The Mosel Valley

The final few days of our trip, other than an overnight stay at Frankfurt airport, were spent in the Mosel Valley in one of my favourite villages there:  Cochem.  We had rented an apartment there.  As it turned out, it was way up a hill and actually a bit outside of the town.  The views from it of  the castle and the town were spectacular.  They would have been even more perfect if the weather had been better.  However, we still made the most of our visit.

For our first day there, we walked into the town along the river.  The road along the river has changed quite a lot since my last visit here.  There used to be a row of lovely trees with lots of free parking alongside or in between them.  However, they have been cut down and replaced with cycling and walking paths.  It is probably an improvement but I miss the trees.

Cochem itself is good place to visit.  There are enough shops to poke around in and they are independent - no chain stores here.  There are also lots of bars, cafes and restaurants so we had no problem lazing the day away.  At one point, later in the afternoon, we ducked into a bar/restaurant to get out of the rain and we ended up having both our 'happy hour' and dinner there.  Thankfully, when we were finished, it was a short walk to the taxi stand to get a ride home and up that very steep hill!  The 9 Euros were well spent!

Being in areas with lots of vineyards at this time of the year makes for some lovely scenery as the leaves on the grape vines are turning to red, yellow and orange.  

We had intended to drive further up river on our second day to the very touristy village of Bernkastel.  However, the weather was really disgusting so we spent the day in the apartment venturing out only for dinner in the evening.  Thankfully, there was a restaurant at the bottom of the hill where we had eaten on our first evening here and the rain had stopped long enough for us to walk there and enjoy the night time view of the castle and the town.  The food was good and reasonably priced plus the owner was friendly.  He was more than happy to call a taxi for us at the end of both evenings.  

The last day the weather was better so we drove to Bernkastel before driving to the airport to return the car.  I used the think Bernkastel was my favourite but it is now even more touristy than it used to be and, as there was a Viking cruise boat docked there, it was over run with tourists.  Cochem has replaced it as my favourite Mosel village.  The latter is a bit bigger and seems to offer more to see.

So, with that, the trip is over.  Actually, I returned home a week ago and am finally getting around to finishing off this blog.  I have one more to write and then I am done until the next time.