Today we tied up in the industrial town of Duisburg and took a bus trip to the town of Xanten. Xanten is famous for a few things. One of Henry XIII’s wives, Anne of Cleves came from hereabouts. It is the only German town with a name starting with an “X” and there was a large Roman town here.
They have taken the site of the Roman town and built some (in my opinion not very convincing) replicas of Roman buildings. To show how big it was they have laid out paths where the roads would have been and our guide took us to the middle of an exposed field and started talking and talking and talking and talking and an icy wind was blowing and everyone was freezing.
Eventually she stopped and we had a look inside their replica buildings. The only mildly convincing one was the colosseum. The reality here was that all Roman relics worth seeing had been removed from this site by the Middle Ages and all they have left are some building foundations and a couple of Roman drains.
Eventually we left the Roman park and headed for the town. At last, I thought, we can get into the town and out of the freezing wind but no. We stopped outside at a map of the town and the icy wind blew and the guide talked and talked.
Finally we got into the town. A pretty enough place. One of the gates in the town walls survives.
An enterprising chap had converted one of the remaining town wall towers into a windmill which was working away grinding wheat.
Eventually we escaped into a coffee shop and sat in the warmth till it was time to return to the buses.
Hardys’ Travels 