Moseying on the Mosel

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We are moseying, well, cruising, on the Mosel River in Germany. Tall hills on both sides of the river, and most of the hills are covered in vines -- as in the grape variety. The Mosel is noted for some fine wines, with white being the predominant style. The soil is full of slate, which absorbs heat during the day and slowly releases it during the cool nights. We are at a latitude of roughly the same as Quebec, so this is a cool country. Caring for the vines is very labor intensive, the hills are very steep, and about five trips through the vines are required every year, for trimming, harvesting, etc. The pay is low, so the German people don't want to do the hard work for low pay, so whole villages from Romania come to Germany and work harvesting crops -- from asparagus to grapes. They are willing to work for lower wages -- similar to bringing people from Mexico to work in the California fields.



Due to all these factors -- labor intensive, small crops, etc -- the German government exempts wine from the normal tax most goods incur. If this tax was imposed on the wine, it would be too expensive, people wouldn't buy it, and many people would be out of work. Politicians know this isn't good for re-elections, hence the exemption.



We took a guided tour of a huge castle today in the village of Cochem. It was furnished with 17-18th century furniture, and we had an interesting guide to explain all. Small vans took us to the top of the very tall hill on which the castle was located. Very interesting excursion.



I have mentioned how tasty and we'll-presented all the food is. For breakfast one can have an omelette, eggs cooked in any style, and there is a huge buffet with oatmeal, fruit, various pastries, bacon, sausage, pancakes, and the list goes on...Burp! Excuse me...(grin)...Here is just on example -- our lunch menu for today: soup: Pepper Pot, chicken cream soup with diced bell pepper, or cranberry yogurt fruit flip. Entree: Nuernberger potato pancake served with Bavarian Leberkaese; or, open face chicken sandwich with fried potato wedges, salad garnish; or, self serve buffet; or, sandwich with smoked trout tartar, or a pasta station. For desert a choice of home made plum cake with cinnamon sauce; or, chocolate ice cream with rum marinated pineapple, whipped cream and chocolate flakes. Yum!



We are cruising along, looking at the scenery, I'm sipping a Manhattan and Zee is sipping in a Margarita. Ah, love this mode of travel. Later we will ease our way into another gourmet dinner -- and I really mean they do a fantastic job on preparing and presenting meals. I won't bore you with further details. We've lost our wifi connection -- probably the rain has blocked out our signal from satellite, so I hope I can save this blog somehow, as I start out typing this connected to the TravelBlog website.....Jim

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