Up the Mosel, Koblenz to Trier.

Well, the Mosel River is beautiful. Slow flowing to the Rhine fast pace.Pretty little villages and towns full of beautiful old half timber quaint old houses and churches. The hills rise up from one side or both with vineyards sprawled on the steep sides. The vines seem to be planted in the most odd and non-accessible slopes, The weather has cooled to some mornings to 12 degrees….we will never complain about the heat again.. just when we are in a clean river,,,its too cold to swim.

Joanna & David Lynch-Watson joined us for 5 days at Winningen, leaving their camper van behind to be picked up later. Luckily the Castle Eltz that we wanted to visit was a short drive away in the hills so we had a day out before we left.

       We had a English guided tour which was lead by a dour faced humourless young German,.            ( can’t win them all).

   Set on the valley with the River Eltz , the Castle was built on a massive rock over a 1000yrs ago .The Eltz family survived well on the forest & natural resources , and of course claiming tolls on the medieval trade route through to the Mosel River. Despite many wars the Etlz Castle survived intact, mainly due to the families far reaching political and social networks. The castle has been in the family for 33 generations. No matter which army was in the region, the Eltzes managed to use their influence to protect themselves and they still own it. It also has the most amazing treasury( one of Europe’s best) that is full of medieval goldsmiths work and large silver and gold statues.

Visited pretty little villages on the way up river. 

Max visited a local vintner and had a wine tasting in a little village called Lof.

Showing river flood levels  Villages along the Mosel River.

Old boys on a day out!!!!

Passing little towns and villages along the way to Cochem where we stayed for 5 nights. The weather was changeable from high wind, to rain, to sunny days. These villages are just full of cafes, old half-timbered houses, and little wine tasting places…so much to choose from. The prices are reasonable too, about 4-6 euros a bottle. Some places you can even buy a little vine plant of the vineyard.

COCHEM.

Cochem initally settled with Celts, then Roman, then everybody else in between. The Castle was meant to have been started in the 11C. Again the same tale of wars, and towns/castles being burnt down, it has been rebuilt again over time. Cochem gained money easily in the past by just putting a chain across the river and collecting taxes…. clever lot these Germans.

We had a lovely tour of this richly preserved castle by a lovely humerous German lady. Just a few photos as we have so many and choosing is so difficult.

 What we have learnt is that the Germans have no reason to love the French at all, as it seems they did most of the burning, destroying and destruction of these lovely old castles and towns through the ages. The 1st and 2nd world wars are really just a tiny blip in European history. Europe history is just so confusing and so very violent.

                       Cochem Castle on night.

Met up with lovely French friends Francois & Sylive . They part own a vineyard in Bourgogne and their white chardonay was just what we had been missing from NZ…like a excellent south island wine… lovely lovely.

 

Passed the building of a new bridge across the valley that was over 250m in the air…Must be a 20yr project.

The thing about the vineyards is that will plant vines on any surface that has a ltitle soil , on cliff faces, scrauny little scrags of rock and any size area. Its difficult to catch in photos but we tried.

  And the spraying is either done by hand ( cos of the inaccessibility),  tractor or mini helicopter. This one was attached to a truck up on the path that let him down and            then winches him back up again.

  

The Mosel River is beautiful, little picturesque villages with their churches, ruins and pretty little half wooden houses.  The sides of the river valley, over 200 kms of vine covered slopes.…that’s a lot of vino !!!

Bad thing about the Mosel is that we found it tricky to always find places that could take a boat our size and that was a bit nerve racking  (and more expensive than France).heyho… Goodness knows how it all works when the River is popular.

31st July,,,,,,,65th Birthday morning….. Pension starts!!!!!

And on to Trier.