The city of Cochem, Germany is just one of the sleepy villages in the Mosel River Valley. The river meanders its way from the Vosges Mountains of France to Koblenz, Germany where it meets the Rhine. The area is a huge wine-growing region, primarily whites such as Rieslings. We were not big fans of the wine (we found it to be a bit flavorless), but we really liked the area. Beautiful vineyards, hiking/biking trails, and sweet little villages along the river. In addition, there is a fairytale-like castle in almost every town.
We hiked up to Berg Eltz, one of the most impressive castles we have visited. The name "Eltz" means stream and is also the surname of the family who has inhabited it for over 800 years. The castle is kind of remote and can only be reached by hiking trails or shuttle bus. Much of the furniture, from the 15th or 16th centuries, is original or has been restored to its original form.
Another castle that we visited overlooks the town of Cochem. Although this castle makes an amazing backdrop for the town, it is not as impressive on the inside. A rich guy who designed it according to what he thought a castle should look like restored it during the 19th century.
A pleasant day of biking along the Mosel brought us to the villages of Beilstein and Zell, which were also very cute. One evening we decided to do something completely out of character and took a cheesy party boat cruise. We can’t say this very often, but we were the youngest people on the cruise by far! We were also the only people who were not German. It was a beautiful night and we enjoyed sipping wine and watching drunk, middle-aged, German tourists sing and dance the night away to a folk band doing Americana covers and German drinking songs. We got up and danced for a short time because we got a little cold, but we were really fishes out of water!
