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List of chapters:

1. Introduction

2. List of promotions and special offers

3. Train Montreux - Basel (SBB 1st class); Train Basel - Ingelheim (DB 2nd class)

4. Rolling on the floor at Dautermann Winery

5. Holiday Inn Express Wiesbaden

6. Wiesbaden

7. Niederrhein - Rother Hike 40: Elmpter Schwalmbruch

8. Ruhrgebiet - Rother Hike 29: Von Essen-Kettwig nach Duisburg-Neuenkamp

9. Gasometer Oberhausen: Das zerbrechliche Paradies

10. DUS-BZO Sky Plus (Y) BQ1953(BN)


1. Introduction

Here we go again, another rolling trip report with experiences that appear to be unique as well as being somehow bizarre. At the same time I revisit some places I've already been to, such as the Dautermann winery near Mainz, and the Holiday Inn Express in Wiesbaden. As far as hotels go, it can be useful to submit updated reviews of the same property in case there have been any changes or improvements. And for flights, every flight is a different experience! The same could be said of the sometimes numerous hikes that I do.


This shop doubles up as the shop where Wilsberg has his antiquarian bookshop in the TV series Detective Wilsberg

Among the less usual reports coming up are flights with the boutique airline SkyAlps which is based in Bolzano in the Alto Adige region of alpine North Italy, also known as the Südtirol. The point of this trip was to make a pilgrimage to Dobbiaco (Toblach), where Gustav Mahler wrote his 9th and 10th symphonies, as well as the song cycle Das Lied von der Erde. I would then spend time with my university friend (we graduated from Edinburgh University at the same time) on the shores of Lake Garda.


Lago Di Dobbiaco - Toblacher See

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There appeared to be an utter dearth of special offers with the airlines this summer and given the uptick in travel with full flights there clearly wasn't any need to attract flying customers. In fairness, the flights with SkyAlps to Bolzano/Bozen were priced much higher, as would be expected from a boutique airline with top quality inflight service. My attention was taken by other offers that appeared on Flyertalk and the blogs, such as Etihad offering a fare from Rome to Abu Dhabi for €70 (to head off competition from Wizz Air), with the return flight being €50. Other excitement was generated by KLM offering an Economy fare from Billund to Dublin via Amsterdam for €124-130, which would have yielded some cheap XPs. To be honest, despite taking advantage of the double XP offers during Corona, I think it's still going to be a bit of a struggle to make Platinum for Life with Air France KLM. I'm just over two thirds of the way there, but flight fares have risen considerably and those relatively cheap business class fares with a double transfer in both AMS and CDG have gone.


Boarding a SkyAlps plane at BZO Bolzano airport

The train companies, on the other hand, continued to offer a reliable service with often very low prices, given the distances traversed. On one occasion, in early July, I scored an upgrade to 1st class for only CHF8.20 (Montreux to Basel). Deutsche Bahn had a good variety of Sparpreis options at reasonably short notice, although I mostly used my €49 Deutschland Ticket.


The exterior of the Wiesbaden opera house (Staatstheater Wiesbaden)

The hotels had numerous extra points offers, but none of them really rocked my boat. I was too busy trying to qualify for IHG Rewards Platinum the hard way, helped by buying extra points packages. The summer IHG offer was 2,000 points after every two nights or 10,000 points after every 4 nights: I chose the latter, needless to say. Hilton had a decent 2,000 extra points per stay offer, but I am finding it difficult to find a use for the Hilton group these days, mainly due to the lack of hotels where I need to go, but also because of the high prices. The biggest news came from the Expedia owned hotels.com, where the hotels.com Rewards program has been gutted. Expedia wants to move all of its brands onto one platform, but the hotels.com program was so simple and user friendly because it offered one free night to the value of 10% of the previous 10 stays. Why Expedia would want to alienate a large and profitable customer base is beyond me.


Holiday Inn Osnabrück

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Today's trip started fairly early (08h17) but every connection, in Lausanne and then in Bern, was seamless and without any delays. I had pre-booked an upgrade to 1st class, which cost only CHF8.20 all the way from Montreux to Basel. This was a Supersaver upgrade on top of my Abonnement General, which is for 2nd class travel. I managed to sleep a little bit too, although I was wary of sleeping through the change of train in Berne and missing the connection.


