Tash and Jon take a different approach to touring on a trip to Germany – and find it suits them perfectly
Words & pictures ❚ Natasha Gooch
ROAD TRIPS GERMANY
When we tour, we don’t usually plan anything. Jon and I pick a starting point for after LeShuttle, and from there we make the rest of it up as we go. The only time we book is if there's a specific destination or attraction we want to see. But even then, it’s rare we lock down a date too far in advance.
We’ve found we discover more on our travels because we’re not rushing from place to place. We have time and flexibility to seek out the hidden gems and the nice surprises. But when we heard about a rally that some friends were going to in Germany, we thought about it and decided we’d like to try it. We had a new-found love affair with Germany after touring through last year. We’d changed our original idea and ended up spending just over a week driving through Germany to reach Slovenia.
We vowed to explore more of Deutschland, so it seemed like a great opportunity. We both agreed it would also be a good experience to tour differently than we usually do. A two-and-a-half-week rally where all campsites are pre-booked and there are planned activities wouldn’t usually be ‘our bag’, but we were up for it!
The first stop was a campsite just outside the quaint town of Remagen called Goldene Meile. This was the shortest stay on the rally so we wasted no time getting acquainted with our surroundings. On our first morning, I went to the local freibad (open air swimming pool). It was a two-minute walk and only €2 entry before 9am. This is not something we’d come across on our last tour through Germany, possibly because we’d used stellplätze and approved car parks rather than campsites. Already, this was something new and we loved it. The temperature was in the mid 20s by 9am, so a swim was very welcome.
Later that afternoon we cycled into Remagen, sampling the joy that is spaghettieis (spaghetti ice cream). It's a popular German sundae where ice cream is pushed through a potato ricer, creating ice cream noodles. Whipped cream is placed on the plate, then the ‘noodles’ go over the top. The whole dish is then finished off with strawberry sauce. It’s delicious! We took a slow ride back along the river, passing the Peace Museum. This sits in what remains of the famous Ludendorff Bridge, its towers. We stopped to admire the building before carrying on.
