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The Last Leg

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I've been known to breakfast in one country and lunch in another, but for the start of the last leg of our Brexit Exit tour I managed to surpass myself.  We had breakfast in Germany, lunch in Luxembourg and an evening meal in Belgium.  Leaving Trier (Germany) on a sunny morning,  just 35 minutes after setting off,  we had arrived at a free park and ride car park on the outskirts of Luxembourg City.  Luxembourg is a tiny state, 998 sq miles in size, surrounded by Germany, France and Belgium.  Appropriately for our Brexit Exit tour it is one of the three official capitals of the European Union. Our park and ride bus (€4 each) whisked us into the centre in no time. The city centre is split into two parts an upper town and lower town. In a round about route we found ourselves headed to the lower town which is at the bottom of a gorge. Mrs B thought the upper/lower town split was just like Bridgnorth - but without a funicular. The lower town was very quiet - and peaceful an
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Grape Expectations

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The Mosel is one of Germany's largest wine regions, with vineyards clustered along the Mosel valley.  We had now entered the Rhineland-Palatinate region, our last in Germany, and road signs every mile or so told us we were in wine country as did the acres of grapes growing in fields either side of the road. We headed for a small town right on the Mosel river, called Bernkastel-Kues. In fact it is two towns that are joined. Kues sits on the east bank of the river, whilst Bernkastel sits on the west, linked by a long bridge. To reach the town we drove down a succession of hairpin bends, winding down and down until, crossing the bridge we arrived in Kues. The Mosel River - with Berncastle across the bridge Kues appeared to be a prosperous little town with some fine 19th century villas and a riverside park and promenade. Bernkastel is much older and on the west side of the river acres of vines tumble down steep slopes right to the edge of a small medieval town full of half ti
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Heidelberg Heights

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After so many days in small towns it was quite overwhelming to arrive for a brief stay in Heidelberg. Heidelberg has a population of around 170,000 people, about a quarter of whom are students. Heidelberg University is Germany's oldest, established in 1386. The city itself lies in a green densely wooded valley, surrounded by hills clad with trees, and spans the river Neckar. Our hotel was on the edge of the city, but the tram service stopped two minutes away from the hotel entrance, so it was easy to get to the old town and explore. At first we walked down Hauptstrasse, a mile long pedestrian street full of shops including a number of global brands. At the end of Hauptstrasse after taking a picnic lunch in the main square with the Rathaus (town hall) in front and the main gothic church, the Heiliggeistkirche, behind us, we crossed the Neckar and made the relatively short, but unrelentingly steep, climb uphill to a path that contours gently downhill for over a mile called the Phil
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The Romantic Road

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OK - it was an invention of the German Tourist Board in the 1950's, but the Romantic Road is still something rather special. Its a route running north-south that connects some of Germany's most picturesque medieval walled towns. There are brown signs way marking the roads to follow. Te Romantic Road route marker - our Rothenburg hotel in the background My self planned route only took in a small section of the Romantic Road but it was probably a 'highlights package'.  We joined the Romantic Road south of Nördlingen, first visiting a picturesque village, Harburg, situated by a river with a castle overlooking the town from a steep rocky outcrop. Our hotel in Nördlingen overlooked the old medieval town walls.This was an excellent base from which to explore.  The town walls at  Nördlingen are complete and encircle the town. After a very brief exploration of the town the previous evening we spent a few hours the day after our arrival and walked the walls. It was a del
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