Blogs from Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, Europe - page 16

t's been a big day! I stayed in a little pension, which in this case means a few rooms above a business. My room was fine; I could turn around in the bathroom AND in the shower! However, the business below was a nice little open-air bar that had a party going until 4:00 a.m. I considered the addage, “If you can't beat 'em, join 'em”, but I just couldn't do it! I had breakfast on their little breakfast terrace. European breakfasts are always a little quirky to us Americans; there was an assortment of what we could call lunch meat, some cheese, and hard rolls. Cochem is a really pretty, traditional German town which sits on the edge of the Mosel River, and like most of these little towns, there is a castle on the ... read more

We woke to more sprinkles so everything was wet and the snails and slugs were out. Brian went for an early run and Amy went for a walk around the neighborhood. One of Brian’s distant cousins, Christy, from America is stationed in Germany and is an Army MP. She came around lunch for a visit and brought here little two-year old boy. We didn’t get to spend too much time with her but the Aunts had a nice visit while we were gone. Osse and Nik (the dog) came to fetch us to attend a local bike race. Over 500 brave souls raced “Klapprads” (folding bikes with no gears). They raced 6.5 km up the 673m tall Kalmit mountain - in crazy costumes! This is an annual event and the theme this year was Winter. We ... read more

We woke up to a little rain. A small front must have come through because Amy had one of her headaches. Another hearty breakfast and lovely soup for lunch. Everything tastes better here. The sun came through later and we decided to explore a little of Edigheim. We always get lost when we walk around here and this time was no exception. We recovered quickly and got home in time for a short nap before we headed out for the evening. Tonight’s big entertainment is in Bad Durkheim, along the German Wine Road. One of the landmarks of Bad Durkheim is the world's largest wine barrel. We’ve been here before on earlier visits and decided to document it again with Brian and Osse. It holds 44 million gallons of wine but has been transformed into a ... read more

Monday 2ndSept Cologne to Pommern, Mosel Valley 96 miles RHINE & MOSELLE VALLEY Left the campsite at 9.15am and drove via Bruhl, Wesseling and Bonn (all very built up and quite horrible drive with a congloberation of motorways!!) and eventually got to Konigswinter, which in comparison was surprisingly quite pretty! Found the cog train comparatively easily, considering the lack of signs and paid the 10 euros for the return journey to the ruins of Kongswinter castle. Fantastic views of the Upper Rhine although still a little hazy in the distance. Not much of the old ruined castle left but still good to see! Drove through Linz and had our lunch stop at Bad Honnigen which also proved to be a pretty little village that went right down to the waters edge. Lots of old half timbered ... read more

Now in the Mosel wine region and the lanscape, culture and tourist's have changed. It's g one from young families to old wino's like us. Drive today was about 2 hours in total so a fairly relaxed day. After a cycle to the town and a walk around we settled in for the evening with Chris on the laptop, Sue head in her puzzle book and me doing Blog and facebook. Camp site is right on the river so its been quite nice watching all the river traffic as the sun set behind the hills. No fixed plan for tomorrow so just a few more miles to get out the way to get closer to Spa on Friday. Excitement growing and crossing fingers for the weather.... read more