Éguisheim, Bernkastel, Koblenz

Wednesday, July 17

Éguisheim turned out to be a lovely little town. We walked around for a while and then sat down for a coffee. It seems they do not have cafés in Alsace – but ‘Salons du The’. It was the same thing in Colmar. Of course they serve coffee, too! And, as always in this part of the world, lovely cakes.

But to our dismay, we had sat too long over our coffee – when we came to the Domaine recommended by my friend, they had closed for lunch (very common in Middle Europe). We should have checked better of course, since we do know about this little peculiarity by now. We did not feel like waiting for 90 minutes, so decided to keep on going to Trier in Germany instead.

Getting there turned out to be a tourist’s nightmare. There was so much construction work going on, that we had a very hard time getting anywhere. Map and gps were of course practically useless. For those of you who have travelled in Germany, the word ‘Umleitung’ is probably well known. Well, there were three different Umleitungen, and none of them was well thought through – at least not from a tourist’s perspective. It took us quite a bit longer to get to the camp site in Trier than we had thought, and for a while we weren’t even sure we would ever find it due to the Umleitung, but we finally made it. And were rewarded with the very last spot with eletricity hook up.

We would have liked to stay two nights since we got there so late, but they were fully booked. By the time we had parked it was too late for sightseeing, so instead we had dinner at the very nice Bier Garten (literally Beer garden, sort of like an outdoor pub, usually very simple dishes, but they had a good menu, and the food was delicious.) We talked about doing our sightseeing the next day, and then leave for Bernkastel, also on the Mosel, but we were sick and tired of arriving places late. Instead we decided to go straight to Bernkastel. Trier will stay where it is!

Thursday, July 18

Bernkastel is a lovely town, but there are simply too many tourists there this time of the year. Wish we could travel in late August or September instead... after I retire! There really were only two things we wanted to do there this time – visit the Vinothek in Kues on the opposite side of the river, to see if they possibly had a good map over the different wine areas along the Mosel, and pay a visit to Patrik Lauerburg, whose wines we are big fans of.

We parked on the Kues side – parking in Bernkastel is tricky – and then had coffee and Flammkuchen. As usual I’d forgotten to ask them to go lightly on the onions, but I survived!

At the Vinothek they had just the poster we were looking for. Turned out they had bought it from the German Association of winemakers, so now we know where to look. And then it was Lauerburg. This time there was a couple from Denmark there. Turned out, they were also third or fourth time customers. Herr Lauerburg this time showed us his wine cellars, more parts than last time, and we walked around down there, glasses in hands, and tasted right out of the barrels. Great experience. As usual, we bought quite a lot. Would have liked to buy more, but we are concerned with the weight, so ‘only’ bought twelve bottles.

The nearest camp site/Stellplatz is Sun Park in Graach, a few minutes north of Bernkastel. We stayed there last year, too. It’s an OK place, and the lady who runs it is lovely. Before going there, we went to Knaus Camping in Kues and asked them to help us book three nights at Knaus in Koblenz. It’s great camp ground, but we haven’t seen the town or the castle on top of the hill facing the campground, so we wanted to do that. Plus we sorely needed a washing machine and hopefully a dryer.

Friday, July 19

We travelled along the Mosel all the way to Koblenz. Fantastic views, lovely little towns. Everything is about winemaking in this part of the world, so all the towns boasted signs of wine tasting, wine cellar, wine queen of the year etc. We made a quick stop at Ernst Steffens and bought a few bottles “for the road”, including one bottle of Sekt (German bubbles) Should have bought more Sekt, because it was lovely.

Had an amazing lunch in the town of Hatzenport (we think) consisting of waffles with warm cherries and whipped cream. Guaranteed intake of all the essential vitamines!

Rolled into the campgrounds at a very decent time for us, so had time to run three loads in the washer. Unfortunately the dryer did a terrible job, so we had to arrange everything underneath the awning for that evening and night. People turned their heads and stared, a bit embarrassing.

Saturday, July 20

This is our third stay at these campgrounds, but on previous occasions we only stayed the night and then pressed on. This time we decided to take the boat across the Mosel into town, and then the up to the castle Ehrenbreitstein. You get a great view of Koblenz and the surrounding area, and of course the spot where Mosel joins the river Rhine. This spot is called the German corner – Deutsches Eck. The castle was originally built during Medieval times, and was then added onto over the centuries. It was basically impossible to take – except by famine, which actually happened once, after a lenghty siege one would presume.

The castle is huge, and we only saw parts of it. Partly because Ivan wasn’t allowed in everywhere, partly because the heat was getting to me. So down we went again, and turned our steps to the ice cream parlour we had spotted earlier. Afterwards we went in search for a book store since I wanted to buy some German magazines, but today being Saturday, all the stores closed earlier. Instead we took the boat across the Mosel again, arriving just as it started raining. Felt good to cool down!

Sunday, July 21

Our only plan for today was to wash one of my dresses by hand (my chore!), work a few hours (Jens) and write for my blog. But we need Internet for that, so will probably have a late lunch evolving into coffee time at the restaurant on the camp ground to use their Internet. I write all my texts in the Word format, and then I just copy and paste it to the blog, adding photos afterwards. This way, should Internet die on me, I still have the text. Have learnt from earlier mistakes...

Had planned on publishing lots of photos this time, but my Internet connection is so poor, and my laptop keeps running low on battery. Don't even have time to explain what's in the photos below... Hope to have better hook up in a few days!!!!