Two opposite sides of the spectrum, the last 10 days. The first 7 days were grey, even more grey, cold and rainy. What is still nice is the beauty of the villages along the Rhine, such as Oberwesel andBacharach, the variety of greens in the woods and the nice evenings in the gasthouses with food and wines. I am walking the Rheinburgenweg; the route isso strangely indicated that you are sometimes walking up with people, but some time afterwards you are meeting them and going opposite directions, while you know that the end destination is the same. That leads to hilarious discussions, for sure.

But the last 3 days were wonderful. Let me just describe the first day. Looking out of the hotel window in Bingen on Sunday morning it was blue. I was wondering if it was really blue or some particular shade of grey, which we had seen during the last 15 days. But it was definitely blue. Walking out of Bingen underneath an arch of wine grapes into the fields was superb. All around were wine fields, to the left the glittering of the river Rhine, the hilly landscape, and occasionally yellow fields of raps (in German, in Dutch koolzaad). Church bells were ringing in a neighbouring village.

The sun warmed you up. The route was the St. Jakobsweg, the Pilgrimsroute to Santiago de Compostella. At the St. Jakobsberg lunch, enjoying the stillness and happiness lying in the grass. This is in a nutshell why I wanted to make the journey. The wines had been tasted already the previous days; the white Riesling and Grauburgunder, the red Spaetburgunder and Dornfelder. The very best the Ratzenburger Spaetburgunder in Bacharach. Sometimes life can be very nice.