Day 53...Nurnburg Ring - 18th August

Had our breakky and shot up the Rhine. Glad we didn't stay in the northern town of Klobenz (which we had originally been aiming for) as it was the far end of the Romantic Rhine and it was a pretty big industrial town. We much preferred the cosy little village we had stayed in.

Headed straight for the Nurnburg ring. I"ll let Nate tell this one, but he hasn't written it yet. I'll leave a gap. Sufficed to say I felt really really upset for him, but he handled himself beautifully and my heart broke. He had wanted to drive it so badly, and it wouldn't have been a problem if we had a hire car, but our peugot lease gave us red number plates and the ring wouldnt' allow it. Shit day.

Nate: "...


So from that mess, we shot up straight to Kassel. I had planned to see Kassel as a drive through, but we had ended up spending most of the day at Nurnburg. So we decided to stay there as a stop. We arrived in Kassel just on the dot of five so missed the TIC. It was hard to find (they don't like the i signs for tourists, the Germans - then again, its not really a tourist country) and the town was quite dead and poxy. It had been described in the travel book as a 'one lovely town' and you could see that, it all just looked a bit tired. Kassel is famous though, for being the stomping ground of the Brothers Grimm, and I loved their fairy tales as a kid. So on the walk from the TIC, Nate spotted a hotel sign. It was right near where our car was parked and had an internet cafe nearby. They absolutely reamed us on the price and made me incredibly angry - don't even get me started. Even when I saw a different price advertised downstairs (after I had paid) I went downstairs and tried to have it out with them, but she gave me shit. I almost left but at the end of such a shit day, I couldn't be assed and neither could Nate. So we sucked it up.

We were staying - for future travellers - in teh Ann Rathouse (rathaus meaning town hall) so we were next door to it, and bang in the centre of town. We walked down the main street to see what Friday night Kassel had to offer. Which was nothing - the place was dead!! No clubs or good restaurants or brasseries or anything. No idea what the locals got up to, if this was the main part of town. There were very few people out and about as it was. So we laughed it off, ate at some chain restaurant and pretty much went back to our room and to bed.