We met downstairs at 8am for the hotel breakfast. There was the usual European breakfast fare - cereal, yogurt, fruit, sliced meats, cheeses, and giant crusty rolls. Josef's father, who either doesn't know English or didn't want to talk to us, brought out to our table a pot of coffee and a pot of tea and set them on little holders that had a tea light in the bottom to keep them warm, which I thought was cool. After having a leisurely breakfast, we headed to the ferry dock.
It was a really beautiful morning, despite the forecast for rain. We walked on a bike path along the Mosel and chatted until we came to the dock. Puppy and Nancy D have gotten really good at deciphering German, and figured out from the sign that the ferry came every ten minutes. "Oh, there's the ferry on the other side," Puppy pointed out. I looked and I didn't see it. "Where?" "There!" I didn't see it. I saw the dock on the other side, but I didn't see any boats. After a few minutes someone said, "Ah, it's coming." I looked and said, perhaps a little too loudly, "The whole dock is the ferry?!?" Mr. Puppy whacked me on the shoulder. The ferry was less than 2 euro and was a quick ride to the other side, to the town of Beilstein.
Once there, we decided to hike to the Burg Metternich (do you remember what "burg" means? That's right, castle, you're really picking up German!). This castle fell much more in the "ruins" category than the last castle we saw. There was an entrance fee, which Mr. Puppy thought was ridiculous since it was mostly just ruins and they clearly weren't using the money on upkeep. While this castle was not as in pristine condition, it was much more fun for taking pictures and Puppy and I had an excellent time running around shooting ShuShu against the castle grounds. If only I had had a tiny sword . . .
After we took as many pictures as we could (the German tourists were very polite about waiting patiently while I took 3 thousand pictures of ShuShu using the viewfinder), we headed back to the dock to catch the noon boat to the town of Cochem. This boat was more expensive, much bigger, and unbelievably slow. It took us an hour to go less than 10 kilometers. A guy on a bicycle passed us on the river bank. I think that if we had hopped on a log, we could have drifted to Cochem faster, but it would have been much more difficult to navigate the lock. Understand, though, that I'm not complaining. I really enjoyed the chance to sit down and chill for an hour. As we traversed the lock, an automated voice came over the speakers and taught us that the Mosel is still used for transporting coal and agricultural products, is the longest tributary of the Rhine, and there are something like 10 locks along the river.
When we finally arrived in Cochem, we stopped for lunch at a place advertising pfifferlinge as their special. Puppy, Nancy D, and I all decided to try the pfifferlinge for no better reason than it was their special and it was fun and slightly impossible to say. Turns out pfifferlinge is mushrooms in brown cream sauce (every sauce is a cream sauce) and it came with a plate heaped with what looked like those hashbrown patties and another dish of potatoes in small ball form. It was quite a lot, but this time members of the table helped take care of the left overs on my plate to prevent another waitress scolding.
After lunch, we split up and Mr. and Mrs. Puppy wandered off while we trekked to the castle (of course there was another castle!). Burg Reich was really cool looking, built on top of a rock like the castles in scary movies. You could almost see the lightning flashing behind it. We didn't go inside this one, being tired of paying admission fees, but we did stop in the gift shop where they had a number of child-sized weapons. So if you are wondering where you can pick up a mace or tiny trebuchet for your little neice or nephew, perhaps you need to get back at your brother or sister for something, search no longer! Just trek to Burg Reich for all your child-sized weaponry needs!
We were supposed to meet Mr. and Mrs. Puppy at the boat at 4pm and still had lots of time, so we decided to tool through town and do some wine tasting. Puppy and Nancy D both love reisling, and the Mosel vineyards specialize in white wines.
*SuperNova Travel Tip: Go wine tasting in Cochem! Don't be nervous because you don't speak German, just look for signs that say "weinprobe" (wine tasting) and pop in. The wines are delicious and incredibly cheap (the average price was 5-7 euros for a bottle) and the people are very helpful even when their English is limited!
We went to three separate places (Nancy D wanted to get 3 different whites to ship home) and after some time well spent we carefully and cheerfully picked our way back to the boat laden with wine bottles. The trip back was uneventful and once back in Beilstein, Mrs. Puppy wanted to look around some more, and Puppy, Nancy D, and I really wanted some ice cream. The sky was turning ugly by this time, but we decided to explore the town some more and therein made a grave mistake. We did find a beautiful church and a family walking a puppy, but we also heard the ominous sound of thunder. We hurried back to the ferry, bought tickets, and once on the other side started speed walking along the bike path. But it was to no avail. The storm gave us three thunderous warnings and then just dumped on us. We paused under a tree hoping that the downpour might be brief, but soon gave up and darted back into the rain. By the time we arrived back, we were soaked. We went to our rooms to change and dry off and the weather continued to pour.
We had planned on attending a wine festival that started that night. So, cold and damp, we headed back outside, borrowing some umbrellas from the hotel. Fortunately, the festival was very close. It was a very simple festival, there were two outdoor bars set up where you could buy wine, there was a chuck wagon for food, and there was a large tented area full of picnic benches from which oompah music was eminating. We decided to get our dinner at the chuck wagon, which specialized in brats. Everyone else ordered a bratwurst, which comes on a roll with mustard. Not a bun, mind you, a roll. The goal, apparently, is not to have a bite of bread with every bite of sausage, but more just to have a handle for your brat. I decided to try the currywurst plate, which came with pomme frites (french fries) and sauerkraut (bleh). I'd seen currywurst on lots of menus and was curious to try it. Apparently, it's just a cut up pork sausage with curry sauce (not unlike the one that came with our nuggets, in fact, I think I saw the guy pump it out of a giant ketchup-looking bottle) on top. It was quite good, and the curry sauce was excellent with the fries. I gave the sauerkraut to everyone to put on their bratwursts (yes, Mom, I did try it first, and I still don't like it) and we sat inside a tent to eat and watch the oompah band.
After a while, we decided to split a bottle of wine (it was a wine festival after all) and watched as some sort of royal procession filed in. There was toasting (Prost!) and talking and more oompahing. Then, as we were contemplating heading out, a marching band filed in, followed by a guy dressed as Bacchus and his two Greek handmaidens. His outfit was outstanding, complete with one sholdered dress, caplet, and fishbowl of wine. It was awesome! He made speeches, drinking songs were sung, and then his handmaidens selected a guy from the crowd, made him get down on his hands and knees, and hit him with a stick and a sledge hammer as he repeated after Bacchus. Gooooooooood NIGHT everybody!
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