Mosel Meanderings

It’s our last week or so on this wonderful trip so we have decided to slow down a little and enjoy the sunshine and grape vines – with a little walking and cycling.  Plus of course some wine tasting!  Although, so far, we haven’t found any we particularly liked, the reds a bit thin and the whites much too perfumed.  Maybe we have been spoilt with some of the lovely wines we have enjoyed in the traditional wine producing countries?

Cochem Castle

On arrival at the mid-point of the Mosel near Cochem (in the pouring rain) we thought we had arrived in Wales!  Dark skies, dark buildings with dark slate roofs and steep dark sides to the river valley – quite a change to the Austrian & Bavarian landscape.  However as the weather improved and we started our meandering south along the river towards Trier, the valley widened and the hillsides became softer - very pleasant indeed.  There are plenty of campsites and stellplatz along the way so an ideal trip for motorhomers.  Everyone is so friendly and helpful here in Germany even though we speak very little German most people try to converse with us.

An overnight Stellplatz

Travelling south we passed through an ornate bridge gateway across the river at Traben-Trarbach and stopped for a walk.  An even better place was Bernkastel-Kues where the smaller old town on the east side of the river was a delight, with lovely old timber framed buildings dating back to the 1400’s.  We have noticed in these towns that there are markers showing where the flood waters have risen throughout the centuries, and they have had some very deep floods. 

 

The river is very twisting and in places doubles back on itself. There are pleasure boats carrying day trippers, large cruise boats that have accommodation and working barges carrying all manner of commercial cargo.  Some are well down in the water, weighed down by their loads whilst others which are empty sit quite high in the water.  And the length of them! ……. it’s a wonder they can get around the bends.  We even noticed a long one today that was articulated in the middle so that’s the answer!

Staying at Piesport (where the Piesporter wine comes from) we cycled along the river to the next town of Neumagen-Dhron where we were reminded of course, that it was the Romans who introduced the idea of wine making to this region.  Roman artefacts can be seen around the town from the large Roman settlement that was here in 200AD including a replica of one of the boats used to carry the goods up and down stream.  The stone boat in the photo is from a wealthy wine merchant’s tombstone and carved in the style of the Roman boat.

NEWS FLASH: We are staying at Trittenheim today and took a wander into the town.  We passed a wine producer who had parking spaces for two motorhomes and a shop for tasting and buying wine.  Out of curiosity we looked in and discovered we could try six different wines for the princely sum of 8 € and they even served a warm pretzel to accompany the wine. The wines were very nice! And we ended up buying two bottles of 2010 ‘Alte Reben’ Trittenheimer Apotheke Riesling Spatlase Feinherb white wine.  So despite our previous comment about Mosel wine we would now like to correct that and state that we do like the wine – if it’s direct from the grower that is.   It’s just a much subtler taste than we are used to.

As I write this I realise that this time next week we will be back in the UK ……. so we hope you have enjoyed following our travels and hope to see you soon.

Motorhomes what we have seen!

As we have travelled along the byways of Europe we have seen many motohomes of differing makes and sizes.  Some old, and some new.  But all more or less following traditional design and layouts – white boxes on wheels.  However, since we arrived in Germany we have noticed that the Germans have quite a different idea of motorhoming.  The following pictures were taken at just one place we were staying:

An old but simple VW Camper with the roof extension

Another small VW Camper but with a little decoration

A young couple, who parked next to us in their yellow VW Camper, unloaded three canvas bags and proceeded to assemble the frame for a two-man kayak.  The skin was waterproofed canvas.  Speaking with them they mentioned that it was 40 years old and they had only purchased it two weeks earlier – this was it’s maiden voyage.  The last we saw of them was when they were wheeling it down to the lake.  When we came back from the beach they had gone!  So we don’t know if the voyage was successful – if you are reading this please let us know.

Something for the weekend sir? A little more exotic, a pick-up truck with a removable ‘camper’ extension!

Another, although larger, ‘camper’ extension.

An older, and somewhat psychedelic variation on a theme.

A ‘pumped up’ and compact 4x4 camper van.

One of a pair of 4x4’s that arrived late in the evening.  The kayak had to be removed from the roof before the ‘pop-top’ could be opened.  Note the slide-out kitchen & refrigerator.

The second late arrival.  The penthouse suite is in the tent on the roof and the ladder to reach it is behind the long modesty curtain!

And after dark the ground trembled as these two hunks rumbled in!  Obviously ex-army, but of quite different vintage.

And little old us!

One that got away (no photo) – a car came trundling into one place we stayed at and it was towing the rear end of a Ford Mondeo estate that had been made into a trailer, complete with the tailgate door.  The next morning Jean noticed the sleeping arrangements were in the trailer.

Some additions:

This one was parked in a camp site.

This was her husbands work truck, they just plopped the caravan 

on the flat-bed when they wanted to go away!

We thought this was the local bus pulling in, but it is was a motorhome!

Immaculate 1960's Bus - fully converted into a motorhome.