The Adventures of Bear and Butterfly

On Good Friday Bodra & I got on a coach at Reading station before 7am. Other passengers started their journey at 2am from somewhere called Dudley, so we were pretty lucky. The coach was pretty average & the guide was a husky lady with pretty lame-o jokes. Bo & I kept ourselves amused reading & dozing. We drove through the UK, France, Belgium & Germany, getting to our hotel after 8pm. The room was cosy & simple & the dinner was pretty cruddy but I enjoyed my bier!!

The following morning we wrapped ourselves up warm & piled back onto the coach. Our destination was Burg Eltz- the 12^th Century Eltz Castle. We walked the last 800 metres or so after parking near the Antonius Chapel & as we made our way along the path. The heavily fortified Castle appeared below us. We could see a gated entrance-way, lots of pointed roofs & turrets, white oriels (bay windows) & red & white timber-frame structures, grey-brown stone walls & blue-grey slate roofs.

I was amazed to find out that the castle had been housing the same family for 33 generations. The castle is divided into three lines of the family- The Rübenach and Rodendorf families’ homes in the castle are open to the public, while the Kempenich branch of the family uses the other third of the castle. The three lines of the House of Eltz are called the Eltz of the Golden Lion, Silver Lion & Buffalo Horns.

As we were guided through the castle we were shown the Entrance Hall to the Rübenach House which is now the armoury. There was quite a collection of weapons there- firearms, Halberds, oriental daggers including a parade sword made out of the jaw of a swordfish, bows with quivers & arrows. Then we went into the Lower Hall which had a chandelier made of antlers & colourful Flemish tapestries hanging on the walls in an attempt to keep in some warmth. Into the Bed Chamber whose walls & ceiling were all covered with creeper vine paintings. This room had its own chapel built into a bay window. Then down into the Knight’s Hall which was in the Rodendorf House. One of the things the guide told us about this room was how there were two symbols which indicated the sort of behaviour that could go on in here. One was a court jester mask which meant that everyone could express their opinions openly, but above the doorway as you left the room was a red rose of silence which indicated you weren’t to speak about the issues discussed after leaving the hall.

Then we descended a spiral staircase in a counter-clockwise direction down to the next floor. We were told the staircase was designed to aid the defence of the castle. In those days of battle there were certain rules that you must abide by, for example you can only fight with a sword using your right hand. So the aggressor advancing up the spiral stair-case would have the central pillar obstructing their attack. This made me think- what happened to make us lose these rules of battle?

We went past a room where I saw a bear on the floor- a hunting room. Unfortunately this room wasn’t accessible- I would have liked to have lain down on the bear. Lastly we went into the Rodendorf medieval kitchen. Apparently there are maybe 3 or more kitchens in Eltz Castle which makes sense as there were at least 100 people living in the castle. There was a massive chopping block in the kitchen- like a tree trunk really. I have no idea how they would’ve lugged it all through the castle.

Afterwards we had a wander through the treasury where I spotted a golden Bacchus stuck inside a vat- a drinking vessel apparently.

We got back to our hotel & snoozed while it snowed outside. On Easter Sunday we did a river cruise along the Rhine from Koblenz to Rudesheim I think. At Koblenz we saw where the Moselle River meets the Rhine. It was really freezing there, exceptionally windy. The river cruise was pretty boring- I guess the lack of sunshine & blue sky hindered our passion for the countryside, & the Loreley didn’t stand out as much as I thought it would. We had a good game of dots- I don’t know what it is called but the one where you make squares & put your initial in it… I won anyway! We had a yummy lunch in Rudesheim- succotash which is a like a bean stew!! We wandered along the Drosselgasse & tried some sweet white wines there but they weren’t anything special.

