Day 10 - Good Old Frankfurt

Today, I spent the day around Frankfurt's good old center.  With no motorcycle to get around on, I took the train.  I have always enjoyed taking trains in foreign countries. A good place to watch and learn.  

Frankfurt is very careful with the virus thing.  I have had to show my vaccination card a few times already and everywhere I go, even for a quick cappuccino, I have to fill out a contact tracing form.

Visited the Romer area, the Stadel museum of art, the banks of the Main river, took the hop-on-hop-off bus, and saw some people on the Main river riding electric boards, standing up, that when tilted the right way, they rose from the water on top of a fin below.  Very cool!.

Below is the story of today in pictures.

And, this is the official end of the trip.  A great adventure indeed.  Riding the Nurburgring, getting to spend a lot of time in The Netherlands, getting to visit Luxembourg for the first time, and getting to know the West side of Germany a bit more (the Eiffel Mountains, Koblenz, Bonn) made this adventure very unique. 

Tomorrow, back to Dallas early in the morning!

The Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof with lots of trains going everywhere

The station was very deserted from its usual pace

The outside facade of the Hauptbahnhof and one of Frankfurt's iconic tall and skinny buildings.

Apparently, the reason that Frankfurt's skyscrapers are tall and skinny is because, by law, every office/room has to get natural light.

The famous Frankfurter Romer plaza

The City Town Hall in the Romer

Trash everywhere around the Romer - apparently Saturdays in this area are pretty fun

The Frankfurt Ironman's end gate at the Romer

The clock shows 5 hours so far - 2-3 hours more to go to see the first people arrive

A view of the Main river with some Ironman competitors on the right.

The Stadel Museum

As always - a great collections of art

Even an Andy Warhol original - Goethe in Technicolor

The other side of the Main river also with Ironman runners

The train back to my hotel at the Frankfurt airport for the night - very empty

Day 9 - Floating Over the Rhine

I had the best Muesli breakfast ever, I think, at the restaurant next to our hotel in Bonn.  It had all the official fresh ingredients which made a perfect combination ... or maybe I was just in the mood for something different.  We had a late start so we visited Beethoven's birth house.  It was interesting how many musicians come visit this place.  Like a pilgrimage.

We rode the Rhine south towards Koblenz.  Two things were interesting - the Rhine is big, wide, with a lot of water and a strong current and there are lot of castles and fortresses and manors on the hills on both sides of the river.  A very beautiful ride.  We even had to cross the Rhine on a ferry at some point. Lots of motorcycles on the boat.

Koblenz is a very old city, more than 2000 years old with roman origins.  It is at the confluence of the Rhine and the Moselle rivers and it has a fortress high in the hills on the East side of the river.  The fortress and the castle overlook the city and a cable car brings you up from the West side and across the Rhine.  Great views of the city and the surrounding geography.

A great day, sunny, lots of people out, interesting places.  All is good with the world.

We had lunch at the top of the fortress, chilled a bit, walked around, and headed out.  This is where Armando and I separated.  I headed back to Frankfurt to return my motorcycle and get ready for the trip back home and Armando headed to Stuttgart to visit the Porsche Museum.  He will be in Europe for a week or so longer.

The motorcycle return process was uneventful.  Met Peter, the owner, talked about his business and Covid and Europe and future trips. A great guy and a great person to know in Frankfurt.

Our motorcycles survived overnight out on the open in Bonn

Our hotel in Bonn was across the street from Beethoven's birth house

Some of Beethoven's original scores and manuscripts

Oops - our GPS scenic route made us take a ferry across the Rhine - pretty cool

Our first view of Koblenz river front with the castle/fortress in the back

The higher regional courts in Koblenz

A view from inside the gondola crossing the Rhine - these Viking River Cruises are looooong

Inside the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress above Koblenz after riding the cable car up and across the Rhine 

The view of Koblenz from the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress 

Had a nice lunch at the top of the world

Day 8 - Nijmegen and Bonn

We had a great buffet breakfast at our hotel in Zwolle (yes, a buffet, in the age of Covid - surreal) I guess the dutch beat Covid already : )

Our first stop was Nijmegen on our way to Bonn.  Nijmegen is the oldest city in the Netherlands and in 2005 celebrated its 2000 year anniversary. A great stop for some coffee and to see some interesting buildings.  

