okayAround noon, we limped off on the optional excursion to the vineland villages. I would have preferred to stay on the ship and watch the country roll by, but H was a bit bored. It was reasonably OK, though, in the Ahr valley. We stopped at a place called Altenahr, which obviously is a bit of a tourist trap in summer, but was nearly deserted. Pretty old buildings, though, and we found a cheapish light lunch in a cafe recommended by a nice girl in the local supermarket, where we got proper bread to take home. (Why is it so difficult to get decent sourdough and caraway seed rye in London? It's no problem in NY.)
We drove on to the larger Ahrweiler, where the market was shut, but more shops were open, and there was a pretty little church(St Lawrence quite recently resored,) to explore.
Like I said, it was OK, but by the time we got to where the ship had docked, at Koblenz, it was too dark to dare the usual long uphill trek on wet stairs and pavement to the market. Those who went said it wasn't that much, and their souvenir gluhwein mugs were just plain glass. Another meal with the sweet but kinda demented M. I was presented with two large slabs of fried cheese, the sort of thing you get a little chunk of, sometimes, as a starter- and chips! This was the only failure of the meatless meals, but I was really starving, so I ate more than half of it. I suffered the next day, though.Urp.