When leaving Lausanne on the train to Bern the track rises up through the vineyards before heading inland through a tunnel (at Puidoux)


Standard 1st class seating on Swiss SBB trains

At Basel I made my way to Markthalle, despite it being Sunday, and found that some of the food stalls were actually open and serving food. This time, after wandering around sniffing the possibilities, I selected the Acento Argentino where I had a surprisingly good steak (I am no fan of meat in Switzerland) for only CHF24 with nicely done potatoes and glazed vegetables. I have yet to be disappointed in the Markthalle. I grabbed a coffee from Coop pronto (not the best, I know) and went to catch my next train, which would take me to Mainz.


The Argentinian food stall where I ate in the Markthalle in Basel


Standard 2nd class seating in a Deutsche Bahn marketed (but Swiss SBB operated) train on the trip from Basel to Mainz

This train, which had the number EC8, turned out to be operated by a Swiss SBB train and was perfectly comfortable in 2nd class. It helped that it wasn't full and I had nice seat neighbours all the way to Mainz. I decided not to upgrade this 3 hour trip (Super Sparpreis which cost EUR27.65) and I felt that I had made the right decision. The only negative thing about it being operated by a Swiss train was that there was no WiFi connection, but I had plenty of other things to be working on. In Mainz I had half an hour to wait before the next train, which I used to wander around the station and go outside into the heat. The 10 minute trip to Ingelheim in a regional train was pleasant but I realized that I had sat in 1st class without realising it!


In Mainz station, boarding the regional train to Ingelheim

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This can be an expensive mistake.

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Yes, got away with it this time.
In Switzerland, there are discussions about raising the fine for schwarz fahren to CHF260 !

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Well, we were anything but rolling on the floor at the Dautermann winery in the end, but we certainly did a lot of tasting. At the speed at which Simon was tasting everything, with me trying to keep up with him, we got close to rolling on the tasting table anyway. The younger Corentin, who opted to not drink, offered to drive us to the hotel in Wiesbaden later.


Exterior of the Dautermann winery


Entrance to the Dautermann tasting room..you can just see the boys in there

The Dautermann family had kindly agreed to open the winery on a Sunday afternoon for us, so we could do a wine tasting and buy some cartons of wine. Spookily, they had googled me and saw all my musical activities, so they were excitedly recounting how the Thomanerchor, the boys choir of St Thomas in Leipzig, came to visit Ingelheim and the winery! The wines are worth tasting every year and on every visit, because there are subtle taste changes to each batch - or barrel - of wine. We each ordered several cartons of wine, with Corentin ordering on behalf of his father.


Tasting and taking notes that got more scrawly the more wine we drank


A selection of Dautermann's many excellent wines

I enjoyed all the cheaper level Dautermann wines, especially the Weisser Burgunder and Blanc de Blancs, although the Gewürztraminer disappointed me somewhat (I am too used to the herby wines from Alsace). At the higher level, the Pinot Blanc "Limestone" was an interesting wine indeed. The crème de la crème was the Pinot Gris "Twist" and the Riesling Kirchenstück, both fine white wines. On this trip we tasted only the white wine range and a couple of rosé wines at the very end. Dautermann is also making gin and vodka these days!

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In Switzerland everything was always a little more expensive.

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This was my second visit to the HIX Wiesbaden, the first being last year on nearly the same date. I was with pals and I booked two separate rooms. The hotel was fairly easy to find from the Autobahn and there was parking space available both outside and under the hotel, for €9.50 per stay. Check-in was reasonably efficient but I had to ask for my status benefits, such as the welcome drink (300 bonus points for each room were credited to my account).


Holiday Inn Express Wiesbaden


Main entrance to the HIX Wiesbaden

The rooms were comfortable enough in appearance, with the design belonging to the modern Holiday Inn Express type hotels. However, the bed and bedclothes were a total disaster, extremely uncomfortable with beds that were far too short, giving all of us a really bad night. There were good enough seating possibilities in the room and even a desk, but no storage space or cupboards whatsoever. The bathroom design and fittings were standard HIX with no bathtub, but perfectly serviceable with, most importantly, enough space to turn around in.


This seating area was used as the breakfast room


This is the bar, which adjoins the check-in area

The free drinks that we were offered as part of my status benefits were a bit of a damp squib too. The white wine was so bad that none of us finished our glasses. In Germany, it is much safer to ask for beer rather than wine in such a situation, where the hotel is cheapskate. The breakfast was similarly cheapskate, with what was obviously the cheapest products, whether muesli or cheese. So I won't be coming back here in a hurry. I cannot recommend the HIX Wiesbaden because there are plenty of other good independent hotels in the city.There are many Americans living in Wiesbaden because of the military base there and just next to the hotel was a traditional American style fairground (Kirmes in German). It was very colourful and we wandered around it, observing the large police presence.


