Friday 28th June - Schierstein

We have decided to stay here for five nights, so first of all we had to find another mooring for four nights.  The ‘boys’ walked over to the next yacht club and were told that we could stay on the guest pontoon  - no problem.  We moved over around 10 a.m. before it got too hot and settled in. The man they spoke to was very nice and told them that the little tent at the end of the pontoon would be open for drinks at 6 o’clock and that we were welcome to join them.......nice!
Late morning we walked into town to find the chandlery, looking for a chart of the Mosel which we will be navigating in August, after our summer break in Blighty.  A twenty minute walk in the growing heat of the day found us at the chandlery and asking the man there for a chart.  Disappointingly, he said that they were no longer published.........time to find a beer!
We found a bierkellar on the waterfront which had a menu.  They also had a special board with prawn cocktail on it - that’s what we went for!  Again......it was huge and came with toast.
Just after 6 p.m. we made our way to the tent, for a couple of beers we thought!  We were warmly welcomed and tried to fathom out what the system was.  They had brought some snacks and salads and meat was being cooked on two portable cookers.  It seems that, once a month, they meet there and have a ‘jolly’- bringing their own food and notching up drinks on a notepad.  We started with beer but graduated to pretty decent white wine (beer on a ‘special’ at €1 and a large glass of wine at €2!) and eventually got chatting to the people on our table. I’m afraid to say that the conversation was in English.....our German is simply not good enough!!
So, instead of a couple of beers, we ended up staying for three and a half hours - was a lovely interesting evening.
A film before bed.