This is the first time that you really notice the destruction that World War II probably had in cities in this area.  Lots of ugly modern buildings interspersed with old and/or restored old buildings.  

Traffic on our way to Bonn as we passed Cologne and Koblenz was heavy.  Did a lot of lane splitting to get through it.  It helped.  Did not know if it was allowed in Germany ... but nobody said it wasn't : )

Lots to see in Bonn.  Out hotel is on a pedestrian only street so we had to leave the motorcycles a couple of blocks away.  Here are some pictures.

What?!?!?

The Grote Markt in Nijmegen, Netherlands

The nicely restored De Waagh building with shops and restaurants in Nijmegen

Inside the De Waagh building in Nijmegen

Having a cappuccino in the De Waagh pub

A view of the streets and shops in Nijmegen

A fully restored windmill on our way to Bonn

Bonn's old town hall built in 1737 (Altes Rathaus) in the old market square

What is with Germans and their funky looking glasses? There are glasses stores everywhere

The good old train station in Bonn

Tacos al pastor? Wait, it is Turkish Doner!

The old gate in Bonn (Sterntor) - a reminder of Bonn's middle age fortifications

A pianist playing outside in the city of Beethoven 

The magnificent Rhine river

The biergarten at the Stadtgarden in front of the Rhine

Just chilling at the Stadtgarden

Day 7 - The Most Beautiful Villages

Left Amsterdam early and headed out to the typical-dutch village of Broek in Waterland which was only 15 minutes from Amsterdam in the middle of vast green fields and canals.  Hard to believe that such a rural and remote area exists so close to the capital.  A beautiful, perfectly manicured dutch village.

We then headed to a nice cappuccino and apple pie breakfast at a farmhouse/restaurant in the middle of the fields just outside Broek.  We sat on the lawn and watch families load up on little boats and go for rides in the canals.

We then crossed the famous Aisleitdijk dam (32km long!) on our way to Harlingen.  This was one of the most interesting parts of the day.  Learning about what it took in the 1920s and 1930's to protect Holland from floods and to reclaim vast portions of land was very interesting.  You could see that the ocean was way higher on one side of the damn and the lake way lower on the other side.  The problem is that all of The Netherlands seems to be on the low side.  Ani interesting and risky situation in my view.

Harlingen is a beautiful town by the sea with lots of ships, and canals, and restaurants, and tourists. But Giethoorn was definitely the quaintest village we visited today.  It reminded me of "It's a small world" in Disneyland. Lots of narrow canals, lots of little quiet boats full of people strolling around, cafes lining up all the little canals, souvenir shops here and there.  And the weather was just perfect!

As we drove around the different parts of the country today, I realized that all of Holland is truly below sea level.  My GPS fluctuated from +1 to -15 meters all day.  This seems precarious to me as a country.  All protected by one big dam?!?

Made it to Zwolle for the night.  Tomorrow we head to the Eifel Mountains for some twsities and to Bonn for the night. Back to Germany.

A very quaint Broek in Waterland

Broek in Waterland

Apparently, a wedding show from Sons of Anarchy was filmed here at this Church in Broek

Look at all those blue lines! All canals around Amsterdam

Broek in Waterland

Had a nice breakfast at a Theetuin Overleek - a farm house in the middle of vast farmland and canals

This is one of the Wonders of the World - The Aisleitdijk - a 32km dam that separates the Waden Sea on one side and IJsselmeer Lake on the other, 5-10 meters below!

Arriving in Harlingen

Harlingen's canals

Cheese stores everywhere

Harlingen port

The light house in Harlingen

Lunch by the canals

The quaint little village of Giethoorn with its thousand canals full of people on holiday renting boats

I was there : )