Vacation in Europe, Apr 2001 -- Mosel Valley

Jay Schuster
P.O.Box 422
Richmond, Vermont 05477-0422
USA
Email: jay@pcc.com
PGP Key Available

You are visiting The Physician's Computer Company, but they don't want to know that.

The Mosel Valley

The autobahn bridge over the Mosel. Lacking a sense of scale, it's hard to tell that the small colored part at the base of the footing is actually twelve foot tall graffiti.

From another angle.

The vineyards. We would get tired of these after a while.

A quaint German village on the edge of the (flooded) Mosel. We would eventually get sick of these.

But for now, they were new and beautiful. The first of many amazing churches.

Our first castle! Burg Eltz. Built along a Mosel tributary, it controlled access to the Mosel from the plateau. It's privately owned, and the owners still reside there for part of the year.

This battlement is way above the castle. It was built by an Archbishop who was battling with the castle as a place to lob cannonballs from.

The entrance. Now we know where fairy tales come from.

A great gargoyle.

Some weaponry on display during the tour (which was in German, but we had an abridged english translation guide).

Up, up, and up.

Dan, contemplating a new summer home.

If only all storm drains could be this pretty.

Another roof drain/gargoyle.

Coat of arms.

A closeup of the snake water spout.

Looking down on one part of the castle.

A view?

Looking up at the bishop's battlements.

Dan and I in the gate.

Leaving the castle.

The view down the valley to the tributary.

Again.

Dennis, not looking forward to the walk back to the car.

Better.

We stayed at a Hotel in Cochem that night. This was our room.

Tres beautiful, n'est-ce pas?

The view out the balcony, across the Mosel.

The Mosel was so flooded that the tour boats couldn't operate because their docks were under water. As you will soon see, flooding is something that happens pretty regularly here. This was a small one.

It was amazing to see.

The next morning we left Cochem, but took this photograph of some of the high water (hochwasser) marks. The highest one was from a 1993 flood.

Cochem has a castle, which we discovered only the night before. This isn't it, it's just a chapel on the way up to the castle.

The castle, from below.

We got lost trying to get to the castle. This is from the other side of the river.

The castle (on the left) and the city of Cochem.

A close up of the church.

More of the city. The view was really fantastic. We were pretty high up in a residential neighborhood on the side of the river opposite the castle.

There she is.

We finally figured out how to get to it. This castle was rebuilt from old plans in the 19th century, so although the exterior looks old, the interior is (relatively) modern.

Walking up to the first gate.

Looking back down at the town. `From up here, you all look like ants!' My traveling companions would tire of me saying that whenever we got to a good view point. You have to see the end of A Bug's Life to really get it.

The flooded Mosel.

It looks like frog, but it's really a lion. Honestly. The guides tell you this over and over.

The dining room.

Ornate woodwork.

The china cabinet.

Coats of arms, I think. Remember, this castle was rebuilt by a Frenchman in the 19th century. He was forced to sell it during WWII (because he was French), and now it's public property.

Our tour guide. She spoke English, and initially the group was all English speakers so she was going to do the tour in English, but then a lot of Germans showed up for the tour, so we were left to read the English guides. She did tell us some jokes about the castle, however.

A ceiling. The way some of these people decortaed their ceiling you would have thought that they spent all their time on their backs on the floor.

A lot of castles had these mermaid/antler chandeliers in them. Touching the red medallion is supposed to bring you luck.

You know, we never found out why so many of these chests were on legs. Rodents? Convenience?

Another ceiling.

To counterbalance the boar's head, the body is in the other room. (Just kidding).

Art.

A meeting room.

Life in the lap of luxury.

It was all beautiful, if a bit dark and cold.

Beige. I think we should paint the ceiling beige.

Another room. Notice the mermaid/antler chandelier.

A bust of Monsieur so-and-so who built the castle.

This room had some great armor and a great inlaid chest.

This guy was a seven footer.

Outside, by the well.

Back through a gate.

The Witch's Tower. This was the only part left standing after hundreds of years of destruction.

We really were there!

Looking from inside down towards the outer gate.

Another town, another ruin.

This ruin was being repaired.

I think I liked the ruins better than the complete castles.

A view. Another view. Another beautiful view. Notice a trend?

We went to another castle. This one was a private hotel that also housed a medical institute. First, the view.

The foyer outside the castle. We weren't sure if it was cool to go in or not, so we just hung out outside.

No one seemed to be there, although we could hear noise inside.

We stoped for lunch along the way. I don't remember the name of the town.

Another narrow street in another scenic Mosel valley village.

Oh yeah, this was the SchwarzKatt. The Black Cat. A famous wine town.

A blooming tree?

Another scenic building.

A view. Another gorgeous view.

Another ruin. This was just a tiny remnant of a much bigger castle structure.

Looking up.

And down.

In case you couldn't tell, the valley walls are pretty steep. This seemed almost straight down.

A barge on the Mosel. There was an enormous amount of barge traffic everywhere.

An explanation of the previous ruin, with a drawing of how big it was.

Explanation in English.

I think I was blocking out the sun to see a hawk or something circling.

Yes, I was.

Dan loves me.