Woaah. Crap sleep for me. Kath slept ok. No sirens or choppers through the night (maybe there’s a curfew). Regardless we had to close the windows which meant our non air conditioned room wasn’t a great space. I woke from my semi daze about 6am and opened the windows to let some cool morning air in. There was no rush to hit the road today, we just did the usual and after breaky off we went. Today the heatwave will not set to let up. In fact we hit 41C just after midday which was quite uncomfortable.
Also uncomfortable would be the Hurricanes. Losing a home final is quite unusual, not to mention embarrassing, so they must’ve played fairly ordinary to manage that. I haven’t read any reviews yet, I only know the score. Keen to get non-biased opinions from any Canes supporters unless you’re still dripping tears into your flat pint of beer.
First official stop today is Bernkastel-Kues. (pronounced: ‘Bear-n-cars-tell-koos’).
Trivia: The town is the biggest on the German stretch of the Mosel River. Bernkastel is on the right flank of the river and Kues is across the bridge on the left. Previously two separate towns, they were merged only recently in 1 April 1905 (April fools day eh? hmmm). Stick bridge over the river and look what happens! The earliest evidence of human habitation (3000 BC) was discovered by archaeologists in Kues. Well how about that for trivia!!
Meanwhile, back to the present day: We parked Hermann in the sweltering heat by the river, and wandered up the steps to the main road.
Hold on. First some late Trier mail. An evening shot of Porta Nigra.
We hit the road. The Mosel is as smooth as, unlike this swan who was hissing and carrying on while I snapped this pic.
Wine bottle made from wine bottles. Very cool roadside art.
The popular view for the day would look something like this. Vines for Africa!
Just cruising up the Mosel. Easy as.
Plenty of barges out and about.
Marktplatz in Bernkastel-Kues. Very small and very pretty. This is the prettiest side of the river. Magnificent half-timbered houses that have been here for centuries.
The Renaissance-style Rathaus (town hall) built in 1608 ) still has the ironwork which was used to shackle the bad eggs to the public pillory with chains and handcuffs (on the left cornerstone of the facade).
St. Michael’s Fountain dates back to 1606, and flows with wine during the annual September wine festival. Your next destination Steph?
The Spitzhauschen “pointed house” (built in 1416) is a traditional house of the Middle Ages. This one used to be a Mossel vinter’s house.
Kath in the shade. Man it’s so hot – already 37C.
We walked around some of the town’s beautiful streets. Here up against the hill of vines is the Doktor Keller, Dr H Thanisch wine cave. A bloke had just come out of it. I asked him how old it was. He said it’s been used since 1650!!
Bearbrunnen was built over an old bear pit.
There was no way we were going to walk up to the Burg Landshut ruins. It’s scorching. So we found the open-sided bus down on the main road opposite the Doctorbrunnen fountain. The ruins are undergoing a bit of work right now so you can’t climb the keep, but regardless the view is spectacular.
Trivia: Burg Landshut was built in 1277, but the castle, along with all of its treasures, was destroyed by a fire in 1692.
The bus wasn’t going to be back for about an hour, so we decided to walk down. Now I knew there was a restaurant / drink stop about half way so the walk was a goer even though it was cooking out in the direct sun! The first part was reasonably exposed so we did it tough. We really earned those drinks.
View from the restaurant seats under the trees. We had a nice breeze, and a cold drink or two, so all good at this point.
Face colour matches the top. 🙂
Muzza had a good ol’ sweat up as well.
Loving this view.
The last part was through the vines and out onto the street by the Doctorbrunnen. The kids are having a ball with the water. The castle ruins (and crane) are there in the background.
Time to find the church. No not for prayer, but for the cool temperature. Here in St Michaels church (the area’s only unaltered 14th-century structure) we found what appears to be relation of Craig Knight. 🙂
Moving on… Yikes they do it big here. Don’t know the details but there’s a big ass bridge going across the river.
Plenty of sights like this today.
We arrive at Traben-Trarbach which is known as a romantic wine growing town. More wine?? Trivia: Although this town dates back to at least 830, buildings here are typical of the Art Nouveau style of 1890-1910 due to 3 devasting fires, the last of which was in 1879.
This one is a cracker. The Hotel Bellevue overlooks the Mosel River. Somehow it managed to survive both world wars. Its old name was Clauss-Feist (it was built by Richard Feist in 1903), and an early guest was Baron Richthofen (aka The Red Baron!). Apparently the tower was designed to resemble a champagne bottle. Fair call I reckon.
Beside the hotel.
Across the bridge is the beautiful Bruckentor (bridge gate) – constructed in 1899.
