Day 9

Weather: 23'C overcast

Slept in this morning, neither of us managed to get out of bed till 0830. It has been a fairly full scheduled for the last few days so we probably needed a little more rest. Once up we walked the 5 minutes into town feeling a little like a museum exhibit (I'm not sure they get may tourists in Kruft). Had a lovely breakfast of sweet bread pastries, once again, and meandered home again.

As we are fairly near the famous Rhine river we thought we'd better make an effort to see it. We drove into Koblenz and took the cable car over the river to the ancient fort overlooking the town. Its a big wine making region so they had a big exhibition on the history of wine making which was interesting.

We met Mark at the Hauptbahnhof (central train station) as he decided to break his mammoth Munich to Hamburg train trip in order to catch up with us for lunch. It was lovely catching up and he gave us some tips

on some nice places to visit further south.

We have decided that although we like seeing the big ticket tourist destinations we love finding hidden gems and staying in small towns. I've decided to call us socially holidaying integrated travelers (SHIT's) rather than tourists. Tourists cant work out how to use the train system or need help negotiating language barriers and need to stay in big hotels where people speak English - that's not us. We can successfully drive on the autobahn and use the trains without help and I can negotiate to get my nails re-shellacked - however that was quite a funny experience, multiple hand gestures were needed.

Anyway quiet night in tonight with take away from the local organic grocery store. I feel we're living on bread, cheese and beer which, from a holiday perspective is not so bad but from a nutrient perspective is not so good.