Barges on the misty Mosel River.
Mosel River- view from hilltop castle.
Newest Disney ride through the steep vineyards.
Riverside town as seen from the castle.
Here in the Netherlands, we have several holidays in the spring-time. Thursday (May 12) was Ascension Day and Dennis and I decided to take the Friday off to make it a 4 day weekend. After our nice experience in Rothenburg a couple weeks ago, we thought we’d do a little more exploring in Germany. This time we targeted the Mosel River Valley, a prime wine producing region with a bike trail along the river.
We made our hotel reservations on-line because we figured it could be busy with the holiday weekend. A couple days before the trip, I noticed that the weather forecast was for 50 degrees and rainy. So I looked at the cancellation policy for the hotel and realized that we would pay 80% of the entire bill if we cancelled. Even when Dennis came down with a cold the day before, we decided to go anyway and try to make the best of it. Actually I couldn’t help thinking of so many Memorial Day weekends in Minnesota when it was cold and rainy all weekend until it’s time to go home – then the sun comes out.
We packed the bikes (hybrids for this trip) and a lot of cold medicine and drove the 4 hours to the Mosel. The TomTom navigation system didn’t even register the name of the small town we were staying in, but we did finally manage to find the hotel. I guess we should have bought a map of Germany at one of those rest areas – it might have come in handy.
Checking into the hotel was a bit of extra fun. First, there was a note on the door instructing us to go to a neighboring hotel. The note was in German, so we were pretty much guessing. With a little bit of help from an English-speaking person, we finally found the right place. Little did we know how rare it would be to find another person who speaks English there! The hotel lady only spoke German, but that didn’t seem to limit her talking. She just kept talking to us in German as she showed us the room, the honor bar, and the breakfast room. Everything looked fine so we just kept smiling and nodding. We did notice that some words in German are the same as in Dutch, so we were able to understand every 5th word she said.
By the time we were settled into our room, it was about 4:00 so we decided to walk around town and stretch our legs a bit. Well, that took about 5 minutes. So, we strolled along the river path until we got to the next small town. Here, we found some wine-tasting shops that were still open. One of them also sold homemade liquors from large flasks. We were able to taste before we bought some hazelnut cream liquor and chocolate orange whiskey. The best part was when she filled some small bottles and then labeled them with a marker. We saw marker-labeled bottles of liquor in some of the restaurants in France and we wondered what they were and where they came from. Now we know those bottles probably came from a shop like this one!
On Friday morning, we dressed very warm and got on the bikes. The bike path along the river was awesome. Between the river and the steep hills dotted with grapevines were quaint small towns with river-side cafes and wine tasting shops. This is a place that time forgot. The hills are too steep for modern farming equipment, so they still grow the grapes in the traditional way. We rode past many fields with little tram-ways running up the hills. We thought this would make a good Disneyland ride. We stopped frequently to visit the cafes and snoop around the towns. We found a cool castle on the top of a hill. It was a ruin, but the view was spectacular. We couldn’t help but wonder how much better it would look if the sun were out. By the time we were done with the castle, I was freezing and it was starting to rain just a bit. We realized we’d been out and about from 10:00 until 3:00 so it was a good time to head back to the hotel and clean up for dinner.
For dinner we went to a neighboring hotel restaurant, arriving at about 6:15, only to be told that they were full. We thought we were the only ones who ate dinner this early in Europe! He said it was too bad because they were doing a lovely 5 course meal of local favorites (only 13 euros per person – unbelievably cheap!). We were set to go somewhere else when the guy said he’d check with the chef and see if there was enough food. He came back with a smile and sat us in the bright dining room. We were still not exactly sure what we’d get, but at least we didn’t have to translate a German menu! WE had the following: salad with duck breast and orange dressing, fennel cream soup, fish with lentils, pork with gravy (naturally), and ice cream with berry sauce. Everything was pretty tasty and went nicely with the local Riesling wine.
We made our hotel reservations on-line because we figured it could be busy with the holiday weekend. A couple days before the trip, I noticed that the weather forecast was for 50 degrees and rainy. So I looked at the cancellation policy for the hotel and realized that we would pay 80% of the entire bill if we cancelled. Even when Dennis came down with a cold the day before, we decided to go anyway and try to make the best of it. Actually I couldn’t help thinking of so many Memorial Day weekends in Minnesota when it was cold and rainy all weekend until it’s time to go home – then the sun comes out.
We packed the bikes (hybrids for this trip) and a lot of cold medicine and drove the 4 hours to the Mosel. The TomTom navigation system didn’t even register the name of the small town we were staying in, but we did finally manage to find the hotel. I guess we should have bought a map of Germany at one of those rest areas – it might have come in handy.
Checking into the hotel was a bit of extra fun. First, there was a note on the door instructing us to go to a neighboring hotel. The note was in German, so we were pretty much guessing. With a little bit of help from an English-speaking person, we finally found the right place. Little did we know how rare it would be to find another person who speaks English there! The hotel lady only spoke German, but that didn’t seem to limit her talking. She just kept talking to us in German as she showed us the room, the honor bar, and the breakfast room. Everything looked fine so we just kept smiling and nodding. We did notice that some words in German are the same as in Dutch, so we were able to understand every 5th word she said.
By the time we were settled into our room, it was about 4:00 so we decided to walk around town and stretch our legs a bit. Well, that took about 5 minutes. So, we strolled along the river path until we got to the next small town. Here, we found some wine-tasting shops that were still open. One of them also sold homemade liquors from large flasks. We were able to taste before we bought some hazelnut cream liquor and chocolate orange whiskey. The best part was when she filled some small bottles and then labeled them with a marker. We saw marker-labeled bottles of liquor in some of the restaurants in France and we wondered what they were and where they came from. Now we know those bottles probably came from a shop like this one!
On Friday morning, we dressed very warm and got on the bikes. The bike path along the river was awesome. Between the river and the steep hills dotted with grapevines were quaint small towns with river-side cafes and wine tasting shops. This is a place that time forgot. The hills are too steep for modern farming equipment, so they still grow the grapes in the traditional way. We rode past many fields with little tram-ways running up the hills. We thought this would make a good Disneyland ride. We stopped frequently to visit the cafes and snoop around the towns. We found a cool castle on the top of a hill. It was a ruin, but the view was spectacular. We couldn’t help but wonder how much better it would look if the sun were out. By the time we were done with the castle, I was freezing and it was starting to rain just a bit. We realized we’d been out and about from 10:00 until 3:00 so it was a good time to head back to the hotel and clean up for dinner.
For dinner we went to a neighboring hotel restaurant, arriving at about 6:15, only to be told that they were full. We thought we were the only ones who ate dinner this early in Europe! He said it was too bad because they were doing a lovely 5 course meal of local favorites (only 13 euros per person – unbelievably cheap!). We were set to go somewhere else when the guy said he’d check with the chef and see if there was enough food. He came back with a smile and sat us in the bright dining room. We were still not exactly sure what we’d get, but at least we didn’t have to translate a German menu! WE had the following: salad with duck breast and orange dressing, fennel cream soup, fish with lentils, pork with gravy (naturally), and ice cream with berry sauce. Everything was pretty tasty and went nicely with the local Riesling wine.
No comments:
Post a Comment