Hello all.

It’s been an interesting few. You may recall that my last email was from Luxembourg; I spent a few more days there and remain impressed. The city itself is like something out of a fairytale, especially at night or in the early morning fog, and the youth hostel itself was pretty good form as well. Outside of the city, the towns are pretty basic, but for such a small country it had one unexpected treasure – possibly the best collection of photographs ever assembled, the Family of Man collection (http://www.moma.org/research/archives/highlights/06_1955.html), which has made its permanent home in the castle of a small Luxembourg town called Clervaux. The collection itself was both stunningly well-presented and very moving, so, uh, if ever you find yourself at a loose end in Luxembourg, it comes recommended.

I then moved into Germany, with the intention of spending a night in Trier before wending my way up the Mosel. Trier, however, was unexpectedly full; despite having no major festivals, all three of its hostels were pasked out, and even the owners of cowsheds were unsympathetic to my claims of incipient immaculate conception (apparently, these days, the policy is No Guiding Star, No Manger, and a lot of them are athiests anyway). This forced my hand somewhat, so I instead made tracks for Koblenz.

Koblenz is a decent-sized city, notable for the fact that it stands at the meeting point of the Mosel and the Rhine, two of Europe’s most important rivers. Alas, like many German cities, it was totally destroyed by the Allies during the war, and never really recovered. The youth hostel, however, is in the privileged position of occupying the citadel overlooking the city, and consequentially has stunning views. I stayed there for a few nights; it may not be much of a city but it is very nice to look at.

I spend the days roaming the area. The Rhine Valley is a ridiculous, although admittedly gorgeous, kind of place. The river has dug a pretty deep trench into the dense forests of the region, but the slopes on either side play host to another castle literally every half-mile; it’s fair to say that at any time you have at least three of them within easy walking distance. The town of St Goar has probably the most spectacular – a labyrinthine beast that demonstrates just how lucrative taxation and piracy on the Rhine really was. It was spectacular, but all I could think of was how awesome it would be to play Hide and Seek in. When I’m rich, I’m paying for us all to go to St Goar and play Hide and Seek in the castle. This is a promise, guys. Don’t let me out of it.

I met some cool people there too – a pair old old American dudes called Dan and Bill, who apparently come to Europe every two years, and a couple, also American, called Jimmy and Katrina; Jimmy showed me the ring he was going to propose to Katrina with, which was cute, although to be honest they were a pretty weird match, he an ex-dopehead second hand car salesman, she a finance graduate with a decent brain. Hey, perhaps there’s a shortage of guys like me in America. A niche to be filled! Haha, let’s finish dealing with Germany first.

So after a few days of that, today I made for Frankfurt. Again, no crib for a bed – apparently it’s the famous international car show, which means that the youth hostels are jammed out. Wait a second! International car show? International! Car! show. You guys should be in hotels, not taking hostel space so that backpackers like me have to trek from city to city just looking for a sodding bed. If you can’t afford a hotel then you’re definately too poor to be at something describing itself as an international car show, right? Gah.

Yeah, sour grapes, I know.

Anyway. I’m now in Mainz, which is nonedescript (although it does contain two of the last remaining Gutenberg bibles, which I will probably seek out), and tomorrow I’m heading back to Frankfurt for another try. After a few days, from thence to Köln (Cologne), probably for the best part of a week, as I really want to explore that region – the Reformation is probably my favorite period of European history, and a lot of it happened there, particularly the short-lived Anabaptist theocratic proto-socialist revolution in Münster. None of the Germans I meet believe me when I tell them that I’m avoiding Munich until much, much later. I look forward to deserted youth hostels in Dusseldörf, at least.

That’s all to report; as usual, feel free to hit me back with any news or gos.