We parked Hermann in the shade underneath the bridge right at the gate, and walked across in the searing 40C heat. We were angling for a restaurant that comes highly recommended on TA. Here is the the Imperial Post Office (built 1906-08 after completion of the original bridge in 1900).
Bridge trivia: In the very last days of WW2 the original bridge was destroyed by the Nazis. The story goes like this: The local vintners tried to fill the lieutenant in charge with wine so he wouldn’t destroy the bridge. But the plan backfired when an SS captain arrived on the scene, took over, and got the job done. Madness!
OMG we’ve got a young baby in the room next to us sqwarking away. The little sh!t better sleep through the night! Ok.. here’s the restaurant. (First left over the bridge and only 50 metres down so not too much sweat lost). 
Or was there? Yup this heat is crazy. Everywhere we go the locals say it’s definitely not normal so I guess we’re a bit unlucky.
Muzza’s a bit sweaty too. Sheesh that friggn baby is still going. There’s some seriously quirky stuff in this restaurant. It’s chocka full of stuff, Really cool. There are several cave rooms down below which they bring into play for evening dining. Ideal for groups. We’ll take a squiz later.
We decide to find a spot outside in their garden. Inside there are heaps of people and the air isn’t moving. The waitress snapped this photo.
At our next table…
Ok… meal over. Let’s take a quick look downstairs. Awesome cave rooms.
Shop window on the walk back to the car. Wine labels aren’t what they used to be! There’d be an uproar from the PC party’s fun police if this surfaced in NZ.
On the road. They literally plant vines anywhere they possibly can on these valley hills. How they prune and harvest in some of these spots is beyond me.
Nearly at the end of our drive. A question: Would a number plate put you off buying a car?
An example of the way the Mosel River snakes it’s way through Germany to the Rhine.
Whilst passing through Zell. Some Zell trivia: With 4.5 million vines equal to an area of ca. 627 ha/1,550 acres, Zell is one of the largest wine-growing communities of Germany. “Zeller Schwarze Katz” is the collective name of Zell’s 16 individual vineyard sites. Here you can see a statue of the famous Schwarze Katz (black cat). There’s another statue at the main roundabout of a black cat holding a wine glass (sorry no pic).
Inappropriate carving.
Next photo opp is at the loop on the river at Bremm. We’re not allowed to drive up these wine roads. Yes you can walk them, so I did. There’s Kath staying with Hermann down below. Luckily the clouds came by and shaded me from the sun (but it was still 37C!).
Ok I’ve gone high enough. This view looks towards the ridiculously steep slopes of the famous Bremmer Calmont, the world’s steepest vineyard with a 65 degree incline.
The slate soils of these vertical slopes assist the ripening process by absorbing the sun’s heat during the day in order to keep the vines warm at night. The Rieslings of the region are (apparently) admired for “their delicate textures, fragrant aromas, floral perfumes, bright fruit, vivid acidity, and distinct slate minerality”.
Wine trivia: Mosel Rieslings are amongst the most age-worthy wines in the entire world and can be cellared for decades upon decades. There’s no chance of that while we’re here!
Bremm town.
Leaving Bremm. Only one person out today. Doesn’t seem to mind the heat.
Need to stop for diesel. There are tractors everywhere so why not here. Big boy, small tractor!
Approaching Beilstein with the ruins of Burg Metternich above the town.
We parked up (drink stop) and heard a rather unusual sound. We listened carefully and heard it again. Thunder!! Looking to the west we could see rain. What? Yes rain. And threatening clouds. Quick let’s get that drink and have a quick wander around Beilstein!
But hey what’s this. Yup these are everywhere on the steep slopes. A trusty monorack! A means to get workers and materials up the steep slopes to work on the wines (and for collecting harvested grapes). Bags of fun surely, but you wouldn’t want a malfunction on some of these slopes!
Ooops sorry Kath, not your best look eh? 😀 (Bad timing with the camera. 🙂 ) A few big drops of rain were appearing.
We finished our drinks and went to look at Beilstein. Not much to it really. There’s the entrance to Marktplatz.
And Marktplatz.
And then the rain started to fall big time so we shot back to the car and hit the road. We only had 10kms to get to Cochem, our base for the next 5 nights. Now this was an interesting 10kms. The rain got heavy, and the wind got up. Nek minut visibility was poor and bits of trees started landing on the road. A full on storm! The temperature dropped 13C in 5 minutes. When we arrived at Cochem the rain stopped and the sun came out again. Storm over. The temperatures raced straight up again. A quick snap of the majestic Reichsburg Castle at Cochem. We’ve done a supermarket shop, and we’ve done an evening walk (photo tomorrow). For now, it’s guten nacht from Cochem (pronounced Cock-him!).
Croozader @ Europe 2015 
Hmm… I suspect you won’t be complaining about Wellington weather when you get back!
Confirmed