The bed and bedclothes made for an uncomfortable night at the HIX Wiesbaden


Standard Holiday Inn Express bathroom fittings

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Wiesbaden, with its broad boulevards and open park areas, feels unusually spacious and is not a typical German city in appearance. No wonder, with the huge American population thanks to the military base nearby, but Simon had already decided that he didn't like the place. Certainly, Mainz is more cosy and has a pretty old town with timber framed buildings and endless wine bars and cafes. But for me, Wiesbaden is curiously attractive and at one point in the past I nearly ended up working at the Stadttheater (opera house), which is located in parkland near the huge Kursaal, or Casino.


Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, front view



Marktkirche, Wiesbaden


Downtown Wiesbaden


The Kursaal, next to the Staatstheater (opera house)

The eating and bar scene definitely wasn't vibrant like it is in Mainz, but in the evening Corentin found a pretty cool steakhouse, Sombrero Latino, which pleased Simon no end. The tacos, nachos and empanadas were outstanding and we ended up ordering far too much food. The old streets of the city center had a certain charm and the Marktplatz contained the great Marktkirche cathedral. In various parts of the old city there were hot springs in the form of fountains with taps pouring out the scalding salty water - notices everywhere advised people to not drink too much of the heavily mineralised water. We got a taste of the American presence in the city when we went to the colourful fairground near the hotel, which was surprisingly pleasant (and I am not really into fairgrounds). The lack of drunkenness and disorderly behaviour was refreshing, probably due to the huge police presence throughout the grounds. In the city can a sort of hamman can also be found, where you can bath in the hot thermal waters.


One of the many hot water fountains in Wiesbaden


The temporary fairground near the Holiday Inn Express hotel

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I can't exactly say I have much recent experience with Holiday Inns. My last stay was a long time ago. While I would have expected a simple breakfast with inexpensive products, I was surprised by the inadequate bed because there is normally some quality group standard. On the other hand, I have also had miserable beds in significantly more expensive hotels.

Fabo.sk

This is even a Holiday Inn Express, a very basic hotel indeed.... but, I did stay at some over the time when all I wanted was a cheap bed and then get on with it in the morning, and never had a bad experience with a bed, so to read that is concerning.

I've only stayed in Wiesbaden once (passing through on a cross-continent drive, so no city visit) and stayed in the Marriott. That one was very American in character, but did its job well.

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Actually, I'm quite fond of the Holiday Inn Express brand because it's got a consistency to it. With HIX hotels you know what you are going to get so that makes them dependable, somehow.

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The beginning of the walk after leaving the parking lot near Brüggen


The Venekotensee, a lake created on an old opencast mine

It's hard to describe where this walk is. Even looking at the map myself I get totally lost in a no-man's land near Roermond in the Netherlands. The walk is on the German side of the border, somewhere between Roermond and Mönchengladbach, with Venlo to the north. The nearest small town is Brüggen and the walk follows the river Schwalm through forest and heathland just a couple of kilometres west of Brüggen. The river setting is quite idyllic and the light streams down through the forest, making it quite a beautiful walk. Having said that, there are not any famous landscapes, old buildings or even pretty villages with timber framed houses. It's could be a forest walk just about anywhere in northern europe. But it's a nice one and worth doing if you want to just have a walk that takes just two hours to complete in a beautiful environment .


The first part of the walk follows the river Schwalm


Parts of the hike are through a protected area on wooden boardwalks


Towards the end of this walk the route passes through open farmland

The riverside part of the walk near the beginning goes past two sizeable lakes, which were created in the place of open cast mines. Once the walk turns away from the river you come to a short boardwalk section, which showcases the natural environment of the woods and heathland. A bit later there is a lookout tower that you can climb up for a great view of the entire area. Later on you re-enter the forest and the track eventually leads to the first houses at the edge of Venekoten village. This is the only point where you encounter a notable building, as you approach a modern house that has been totally covered in traditional thatching. Immediately after the house you turn sharp left to continue the walking route, which gives you the chance to see the entirety of the building . Watch out because it is easy to miss this turning onto an unsurfaced track. The remainder of the route through the village of Venekoten is, unfortunately, not so interesting. After skirting the village and passing a parking area you re-enter the same woods where you started, so you get a taste of the forest beauty again at the conclusion of the walk.


