German Trip Day 2: 24 April 2010

We woke up early, had breakfast, and hit the road to see the Mosel River valley. First stop, Trier (we passed Worms, of Diet fame, along the way).

Here's the Porta Nigra, or Black Gate, a Roman ruin in Trier:


Here's St. Gangolfskirche at the main marketplace:


We walked by the Königstherm, which is the ruins of the kingly ancient hot baths:


Here are J and K walking in the Palaisgarten (Palace Garden) on the way to the pink palace of Kufürsten:


The emporer Constantine lived in Trier in the 4th century. Here is his palace. It was impressive inside, no pillars at all. (It was converted into a church so no pictures of the inside):


Here's the Trier Dom (cathedral). It supposedly holds the Heiliege Rock (Christ's Seamless Robe):


For lunch we had currywurst. I even remembered the proper German plural for Wurst when ordering.

Driving down the Mosel there are a lot of vinyards. Every bit of space is used, even on steep hills. We saw someone doing the precarious job of mowing in between the rows of vines.


Most of the time we were on the lookout for castles, or the ruins thereof, on tops of the hills above the river:


It was hard getting pictures from a moving car, always a tree or sign got in the way.

There was a lot of barge traffic on the river, and many locks. I didn't get any pictures of that.

We stopped at a Flohmarkt (Flea Market). It's amazing how the goods available at flea markets are pretty much the same the world over.

We did stop occasionally to try to check out some ruins. We tried hiking up to this one near Veldenz only to find it's only open one day a month (and not the day we were there):


We stopped in Cochem, even though the travel guide had a low opinion of it. We were hiking up to this castle:


It's actually a reproduction of a castle that burned in the 17th century. We hiked up the big hill:


Here's the view of Cochem from above:


Act fast, you need to use the bathroom in Germany... are you an "H" or a "D":


We went to Burg Eltz, one of the most complete castles in the region. Unlike others that were up a huge hill, this one was down a huge hill, in a deep valley (we had to park at the top of the hill, so still a lot of walking). Unfortunately it was under construction:


It was conquered at one point by rivals who built another castle, just up the hill, from which to lay seige:


We went even further downhill to play in the stream, then had to make the long hike back to our car:


We next went to Koblenz to see the Deutches Eck, where the Mosel and Rhein meet. There's a big ugly statue there signifying German unity. In front they have a piece of the Berlin Wall:


The monument was damaged in WWII, but they replaced the statue of Kaiser Wilhelm recently (more recently than my 90s vintage travel guide):


Here you can see the confluence of the Mosel and Rhein:


Here's a GPS track of our travels. The wiggly part in the middle was when we were along the Mosel:


We had a late dinner at an Eiscafe (I had a Heidelbeer [think blueberry] sundae). We stayed at a fancily decorated B&B in Pulheim, near Köln (Cologne).
On to Day 3
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