Day # 21 Bad Honnef to Bad Honningen

      Just beat the school party down to the youth hostel breakfast room, so as to uptake our ration of wheaties & cornflakes before it was all consumed! We were rewarded this morning for our struggle up a long winding hill last night to the youth hostel by a pleasant roll back down hill to the eastern Rhine river bank followed by a turn to the left to resume the walk south wards. At this point the high cliffs are pinching in  on the Rhine so as to narrow the river substantially. Note an almost total absence of the massive river barges and tourist boats in this area and have discussed the reasons for this. The river water level seems to be almost dangerously low with implications for navigation of such large vessels. The reason could be the serious recession in Europe and the down turn in commerce & tourist visitor traffic. Indeed, the small quaint towns seem very quiet and almost devoid of the bus tours and pensioners  that one would have expected to be wandering the local streets in the warm sunny weather currently prevailing.
          Suffered a couple times today from foot paths that literally came to a dead end. As mentioned, the streets, train tracks and river banks are tightly squeezed between water and towering cliffs into a very narrow strip alongside the river and the pedestrian seems to be the one who loses out in the battle for a right of way.

Dattenberg on Rhine.

           The towns are pure Rhineland, gabled and framed and appear to be quite ancient, although I suspect that they are of largely post war reconstruction due to the  massive devastation that the area experienced in ''44-45" during the US Army Rhine crossing. Walked past the terminal anchors of the bridge at Remagen that function as part of a museum project on the west bank. Never replaced at wars end, the bridge has been replaced by a ferry.
        Arrived at our target destination of Bad Honningen and quickly secured overnight accommodation at an attractive and friendly pension/guest house, located directly under a picture book fairy tale schloss or castle.

22.1 kms. walked today per Google Maps.
363.5 Cumulative kms. walked.
Type of overnight lodging:  Pension guest house
Cost of lodging:  37E.