An elaborate observation platform in the middle of the nature reserve


View over the nature reserve from the observation platform


The extraordinary thatched house later during the walk

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This is the longest hike in the Rother book for the region of the Ruhrgebiet and at 8h15 it is appropriately marked as a red hike. The red grading can be attributed to its length and nothing else, because there were no issues in finding the way and the walk had no particular difficulties, despite three significant but short uphill stretches. I completed this hike in the heat of summer and we decided to break it into two parts, leaving the car at the midpoint at Uhlenhorst forest car park. Just getting to the start point at Kettwig was challenging though, because the tram 102 from Uhlenhorst was cancelled and with just one bus an hour from Mülheim an der Ruhr we reached Kettwig an hour later than planned. Similarly, at the end of the second part of the hike at Rheindeich in Duisburg the scheduled bus did not appear, making it challenging to get back to Uhlenhorst to pick up the car. In the Ruhrgebiet I have always complained that the VRR public transport network is poor and grossly inadequate, with stupid prices that are much higher than those in Switzerland (Preisstufe B is now €6.30). It has now developed to the point where it is completely unreliable.


Timber frame houses in Essen-Kettwig


River Ruhr at Essen-Kettwig

Having taken the bus to the final stop of Kettwig Markt, we tramped across town enjoying the timber framed houses and the passage across the Ruhr river. The start point was at the S-Bahn station of Kettwig-Stausee, but the station is closed and there isn't a single train running. At the beginning of the walk you have to follow the route description in detail because it is not easy to determine exactly where it goes. It doglegs behind the station and you have to walk along Charlottenhofstrasse as it leads up into the woods, full of heavy traffic. Once you reach the point where the X and XR markings appear on the trees you cross the road and descend steeply on a small trail in the woods. The X marking will accompany us all the way to the end of the walk, where the Ruhr river meets the Rhine. It is not necessary to give details along the whole route because you just have to follow the X markings all the way. However, you need to keep an eye on the route description in the book and on the Alpenvereinaktiv app, because often the route is not very well marked. When climbing up under the Autobahn bridge from Mintard, with its church dating from 879, there is an unsigned right hand turn when the way finally levels out and you finally reach the top. Similarly, in the Kaiserberg park near Duisburg Zoo there is an unsigned left turn and later, at the Kaiserberg Autobahn and railway junction, the way is a bit of a nightmare due to extensive endless roadworks.


Rindersberger Mühle, a fully operating mill complete with turning wheel


On the way through the woods to Mintard, where the big bridge across the Ruhr is (A52 Autobahn)

This crossing of the A3 and A40 Autobahns along with some of the most busy railway lines in Germany certainly throws another aspect of this walk into stark relief, that of an overloaded road and rail infrastructure. Since the highway collapse in Genoa there has been a sudden flurry of highway and railway bridge replacements, revealing an element of panic about the rundown nature of almost everything in Germany.


Mintard church, dating from the year 879


Idyllic part of the walk through the Duisburg forest


The walk passes under the A3 and over the A40 at Kaiserberg, one of the busiest road junctions in Europe

From here, the walking route follows the calm banks of the Ruhr river all the way down to the confluence with the mighty Rhine. The walk is pleasant, but on this stretch there are no woods offering protection from the sun. After passing under some highway bridges including the A59 we reach another permanent construction site, that of replacing the Karl-Lehr Brücke complex, the last bridge before we reach the Rhine. This was the most horrible part of the walk, where we had to leave the riverside and walk around the construction area. The road was choked with heavy trucks and there was no pedestrian crossing on Ruhrorter Straße which heads across the existing bridge. It was a question of dodging across the road through the traffic, waving the trucks and cars down, then tramping the best part of a kilometer along a narrow sidewalk to the accompaniment of fumes from the line of slowly moving trucks. This section in its own right elevates the walk to red status, IMO. The walk's inglorious end was at the Rheindeich bus stop a couple of kilometers further south in Duisburg Neuenkamp, just on the other side of the A42 Autobahn. Needless to say I had an endless wait for a bus to show up, following a couple of cancellations, and waiting in the heat was not fun. Great walk overall, though, there's a bit of everything from the 15th century mill at Kettwig to the new Autobahn A52 bridge to the peace of the Duisburg forest.


Another highway bridge over the Ruhr river, this time the A59


Finally, the confluence of the Rhine and Ruhr rivers

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Especially in northern Germany these are almost the norm in some areas.