Cochem - Mosel River

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Left the flat country canals of the Netherlands and the industrial area around Köln to wind through the quiet mountains and streams of the beautiful Mosel river. This river runs well into France as well, where it is called the Moselle. It's an absolutely picturesque region with the Mosel (a smaller river off of the Rhine) running through the hills covered with vineyards and small towns with hilltop castles. Our inn is in one such town called Cochem - there's a beautiful castle overlooking the town and a winery/vineyard just behind our inn.

 I've never seen pillows fluffed and set upright ... so cute!

The "busy" main street in town below our inn

This is Cochem! Mosel river running through with the castle overlooking the town and vineyards all over the hills

This region is best known for its Riesling white wines: from Trocken (dry) to halbtrocken (half-dry) to sweet. We had a tasting and ended up buying one of the sweet ones. Even if I don't drink, I love going to these places and walking amongst the vines. As the vineyard runs up the steep sides of the river, you can hike up and absorb the breathtaking view.

Right behind our inn... vineyards up the hill

Cheap and delicious

The town is so quaint and we were able to visit one of the last remaining traditional mustard mills (senfmülle) left in Europe. We shared a brockwurst with traditional milled mustard as a delicious afternoon snack.

 across the bridge to the mustard mill!

Mustard mill from 1800

The rain didn't deter us at all - it was so fun to walk around under our tiny umbrellas: half-timbered houses all around, stone walls and cobblestone streets.

Yes, those are grape vines growing on EVERY hill!

Besides great Riesling, the region is also well known for a special type of peach called Roter Weinbergspfirsich. It's a small, hard peach with grey fuzz on the outside, and a beautiful deep ruby red color inside. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find any of the fruit itself since it probably wasn't in season, but there were plenty of shops selling the famous liqueur made from the fruit, as well as jams (delicious jam with a rich deep "red" flavor!)

Jam made from the famous roter weinbergspfirsich peach 

store selling all kinds of homemade liqueurs, vinegars, and oils

The famous roter weinbergspfirsich liqueur

 Post box .. uncle pat, this one's for you!

Cochem castle with grape vines surrounding

And a nice little afternoon hike up the vineyard path behind the inn ...

Beautiful Cochem

The following morning , we ran to catch the train to Moselkern to begin the hour hike from the town to Berg-Eltz: one of the only completely original castles in the area (most castles were rebuilt at some point). I had expected the town to be super busy but it was rather quiet- the hike to the castle wound from the tiny town into the forest and mountain. It was so quiet, in fact, that the train station we arrived at was actually unmanned ... no staff at all! Just a ticket vending machine and boarded up ticket booth

walking through moselkern to get to the forest 

cutest "watch out for children" sign i've ever seen

walk along the river and through the forest for an hour... 

Berg Eltz itself was not huge but it was very "cute" - if i can use that word to describe a castle! The reason for the entire building remaining original was because of the Eltz' family's far-reaching social and political network. No matter what type of army was in the area, they managed to avoid being attacked. Even today, the castle remains within the Eltz family. We took a tour of the inside (sorry, no pictures allowed!)

Back home in Cochem, we had a carb-filled pasta and pizza dinner at our inn's little restaurant. What a relaxing, quiet two days - much needed after being hit in the face with city after city. So refreshing to be out in the countryside. Interesting thing about Cochem: lots of foreign-born residents. For example, the lady who did our wine tasting was Polish, and the innkeeper had a strong Russian-type accent. The people at another restaurant we stopped at were neither german nor italian (it was an italian restaurant) - I think they were Eastern European.

Tomorrow we head to Strasbourg - finally going to be in France! I'm looking forward to finally being somewhere where I can communicate comfortably enough. It's been fun visiting so many places and experiencing so many languages, and I definitely have an understanding of what it feels like to be somplace and not speak the language well. But the help and warmth that was extended to us as tourists is something that I will always remember, and I hope to extend this back to others in my own future. I'm also done with laughing a little at people who don't speak a language perfectly (yes, we all do this and I am admitting it) because god knows how many of us can actually speak multiple languages perfectly. People have been so patient with our mistakes and fumbling. It's like back in Vienna: the waiter at our Vietnamese restaurant spoke German, English, Cantonese, and Vietnamese. Even with a super strong accent - it's quite the accomplishment.