Mosel River Day Two

Monte had not really considered looking for a B&B with air-conditioning in Germany. He was thinking it would cool and possibly rainy. Think again! It was quite warm yesterday and even hotter today. When we left the states it had been cool, so we never did get use to the CA heat. And then here, there is no air-conditioning. The only cooler places are stone churches. We are also on the third floor of our B & B and the temperature raises considerably with each floor. But, it does make the view beautiful!

Today we took a boat ride up the Mosel, walked around Cochem, a village a couple towns away, and then decided to get in our air-conditioned car and drive around.
This is the castle in Cochem, a view from the boat ride.








It is expected to get to about 39 degrees C, about 95-100 F. We found a nice place to sit in the shade and enjoy the view of the river. We came home and are napping again. I'm beginning to think we are mostly eating and sleeping! But, what better thing to do while you are on vacation!

I think Monte was hoping we would be able to see lots of castles, but there are only a few in this region, but they are dramatic and the surroundings are beautiful.







I think we will eat at the same place as last night and hike up the hill again. It was very enjoyable, one of those places you just can't stop taking pictures.

Dinner was great again, we had a fun time hanging out together. I think we are beginning to get more goofy as time goes on. We are now starting to take weird pictures of each other, like up the nose, my giraffe neck, Montes hairy legs, etc. we then have a great laugh about them. Petra, our dear friend speaks very good English but is so cute when she gets things wrong. Of course we would never tease her about it, but we think it is so cute that we have taken to copying her. She says, " they hard work, they become the money, and it is finished!" - (this means someone retired) Our friends Marco from Verona, Karstin from Germany, both say, "ez fantastic"! These are silly fun things we say to each other.

We have a bathroom at this location that has motion sensors that will set off a fan. It is very annoying because it gets turned on so often, even just walking by. So Monte and I have a game to see who can get in the bathroom the furthest without setting it off. We are currently tied. As Monte says, simple things amuse simple minds.







Even with the heat so bad today we saw many people still out cycling. And, I don't mean young athletic men, I mean some very old, very gray people. It amazes me that the heat doesn't stop them, it sure does us!

Our host brought in a fan for us to use in our room tonight. It sure is nice to have, but we actually did ok last night. I hear it is suppose to be thunderstorms. So, that could be fun!


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Location:Briedern, Germany

Mosel River

We arrived to our nice B & B around noon. A beautiful day, very warm. We have a gorgeous view of the Mosel River from our room.



Monte wanted to stay here over a cheaper place I had found and all he can talk about is how nice HIS choice was! It is nice, but expensive. But then, all of our places have been very nice, all my choices!

We took a quick nap and then decided to and find food. We drove about 10 min into Cochem, a larger village, and found a stand to buy bratwurst and french fries.



Our first encounter with someone rude, a young guy that just had an attitude. It was quite surprising since everyone has been very nice so far, even in France.



We sat on a bench near the river and watched as river cruises and other boats went by and just people watched. After awhile we were getting pretty hot and decided to go back to our b&b and put shorts on. But, then we decided to take another nap. We sure seem very tired for not doing much. Maybe it is old age!






We just had a knock at our door, a phone call from our last "hotel". I guess Kerstin got home from work and noticed our raincoats in their closet. She ran them to the post office and called us here at this B&B! They should arrive on Wednesday. That's the best hotel service we have ever had!

Dinner is one of our favorite experiences, so we decided to try a restaurant in a nearby village called Belstein. It is a popular tiny village right on the river. Many tours and river cruises stop there even though the population can't be more than a hundred or two. We thought it would be better to visit after most of the tourists left. Our dinner was great. I had veal, Paige had a local mushroom in season (sautéed with potatoes) and Monte had a beef dish, all had wonderful sauces. I was hoping to enjoy some good German beer, isn't that what Germany is known for? Well, i guess in Bavaria. I couldn't even order a beer for dinner, they only have wine, local wine. I don't kow what i was thinking.







We will have to be on a major diet when we return! We are not getting the exercise we did on our last trip.


After dinner walked through the village and found steps that took us up to the top near a church. The view was breathtaking. There are steep hills all around with vineyards as far as you can see, and the Mosel River running through it. You can see villages scattered in the distance. As we were admiring the view we heard a helicopter in the distance and then noticed him getting closer. If we were close to Hollywood I would have though they were filming a movie. That helicopter was coming straight for us. I almost wanted to run, then we noticed that he was a crop duster for the vineyards. It was amazing watching him fly up and down the steep hills. We found ourselves unable to leave being so captified by it. Then we walked back down and sat by the river. We noticed many locals cling out to sit and watch too.
















A great day!


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Location:Briedern, Germany

The Simon Inn (our friends Kerstin and Karstin)

It seems that with each move the weather turns, usually to a light rain. It happened again on our way to the Simon Inn. We had such a nice welcome with balloons at the door and welcoming notes throughout the house. We even had towels folded on our beds with notes for us, coffee and cake waiting. We had a very nice time catching up over several hours, then we had dinner. We loved our German style BBQ! There were many different courses of kabobs, bacon wrapped meat, lamb, figs with bacon, etc, all with fresh herbs. It was all delicious! We were up until midnight again, just talking the evening away.









The next morning after a wonderful German breakfast and more relaxation, we set out for the Rhine River. It was a beautiful warm day, almost too warm. We walked through the cute village, had an ice cream cone of reisling ice cream, walked through a castle with its beautiful gardens, then decided to sit at a cafe right on the river. We had drinks, mine was like a wine cooler with basil and lime.









