We didn’t have too far to go today so we had a bit of a sleep in and a late breakfast before setting off for Essen around 10am. Rather than choosing the autobahn, we took the secondary road along the Rhine River. It was great to see the amount of cargo that is being transported up and down the river on barges. At one stage we even saw the equivalent of a B double, a motorised barge pushing another barge along both loaded high with shipping containers.
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| Cargo on the Rhine |
We stopped off for a while (time for a coffee) at the Linz ‘Old Town’. The town square and many of the streets are dominated by the very attractive half-timbered Rhineland houses.
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| Linz 'Old Town' |
From there it was back to the autobahn for the run to Essen. We only expected it to be an hour but we met a gridlock where three highways converged into one so it took almost an hour longer than expected.
Thanks to Eva’s excellent instructions we found the Lupp household without any difficulty. We were met by Eva, Eckhard, Larissa, Krischan and Kira. The home is in a lovely area on the southern side of Essen called Kettwig. You can look out their windows at trees and farmland across the lane which is a real bonus in what was once a huge industrial area. Essen was once one of Germany's most important coal and steel centres and historically linked to the centuries-old Krupp family ironworks. These days it is reinventing itself as a cultural centre and last year was the European Capital of Culture on behalf of the whole Ruhr area.
Had a nice lazy afternoon and then a wonderful barbecue dinner – barbecued on charcoal. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a barbecue and being cooked on charcoal certainly beats cooking on gas when it comes to authenticity. Larissa’s other sister, Kondja and her partner Simon also joined us along with Eva’s mother. It was a lovely family gathering – good company, good food and a few good German beers.
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| Family barbecue |
