Bike and Barge with Brandon on the Mosel

July 30, 2011  ARRIVAL
After a 6 1/2 hour train ride with three trains (and a mad dash pulling luggage to catch the third train), Brandon and I found Cochem. The third train, being a regional train did not have announcements nor a list of the stops. It would have helped, when asking other passengers about the stops if I had known that the "ch" in Cochem is pronounced as a "k". It was a relief to find a taxi driver who understood me and knew where the boat would be.
Our barge... The Sailing Home
After dinner I went for a short walk around the town. Others who had arrived earlier had done the one hour hike up to the restored castle.

July 31  DAY ONE... COCHEM TO ZELL.... 40 km

A view of the castle in the daytime
Breakfast was at 8:00 AM. At 9:00 AM we were ready to go.

The morning break was at the pretty town of Beilstein.

The reason Beilstein is so well preserved is that it was inaccessible by road until around 1900.
Going up the narrow street.
The Mosel valley is beautiful because it is so narrow. On each steep side are the grape vines which are hand harvested on the almost vertical, dizzying heights.
Brandon and I climbed (or raced) up to the castle ruin. It's never just a stroll with Brandon.
The castle was one of many destroyed by the French around 1688.
After lunch, with two leaders, we had two choices: to bike up to the Marienburg monastery to see the view of the Mosel or do an easy, flat and short ride. Brandon always chose the longer, more difficult ride hoping he could shake grandma. (He couldn't.) The hill to the monastery is shown in the photo below. We biked almost all the way there.

Then we went on foot (raced again) along the ridge and up to the tower. This view from the tower shows the Mosel as it winds around the hill we climbed. The monastery is just visible at the top of the hill. 
The 3 course gourmet dinners on the barge were delicious and well-presented. Above is the chocolate mousse dessert we had that night.

Comments

William said…
Lucky grandma. If I had been there, we would have taken the short easy routes :-)

The desserts on the Sailing Home look as good as ever.

Sandra did not mention that she found our picture from our 2006 trip to Bruges on the dining room wall.
August 9, 2011 at 5:06 p.m.
Megan said…
Wow -- that really looks quite spectacular. Scenery, foood, exercise... what more could you ask for?
August 11, 2011 at 8:47 a.m.
Michael said…
Great photos, welcome home.
August 11, 2011 at 9:11 a.m.
Margot said…
Looks like it was a fabulous trip!
August 11, 2011 at 12:05 p.m.
William said…
Did anyone notice that both Sandra and Brandon were both wearing blue and white Cyclon bicycle shirts - and on the right day too! Cyclon is our Toronto Bicycle Network bicycle club's three day August long weekend bicycle trip. Sandra is wearing my shirt (shrunk by the drier) and Brandon is wearing Sandra's Cyclon shirt (also shrunk by the drier) on the middle day of this year's Cyclon weekend in Canada. Symbolic solidarity!
August 13, 2011 at 12:10 p.m.
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