On our last day of touring we went out to Trier which is the oldest city in Germany, founded in 16BC & is also where Karl Marx was born. It was really misty & cloudy. Firstly we had a bus tour of the area. The guide tried to describe the architecture of the city which we couldn’t really see due to the clouds. He told us about how he spent a lot of his years down by the river digging for old Roman coins. Then he took us for a walking tour as well but we weren’t too interested in it. We started off by Roman Baths, then over to the Trier Palace. We went into this massive hall & the guide sang us a Gregorian chant so we could hear the impressive acoustics. Then Bodra & I walked around the Porta Nigra- Black Wall which is the largest Roman city gate north of the Alps. It was built in 180-200 AD. I had trouble filming it so that it was all in view- it was quite massive. Lastly we stopped in Cochem. Bodra & I climbed to the top of the village to check out the Reichsburg Castle.

Yesterday we woke & found icing sugar covering everything outside. It certainly made the barren vineyards surrounding us look more picturesque. We endured a long bus ride back to Reading & we were really relieved to get home. We are now looking forward to having a holiday in a warm country… hopefully France will be warm in June/July when we get there to visit Kenny & Tatiana.

Well, our few days away weren’t as relaxing as we wanted. We drove down to Bournemouth on Saturday, in the rain. Ate our lunch in the car then braved the wind & rain for a walk along the Pier there. Looked down at the sandy beach & saw zillions of cigarette butts & rubbish. We were tempted to go catch a movie, but restrained ourselves.

Went for a drive through New Forest & stopped for handmade chockies & hot chocolate, then found our B&B. We stayed at a place called “House-on-the-Ford” which did indeed look out onto a ford.

Lesley makes homemade natural beauty products so I enjoyed trying out her jojoba & rose eye cream, lavender moisturiser, & aloe vera skin cleanser. They were all really nice on my skin & very fragrant.

The next day we went for a 14.5 mile cycle around New Forest. My sit bones are still aching from the pressure of sitting on the seat for that long. But we really enjoyed ourselves & plan to return in summer. The rain held off for most of the day & we even had a spot of sunlight here & there. It’s mostly a pine forest but only stubby little pines really. The park has the feel of a swampland; they drained off the area & then planted the pines I believe. Ponies & horses are free to roam all over the area & are very tame, but I didn’t bother going up to any of them. I was too busy concentrating on trying to maintain my momentum on the mountain bike.

We stopped at the Oak Inn for some hot chips & beer.

That evening we found a pretty cruddy pub playing terrible music & serving pretty average food. Got dinner out of the way then went back to the B&B to watch Crufts on TV. There were Gale force winds that night & lots of rain.

On Monday we drove in to Brighton with the company of the rain & wind.

I was really impressed with the number of green spaces in Brighton- loads of parks & manicured gardens. Our only glimpse of the ocean was as we drove along the beachfront on King’s Road. The waves were turbulently thrashing down as the wind blasted them all over the place. I didn’t spot the pier. We couldn’t check in to our hotel until 3pm so we killed time trying to find clothes for Bodra. There is this shopping area called the Lanes which we had been recommended would be a good place to find unique clothes. But all we found were jewellery stores (which I liked) so that was no use to us. We relented & went into the mall- covered thank goodness, but no one stocks jeans in Bodra’s size. He found a couple t-shirts he liked but we were struggling to keep up the holiday enthusiasm. It was still windy & rainy outside so we decided to find a cinema. Then we stopped at the Walkabout for lunch.

Enough time was killed so we tried to navigate our way to our hotel. We stayed at a place called Sea Spray where all the rooms are themed. We had the Elvis room which even had a white jump suit. It was a big small for Bodra so I got to be Elvis…

In the evening we were back out for more food hunting in the wind & rain. We had a wander through the garden of Royal Pavilion where the museum, theatre & dome are located. The buildings are styled like an exotic palace from India so they looked pretty enough at night lit-up that we diverted through there even though it was raining. We noticed they had a gigantic gorse bush amongst the garden…

On Tuesday we packed up & headed back to Reading pretty quickly. The rain & wind accompanied us. Frustratingly, Europcar decided to move location over the weekend so it wasn’t as convenient to return the car, instead we had to head out to Green Park where Bodra works. Luckily there is a pretty efficient bus service so we got back to town without having to battle too much with the wind & rain.