With almost 40 million foreign overnight guests every year, Germany is one of the seven most visited countries in the world. There are 6,135 museums, 366 theatres, 34 leisure and adventure parks, 45,000 tennis courts, 648 golf courses, 190,000 km of hiking trails, 40,000 kilometres of long-distance cycle paths as well as holiday and theme routes available for use in tourism.
Business and congress tourism is of outstanding importance; Germany is the most important international trade fair location with several world-leading trade fairs: Caravan Salon Düsseldorf, CMT Stuttgart, etc. The Internationale Tourism-Börse Berlin is the world's leading tourism trade fair. Germany also has the highest density of festivals like Wacken, Rock am Ring,
Outstanding sights: Sanssouci Castle - Brandenburg Gate - Cologne Cathedral - Saxon Switzerland National Park - Wadden Sea - Hamburg Harbor - Brocken - Old Town of Hameln - Externsteine - Wartburg - Neuschwanstein Castle - Zugspitze near Garmisch-Partenkirchen - Rothenburg ob der Tauber - Königsee in Berchtesgadener Land - Old town of Bamberg - Imperial castle in Nuremberg - Mainau Island in Lake Constance - Lichtenstein Castle - Meersburg - Ulm Minster - etc.
Our days in Koblenz were, as is unfortunately so often the case, far too short, because we had actually intended the climb to Ehrenbreitstein Fortress to be a hike that would also allow us to see other sights along the way.
A meeting with friends brought us to the Koblenz area again, and it was clear that we wanted to take the opportunity to visit the Koblenz Christmas market or, better yet, some of the Advent markets spread across the city.
Deutsches Eck is actually an artificially raised tongue of land in Koblenz at the mouth of the Moselle and the Rhine.
The Basilica of St. Castor is located in the middle of a green area just behind the Deutsches Eck, probably the most famous sight in Koblenz, apart from where the Moselle meets the Rhine.
We have been friends with Frank and his wife for a number of years, who, in addition to the vineyards, also run a small guesthouse in Dernau and have been producing really fine wine in Turkey for several years with great success.
When planning the Federal Garden Show 2011, Koblenz faced a problem that also had to be overcome in Cologne in 1957 for the Federal Garden Show there, because how could the core areas of the show on the left bank of the Rhine, which are far apart, be connected with those on the Ehrenbreitstein.
The history of today's city of Koblenz was very changeable and is characterized by armed conflicts in numerous border conflicts and the associated major structural changes, also due to war damage.
Appointments in Koblenz and near Frankfurt brought us to Lahnstein for the overnight stay, high above the Rhine and the Lahn, which we were to admire the next morning with a view of the moving clouds over the Rhine.
The journey through the Ahr valley via Altenahr in the direction of Adenau also gave us the opportunity to get to know the town of Hönningen. At first we noticed the many tractors while driving, some really old vehicles, which slowed down the very heavy leisure traffic on the weekend badly on the winding route.
Coming from Dernau, we had passed the Ahr Valley, then entered the lively little Eifel town of Adenau, which is worth seeing and continued on Trierer Straße to the parking lot next to the bridge right at the entrance to the Nordschleife.
Summer time – vacation time, also in Brita's house in Albertshofen. And since the basic idea of driving further north in Germany had been in our heads for a long time anyway, concrete common goals were quickly defined, which we want to find out in the coming days.
The so-called government bunker in the Ahr valley near the lovable wine village of Dernau was once considered the most secret building in the recent history of the Federal Republic of Germany during the Cold War.
Several times we had already visited Katrin and Jürgen in Dernau in the Ahr valley during our travels, before there was finally enough time to take a short trip along the Ahr in the direction of Adenau.
For several years we have been friends with Frank and his wife who, in addition to the vineyards, also run a small guesthouse in Dernau and have also been producing really fine wine in Turkey with great success for several years.
The Nürburgring and its surroundings have a lot more to offer in addition to the legendary concert series "Rock am Ring", various events in the racing scene on the Grand Prix circuit and on legendary Nordschleife, which many visitors still miss:
We almost felt transported back to the early seventies and eighties, when it was possible to stroll through the paddock and have a chat with drivers, racing teams or other participants, and you may ask, where was that?
Once again we were in Trier for talks, not at least to extend our project work to expand camper and outdoor tourism as the first destination of the camper route further to the north.
Once again we passed into Cochem on the Mosel river, after a short stopover at the Nordschleife of Nürburgring, where we first rested a little while enjoying a delicious ice cream in one of the many waterfront cafes.
The legendary Nordschleife of the Nürburgring was classified as too unsafe for the Formula 1 in the 80s - probably the most negative example was the accident of Niki Lauda in the year 1976 - which is why the Formula 1 from 1977 onward just took place at the Hockenheimring.
After an eventful day with many great conversations and hundreds of historic motorcycles due to the racing event organized and named the Cologne Course on the Grand Prix circuit of the Nürburgring, combined with lot of memories of our own motorcycle experiences, it was time for the return trip to Essen.