We enjoyed great conversation and a beautiful view of the river, and watched boats coming and going. After an hour or so we walked through town to another cafe for cake and coffee. It is a tradition to have cake and coffee between 3-4 o'clock. It was wonderful again.



After more talk and more relaxing we were off to see more of the village and then decided to go to a monastery. They were having a televised concert that evening. We watched as people were arriving all dressed up up in their formal attire.






Due to the concert we where not able to tour the monastery, but just the grounds. It was beautiful with vineyards all around. Then we decided to head off to a local village for their wine festival. It was held in their village center.












There were tables set up, vendors selling food, wine, beer, etc. and a band playing. It was quite an authentic German experience. The village must not have been bigger than a couple hundred people, so probably half the village showed up. The older people would sing along with the band, and after a few drinks they got up to dance. Kerstin told us that all Germans learn the fox trot and waltz, and boy could those old people dance! As we were leaving, one old gal told us to come back the following day at 10:00 for a beer festival they were having! Those Germans love to party!

We ended the day with more conversation before bed. The following morning Karstin took the morning off work to feed us breakfast and see us off. It was a really wonderful time with friends that are precious. Seems like we have known them for 30 years, yet we met them once 2 years ago and enjoyed dinner with them twice at that time. We feel fortunate to have them as our friends, and to have been so welcomed.





A must do while in Germany.......drive on the autobahn with a German!
ZOOM...ZOOM!

Off to the Mosel....oh no...we left our rain coats at the Simon Inn!


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Location:Im Spieß,Neu-Anspach,Germany

Henry and Petra's

We decided rather than tour Strasbourg we should probably get some laundry done. We thought it would be nice to go into Waldmohr where Monte use to live, do our laundry, then walk on some of the walking paths that Monte enjoyed 40 years ago. Sounded like a good plan since we were not meeting with Henry and Petra until they got off of work.

Now it is 3:00 and we have spent the last two hours searching for a laundromat. It seems that they don't have such a thing here in Germany, or at least not many of them. After searching four towns asking countless people we finally found one! There are 14 machines all but one was full, so we grabbed it quick. I see a problem, only 8 dryers for 14 washing machines. And we need to meet our friends not too long from now. Obviously they have a machine their home, but we didn't want arrive needing clothes washed.




We are in the same situation as every other day, getting hungry at the wrong time. We had another hardy breakfast but then didn't really get hungry until now. We are not sure of our plans for dinner, whether Petra is cooking or if we will take them out, or what time we will eat. So it is hard to plan if we should eat or not, but by now we are really hungry. So, Monte went to find a bratwurst, something he has been waiting for, for a very long time. I think I'll have a bite, but not much more or I won't be hungry for dinner.

We plan to visit with Henry (Monte's old friend from when he lived in Germany) and Petra, his wife, tonight and tomorrow morning. We haven't seen then for 6 1/2 years, so it will be great to see them again.


It was a nice "homecoming" for us to see them again. We have a nice BBQ of pork steak, sausages, anitpasta, and pasta salad. It was so nice spending time with them and visiting. We were up past midnight and then had breakfast and more conversation. We wish we could have stayed longer, but we had more friends to meet.









They live in a common village in Germany, a small village of 800 people. They walk to the bakery to get bread for breakfast. Around them they have what looks like endless farm land with beautiful colors in all the different fields. There are walking paths that wind throughout the countryside, a fond memory of Monte's.









It felt like home coming home, but now we are off to visit friends that we met on our trip in 2008. They have sent us such a warm welcome, we are anxious to see then again.



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Location:Konken, Germany

Route Des Vins, Alsace

After a wonderful breakfast of pretty much the same type of food: great bread, cheese, meats, yogurt etc., we set out for the famous wine route.



I think it is 90 miles long, twisting and turning through hills of vineyards, and passing quaint villages along the way. We were not interested in the wine, but in all the quaint villages. It seems to us that much of Europe is quite "storybook" looking.



We are staying in Itterswiller which is a part of the wine route, but we headed south and visited Riquewihr, Kaysersberg, Eguisheim and Colmar which is a larger city- maybe 65,000. This area is famous for cranes and their huge nests. We saw many.






















We loved all the quaint little Villages and just roamed around. By the time we made it to Colmar we were really tired. We went to a cathedral, went to see "little Venice" and then we were pretty spent.





We decided to call it a day. We just couldn't think about going out for another 3 hour dinner, as much as we enjoy it. We also couldn't think about eating more croissants, bread, cheese, etc., so, we did it.....yep, went to McDonalds! Not that we wanted to, we just didn't know what else to do to get fast food so we could just get home.



Actually, we have only seen one this whole time, and it happens to be a town about 10 min away. So here I am on the computer at 9:10, monte is fast asleep and Paige is under the covers waiting for her computer time.

Here are just some observations:

I hate to break it to you, but if Italy and France are on the fashion edge, men purses are on their way! We keep seeing them everywhere.

People seem to to use shower gel in the shower which is great, but they don't use washcloths, so it takes a ton of soap to try to get clean. I don't get that. Or, maybe I want to use a ton of soap because my clothes are so dirty!

Also, while driving if you come across a light, the stopping area is in front of the light so you can't see it. The lights are just on the right side, not in front of you. You have to lean to the right side to try to get a glimpse of it for when it changes. Another interesting thing!

Off to see our friends in Germany tomorrow!

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Location:Route du Vin,Itterswiller,France