Day 9, 14 May – Mosel Valley, Burg Eltz, Cochem, Beilstein, Bernkastel-Kues

Back to the gloomy weather today. No big surprise there.

With our Nurburgring experience out of the way yesterday, we got back to our daytripping today. Today’s plan was to drive a portion of the Mosel river valley, which is purported to be a stunning drive with beautiful wineries and small towns.

Our breakfast this morning came with a movie. One of the hotel guests was at the ‘Ring all day yesterday and had rigged a camera to his front bumper. The video he shot was excellent; and it was obvious that he knew his way around the track. All of the folks besides us at breakfast were from England, so it was nice to strike up conversation with them. There were two older couples there who have been coming to this hotel for 20 odd years.

Our hotel is very well located for both excursions to the Ring and to the Mosel valley. Our drive down to Cochem took only 15 minutes or so. The first stop on our agenda today was the castle of Burg Eltz; it’s been in the Eltz family for 800 years. The castle is completely isolated, sitting alone in a valley away from the Mosel, with a small stream flowing past. Apparently, the castle was actually 3 houses for 3 different families that shared the same common areas. This was evidenced by the different types of stone used in each house. Of course, being in Germany, our tour was in German. Had there been enough English speaking folks, we could have gotten them to give a tour in English, but not today. Even in German, the tour was excellent. The one house we walked through was decorated from various periods of the castles inhabitance. In fact, the Eltz family still occupies some parts of the castle to this day.

The hike back to the car park from the castle was brutal. This was the only time to date that I was thankful of the overcast skies and cool temps. Even in 55 degree weather, I was sweating like a pig when we finally got to the car.

Our next stop was Cochem; a charming town on the river. After a quick “bratwurst mit brot” for lunch, we took the Sesselbahn chair lift up to the rim of the valley with a terrific view of Cochem and its castle, the Reichsburg. We elected not to go to the castle, simply because we didn’t really believe that it could possibly be any more impressive than Burg Eltz.

Upriver we went to the idyllic town of Beilstein. According to Rick Steves, it has only 180 residents that run 30 guesthouses and eateries. From what I could tell, that’s really all that Beilstein does.

One thing I should mention is the vineyards. They grow the vines here on the steepest hills! So steep, in fact, that the folks that work the fields have to use cog-rail type appliances to go up and down hill. I wonder about the quantity of wine they can produce in this region, considering the limitations of the geography.

Pretty much every town on the river is just a different version of the same thing. We made a quick stop in Zell, and then again in Bernkastel-Kues; so named because the Bernkastel half of the town is on one side of the river, and the Kues half on the other side. This town was a little bigger than Cochem or Zell, but still very familiar in its character. Instead of waiting to get back to the hotel for dinner, we ate at a nice place with a terrace that faced the river. We got a kick out of the name, the “Bikers’ Station;” obviously a place familiar with the motorcycle crowd.

A note about the weather today... While the weather looked pretty crappy all dat today, it never actually affected our activities. It would be nice, though, to have just one day where we don’t even need to think about the umbrellas and rain gear.

We’re almost half-way through with our episodes of Heroes now, and we are really enjoying it. Not really sure how we missed it when it started.

Tomorrow we leave the Eifel region and head down to the Black Forest town of Baden-Baden for a little soaking in the thermal spas. Hopefully the weather will be good enough to allow me to play a little golf, too.