finding Hotels

     I had decided to make this holiday a totally non camping journey, i would just book hotels as i went, the same way as i had done when i was with Cameron going across Europe in the car, it seems easy to find a hotel in any big city i have ever visited nowadays, next year will be different but this trip and the next along the Danube will be hotels
      i had pre booked my London hotel and Arnhem before leaving home, London was a faff Arnhem was perfect the only complaint and not the hotels fault! was the stupid city tax many European cities charge a tourist tax its only 2 euros something sometime 10 most times 30 sometimes 50 cents its the cities choice, theres talk of Edinburgh starting this malarky i hope not, i paid 3.30 cash it has to be cash at xanten and then also 2,30 at Dusseldorf, which is obviously Germany and Netherlands i know Belgium is also the same, when me and cammy travelled across Europe twice we realised it was just a lottery where did and where didn't charge tourist tax at hotels,

       arriving in cologne i approached reception my phone switched on and open to my booking ,com app. this is my preferred app for hotel booking every ten bookings i get what they call a night free but it ends up a percentage of the price you have paid over the ten stays, which is fine i have had three hotel night now at a reduced rate due to having ten loyalty stays on this app,
      the hotel i was looking at cologne was £10 cheaper on the App than it was at reception so i told the girl i would just book it on line she told me to take a seat and book it then come back, which i done. when i went back her manager or whatever he was, was with her they were chatting in German and talking prices he wasn't chuffed the hotel couldn't compete with the app she was fine but he was being proper arsey! my app said i had paid all taxes he insisted i paid the tourist tax now cash, no problem 2 ,30 euros my receipt please lol where do i pout my bike? now he had me the bawbag yes the garage is for cars we are not insured for bikes, oh yeh insured for a brand new Porsche but not my auld country traveller lol, here is the address of secure bicycle parking at the train station wait i shall show you the way sir. Oh Aye Nae Bovver the auld girl got stripped down and parked on the street!! ive left her worse places! the room was fine no worries that way i didn't pay to have breakfast but its a big city maybe that would have been the price difference
     

   the problem with stripping the bike down was all the tools the pump my lights cycle computer poncho all had to be put in bags to go to the room, these were essential items for the road BUT only when you need them so i set off the next day with all that stuff in a backpack not to hand, there is also that strange worry at the bottom of your stomach you get when you are walking across a busy market square panniers in hand wondering if your bike will still be there! i once got my hut broken into at home and my bike stolen its a horrible feeling to be standing all dressed for a cycle to discover your bike gone and then instead of travelling you are phoning the police
         I just shoved the bag with the lights and stuff in it on the back of the bike and bungied it down i do like my bungie straps, next stay was in Bonn I had a bit of banter and a laugh with the girl at reception she gave me the tourist tax form to fill out in my room, i can pay in the morning. i had chosen that hotel as it had a pool i never used that pool, i did fill out the form but in the morning i took the shoogly elevator down to the garage where the bike was locked up put the keys in the left keys box and sneaked away without paying tourist tax feeling very naughty and laughing to myself for being a law breaker,
           on arrival at koblenz i was in the city centre having a beer with joey i checked my app the hotels city centre were expensive, there was one which i thought was further up the rhine in the right direction a bit cheaper £55 the app said 2.1 miles from your current location (nae problem thinks I)!! absolutely wrong i got so bloody lost trying to find it and it w\s in the wrong direction a different river altogether that feeds into the Rhine i was uphill among a housing estate it was by then dark the bike lights had been packed away in the backpack when i had stripped it down it was drizzling rain, it took me hours to find the hotel in the suburbs and got there as the receptionist was closing up the bar i ordered a beer, i was on the third floor bike locked up out the back two bottles of beer for my room third floor up ten thirty at night, i crashed out without drinking the opened bottles of beer totally knackered,
        in Mainz i learned from my mistakes i would only be staying in a hotel near to where i had stopped cycling, I was in a bar called sixties and the nearest hotel at a good price was called just the postal address it was a good deal though £45, i found it easy enough even though there was no big hotel sign and it was on a street corner, it was an electronic check in you put your booking reference number in a screen and then inserted a door card into a scanner for it to be activated, I hope this isn't the future i like a reception check in! of course it had to be the fifth floor after nearly 70 miles of cycling, also no secure place to keep my bike the auld girl was locked up alone in the street again, stripped of her lights again which i will now put back on in the mornings!