May 2, 2012 Cochem Germany

Today we arrived at Cochem Germany in the rain.  A small town with a beautifule castle, it is in the heart of wine country.  It is amazing, the vineyards go up the side of the hills, sometimes it seems as if they are straight up the hill.  Some vineyards have these little cars that go up a single rail through the center of the vineyard, then they can walk among the rows of vines to work on them.  We were told many times that part of the problem now is that young people don't want to do the work that goes into the vineyards.

We started the day with a trip to the castle that over looks the town.  On the way up it was sprinkling.  By time we got back to town it was just raining hard, so we finally gave up and went back to the boat.

In the afternoon we took the coaches to Ediger-Eller.  They are two small towns that have joined administrations so they have one mayer, etc.  It was about 1/2 hour drive and we were greeted by the Mayor and his "body guard".  Both were dressed in period attire.  Mayor walked us through the town - and the rain - the the local church where we enjoyed a lovely concert by the local organist.  It was so very good.

From there we went to a local restaurant for a wine tasting.  The Mayor's uncle played the piano - he was great - and a lady who owns a local vineyard spoke as we tasted wine.  We had three types of Reislings - dry, medium and slightly sweet plus a dish of Mediterranean style snacks (feta like cheese, olives, tomatoes) and fresh bread.

The Mayor sang, he was quite good, then we saw a short movie from 1955 on the vineyards.  The mayor narrated and told us who was his neighbor on the right and who was the neighbor on the left.

Our hostess from the vineyard has 1.5 hectars of grapes and produces about 8,000 bottles of wine a year.  It was just a delightful afternoon.

The sun finally came out and we set sail.  Because the bridges are so low on the Mosel, they make the exhaust stack come down almost level with the deck and actually lower the bridge.  The back part of the sun deck is closed, we can only sit in front where the crew can see us and make sure none of us stand up when we are not suppposed to - the bridges are that low.

It was a beautiful evening sailing, the fresh air blowing across the deck, the vineyards stretching up the hills on either side of the river.  The river is surprisingly narrow and there is not much room on either side of the boat.  Apparently we go through four locks as we go up the river.  We passed through one at dinner and it was so close I swear we could have reached out the window and touched the walls.  Several of us went back up on deck until the sun went down and it was so nice.

Tomorrow we go on to Trier where we stay about 36 hours and take a coach trip to Luxembourg.

Picture 1 is the castle over Cochom

Picture 2 is a hotel in Ediger-Eller.  I just thought it was very quaint.  Although the town seemed quiet today, they said on the weekends all these little towns are full of people who come out for the weekend.  Also there are lots and lots of "caravan" parks - RV parks.  They said people will rent the spot for the season and just leave their tent up and use it like a summer home.

Picture 3 is from the vineyard of the lady who spoke to us.

Picture 4 was the mayor.  He was just great.

Picture 5 was the mayor's uncle who played for us.  He was a lot of fun.

Picture 6 was our hostes from the vineyard and who talked to us about wine making and provided the wine for our wine tasting.

Pictures 7, 8 and 9 are from inside the church where we had the organ concert.  It was a beautiful big pipe organ and the acoustics were superb.

Picture 10 is of our group walking through Ediger-Eller in the rain.

Picture 11 is the "body guard" of the Mayor and also who poured all of our wine and answered questions.

Picture 12-17 are from our Castle Tour.  The family who owned the castle moved out and went separate ways and the castle is owned by the town.  Gradually they are contacting the family to try to get original pieces back into the castle.  The panoramic view is from the Castle.  The armor of the tall man was the tallest knight at least in that area and he stands next a piece of armor that represents an average sized person.

The last picture is of a tyical building in Cochem.