferry, I noticed we had a flat car tyre.
John quickly set to work and put on the spare, but it was a thin one with yellow labels saying not to travel more than 50mph. We drove slowly to our stopover site and after hours of phone calls we managed to get it sorted.
We travelled on to our first campsite on the tour, we were very pleased to meet up with our hosts for the tour Barry, Christine, Iris and Derek, especially so when it became apparent that our water pump was caput! Again, there was lots of help, support and ideas bouncing around how to get a replacement when out of the blue one of my Facebook friends messaged to say they happened to be travelling here in a day or two and could fetch a new pump! Such kindness!
The tour got started with a welcome drink and a great icebreaker game which enabled us to start to remember the names of the other people on the tour. There are two couples here from last year's trip in France, so it was great to meet up with them once again.
The first outing was in the local town of Rudesheim, which is on the banks of the Rhine. We hopped on the tourist train which collected us from the campsite and enjoyed a ride through the old town and then up into the vast vineyards all around. We were dropped off at the cable car which we rode up to the top where we marvelled at the views and I enjoyed the specialty coffee of the town which is served in a special cup and comprises sugar cubes and flambeéd brandy, hot coffee and whipped cream, it was delicious.
After a bite of lunch, we were on to our final attraction of the day, wine tasting! The best tasting session ever, sat in a courtyard at tables laden with huge pretzels, cream cheese, fruit, hard cheese and tomatoes. The wine was flowing: full glasses of a variety of local wines, no half measures. We had a great time, and we walked back to the site as a group feeling very mellow if not slightly squiffy and looking forward to the next excursions on our packed agenda.