European Vacation - Day 16 (Mosel River Valley)

After leaving Trier, we decided to drive up the winding road that follows the Mosel River. There are acres and acres of grapevines lining both sides of the valley. Every few kilometers there is another cute little town, packed with people, shops, and eateries featuring...local wine.

As we drove through, I said to Chuck, "This could be so much fun, if we spoke German." There are so many small towns and given the high number of campers and camping grounds along the river, it seemed like this is more of a local attraction than an international tourist location. So, the odds of English being spoken or even understood were slim to none. And, no...I'm not learning another language.

My DK Eyewitness Europe guidebook, which we refer to quite a bit, recommended a stop at Burg Eltz, a castle between Trier and Koblenz. It failed to mention that there were two entrances and somehow we end up at the hiking entrance. This translated to a walk down a steep hill for 1.8 kilometers (just over a mile) for 30 minutes just to get to the entrance....and then the return was strait up the rocky trail for about 50 minutes. Phew. I'm really going to be a billy goat if we keep up all this climbing! The alternative entrance was a parking lot with a shuttle train to the entrance. Below is a picture of Burg Eltz from halfway down the hiking trail.

It was a hot and muggy day, so we were both exhausted by the time we reached the car. We were planning on continuing up the Mosel to Koblenz and then taking the highway over to Mainz. However, we decided to take a short cut and go over one of the mountains and head straight to Mainz.