Cochem 0n the Mosel.

This is my favourite so far. Driving from Bernkastel over a steep and beautiful inland route, we caught a glimpse of Cochem through the trees. The German authorities don’t normally put parking places in areas of outstanding beauty, but they did this time, and we drank in the beauty that is Cochem from several hundred feet up. It’s a bit like looking at a tiny Belfast on steroids from Cavehill, only a hundred times or more, prettier.

We were going to stay the night but had to find somewhere to stay, and there it was, a Stellplatz or Campingcar parking area, and our spot is no more than ten yards fro the majestic Mosel. Better yet, it’s free! We have found the town councils go out of there way to welcome our nomadic way of life, thus providing places to stay, replenish water, and dump everything we don’t need.

Anyway, here we are and when I woke up I couldn’t remember the last post, so another concise edition today.

Yesterday we stayed in Bernkastel-Kues about thirty miles down the valley, that’s the thing about this area. Like the wines produced, one is so different from the another a lot of miles down the road, and no  two towns are the same or similar, even ten miles apart.

I felt Margaret wanted me out of the way yesterday, she had her cleaning head on, so I jumped on my bike and went for a thirty mile trip, to Piesport, another gorgeous town  and full to overflowing with all things wine. So many interesting things were seen it’s not possible to tell all. Apart from that, I only have a short time between me getting up and Margaret showing her face to write these blogs. Way too busy during the day!

Bernkastel is another lovely town, a good bit bigger than a lot, but still gushing with old style charm. A lot of the cruising boats use this as a port of call. It was on one of these that I found my first instance of German snobbery. Margaret and me were out on the bikes when we found ourselves dockside to one of the Viking River Cruise boats. On impulse I went aboard and asked if it would be possible to do a one or two night taster cruise. The uppity wee bitch I spoke with was so condescending I wanted to ask her who fun ze var anyway!

The only other instance of this behaviour was at the ‘ Alte Brauhaus” hotel in the same town, Margaret went in to ask if they had wifi, before we chose to go in. The huffy looking wee waitress looked Margaret up and down before answering.

Anyway, that’s it Margaret’s up, time for the day to begin……