Friday 9th September
Another hot sunny day. Following our little tour guide we headed off to the old town of Andernach. Next to our stellplatz is the Bastion, built in 1659 and as far as we can make out is where the chain would have been stretched across the river so that tolls could be extracted from the passing traders. It looks like there is a capstan in the top where the arches are. This structure is formed from one end of the city wall.
And looking back from the other direction you can see how close the stellplatz is to the old town, how on earth did we miss it? This photo was taken from the deck of one of the Rhine pleasure boats, we have booked a trip to visit the worlds largest cold water geyser and the only way is by boat.
The round tower built in 1440 forms the other end of the city walls.
I just love all the working traffic on the Rhine together with the lovely backdrops. Everything is so clean, orderly and pretty.
And here is our old geyser.Much of this area, especially going towards Belgium is volcanic and whilst there hasn’t been an eruption for 13,000 years the whole area is still active and CO2 still bubbles to the surface. In this spot a hole has been drilled down into the water table, originally as a supply of mineral water, but the concentrations of CO2 here are such that under pressure it is absorbed into the water and then every 100 minutes released naturally just like opening a lemonade bottle. It was very convenient that it blew just 5 minutes after we arrived.
After a good hours tour around the geological exhibition, which had loads of great experiments (and english descriptions of nearly everything) we headed off for the old town.
The main gates where corn was offloaded from passing boats was built around 1200.
Another view of the round tower…
…and yet another. Can’t decide which I like best so you get them all.
We thought this was an unusual church, built in the 1300’s, I particularly liked the towers and since it was open…
… we popped inside. All the walls were painted which was rather nice.
Another part of the city walls, this gate leads into the market square.
Inside the walls, the town was remarkably large, so large in fact that there was a large shopping centre with C&A’s and down one of the main shopping streets we found a Woolworth store with all the same old stuff we used to have in ours.
Did I tell you how hot it has been today? We stopped for a couple of small beers and ended up envious of our neighbours lunch so went for a traditional German meal of tacos with wedges and enchiladas with rice, (and extra beer of course). The helpings were far too large but being bought up proper we slavishly worked our way through.
Another part of the castle walls, the Archbishops castle. Originally built in 1200 the last extension here was in 1491. The French passed by here in 1689 and destroyed as much as they could but what we have left is considered to be among the best preserved of any medieval town castles in the middle Rhine. (I copied that last bit off the plaque, could you tell?).
The only thing left to do today is to stock up in the Lidls with some Red Rhine Wine (try saying that when you’ve had a glass or two) and off on our merry journey tomorrow.
Sitting on a camp site at Boyton Hall near the weigh bridge, it is much more modern than your beautiful town but we have a lovely warm evening. First time out since end of July. Loved your photos it reminded me of our trip up from Trier a few years ago. They had a C&A as well. Enjoy. Love Ann and Eric