Mosel River Trip, day 1 Thursday, July 22nd

We decided before bed to head out at 10:00am the next morning. At 11:00am, we were on the road (best laid plans you know). Mr. and Mrs. Puppy were nearing the end of their month-long visit and Puppy wanted to take them on one more trip and decided that a trip to the Mosel River would be both scenic and fun. The Mosel River runs parallel to the Rhine River, but is a little more relaxed with less traffic and tourists.

*SuperNova Germany Travel Tip: When traveling in Germany, rent a car. Germany is a lot like Oregon in that it is very spread out and the public transportation is limited (compared to, for example, Japan). So if you are staying in Germany for more than a couple days, it would behoove you (that's right, I used the word "behoove") to rent a car. For those of you terrified of driving in another country (have you been to China?), let me reassure you that German drivers are very safe and considerate, the cars and lanes are large, and it's the same side of the road (sorry Australians).

The area of the Mosel that we were visiting was about 2 hours away. On the way to our hotel, we stopped at Burg Eltz (Castle Eltz). This is one of the few castles in Germany that was never bombed or destroyed (although I think it caught on fire a couple of times). This was also one of the few castles that was built and used mainly as a residence. It has been in the same family for 800 years and the current owner is a 33rd generation Eltz. Being from America, I find myself consistently impressed with that kind of history. When we bought tickets (8 euro per person), we heard the young German girl behind the counter tell the people in front of us that there was an English tour in 30 min. When it was our turn, we asked her again just to make sure, and she told us that there was an English tour in 11 min. Hmm. We asked where the tour met, and she said, "To the right," indicating the stairs. We also asked where we could get some food, and she said, "Also to the right." It turned out that the meeting spot for the tour was no where near the food shack (where we had "nuggets," which they didn't even bother to translate into English), and an English tour was not scheduled for any time. One could be arranged, but you had to ask very nicely. My traveling companions thought perhaps the girl was confused. I personally think that she only knew 2 phrases of English, "The English tour is in __ min.," and "To the right." The tour was actually really interesting and there were a lot of original artifacts in each room. Unfortunately, they were also doing some renovations, so all of the picuresque photos contain an ancient traditional yellow crane in the background.

After Burg Eltz, we headed into Ellenz-Potersdorf to look for the Hotel Weingut Heinz Dehren. We were met by Josef, who checked us in and gave us our room keys. I was delighted to discover that this hotel had an elevator.

*SuperNova Travel Tip: The elevator has not caught on in Europe, so never pack more than you can heft up a flight of stairs.

It was about 4:00pm and we were starving (splitting an order of nuggets was not as filling as one might hope. They did come with curry dipping sauce, which was interesting). We asked Josef where we could eat and he told us that everything was closed till 6pm. He offered to get us some cake from the kitchen and so we had delicious apple cake outside on the hotel's covered deck. After that we went to our room to watch some German TV till the hotel restaurant opened at 6pm.

I LOVE watching TV in other countries! Especially the commercials. If you are traveling with a friend, make a game out of trying to guess what they're selling. It's harder than you would think. Often times there is a music video channel, a la MTV, which is really fun to watch and see what's popular in whatever country you are visiting, but unfortunately this hotel did not. So we flipped through the channels and watched various soap operas and entertainment shows.

A little after 6pm we all went down to dinner. The hotel restaurant was deserted.

*SuperNova Travel Tip: People in Europe eat late. And not only do they eat late, but they eat forever. It's not uncommon for a restaurant meal to last hours. If you are looking for something quick, you are likely going to have to just go to McDonalds.

We seated ourselves and Josef came out to greet us wearing a chef jacket. He not only managed the hotel, but was also the restaurant chef. Since they were not busy, he stayed and translated the entire menu for us. Mr. Puppy asked if they made a particular dish at the restaurant or if they bought it from somewhere, and Josef said, "Except money, we make everything here." Craving a change from the typical German fair, I decided that fish sounded nice and light and asked Josef what he'd recommend. He said the pike-perch in almond butter. When it arrived it was a stack of fish pieces with sliced almonds on top on a plate of melted butter. So much for a light dinner. Everything that was ordered was delicious, including the bottle of reisling from the hotel's vineyards (the Mosel River area is also wine country), which Josef had helped harvest himself, of course.

After dinner we turned in, deciding that the next day we'd take Josef's suggestion and ride the ferry to the next couple of towns and have a look around.