As is my impatience, I booked the central weeks timeshare, the Rhine hotel and even the tunnel crossing nearly a year in advance, so we (I) could savour the trip for the coming months. I tend to forget that long driving days are not exactly much fun for Linda, just sitting there watching the concrete miles slide by. So we opted for early starts on the four driving days, to be in our destination by around lunchtime.
19th April, my 50th birthday, found us at the channel tunnel after a 90 minute drive, very efficiently we were allowed to depart 30 minutes before our booked time of 7.30.am. It was my first time in the tunnel, and it is very quick, but I did miss the opportunity to stretch my legs and grab a snack.
By 9am French time we were on the motorway heading for Boppard on the Rhine in Germany (yes that’s right, the Coppards in Boppard, probably why I’ve always had an inkling to visit the place). With around 500ks to travels I thought we would be there around 1.30 ish (Autoroute agreed with me on this!). Sadly the drive was not the pleasure I expected, huge thundering trucks dominated the motorways, not sporadically as on the French toll Autoroutes. But line after line of them, with traffic grinding to a crawl as one monolith attempted to overtake another by going 1 kilometre an hour faster than its predecessor in the inner lane!
Swinging off the A61 just south of Koblenz, we catch tantalising glimpses of the Rhine valley and beautiful, yes very beautiful Boppard from the steeply snaking road. “Well Coppard, you may have got something right for once!” my long suffering wife (with a numb bum) said, and boy, was she right!
The Hotel Gunther Garni, sits directly on the ‘Rheinallee’ next to the most expensive hotel in town, sharing its views and location. 5 metres from the tree lined river promenade, across a small service road, there is even reasonable parking right outside!
In the main square, a typical ‘tourist road train’ was about to depart, as we had had a long day, this seemed to be the ideal solution to exploration for weary travellers. We had a pleasant journey, finding the cable car, gardens, station and main shopping streets that would be on our walking itinerary for the next few days.
I cannot stress too much how ‘tourist friendly’ Boppard is, let me try to give you a verbal overview of this historic town.