Cochem

Jeff and I drove up to the Mosel last Saturday to visit Cochem. It’s a town of about 5,000 folks and sits on the Mosel River about half way between Bernkastle-Kues, to the south, and Koblenz, to the north. Cochem, as a village, has been around since at least 886 and certainly much earlier as a Roman settlement. The main reason for our hour and a half drive to Cochem was to see their beautiful castle.

We’ve just arrived on the Mosel River. Here’s me with the Cochem Castle in the background.

The Reichsburg Cochem (Imperial Castle of Cochem) was built on the peak of a hill that lies within the Mosel valley. So, although it sits well above the town of Cochem, the rim of the valley is well above the castle. Cochem Castle was first mentioned in ancient documents in 1130.

Cochem Castle with the towns riverfront below.

A closer view of the castle. Cochem Castle, like most castles in this area of Germany, was besieged by the French in 1688 and, for the most part, destroyed. It lay in ruins until 1868 when a private business man from Berlin purchased the castle and reconstructed it in its present form.

Cochem Castle from the towns riverfront. The town of Cochem has owned the castle since 1978.

Walking up to the castle. It was steep!

The town of Cochem viewed from the castle.

The castle keep.

Cochem Castel gate.

Back in the town, half timbered buildings in the Cochem town square.

Cathedral steeple in Cochem.

The walk up to the castle and back down left us needing sustenance. Jeff had a beer, Duh, I had a big ass cappuccino.

Jeff with Cochem Castle in the background. Still jacket weather over here.

Some guy drove up in this cute little car. It’s a Messerschmitt, same guys that built the Me-109 of WW II fame.

Cochem Castle and the town from the east bank of the Mosel.

Last view of the Cochem Castle as we drive south along the east bank of the Mosel River.

A castle ruin above the village of Beilstein.

We stopped in the town of Mesenich which was having a different kind of wine festival with its neighboring village of Senheim. This sign says Weinwanderweg (Wine Walk Way) and that’s exactly what their little festival was, a walk between the villages, through the local vineyards; about half way up the Mosel valley wall.

A sign that advertises the various grapes that are grown by the Mesenich vintners.

There were about 10-12 stops along the walk, this is above Mesenich at the north end of the walk; Senheim lays to the south. This is stop one, a Bitburger vendor. Jeff said this was a definite stop on our way back.

Here I am on one of the benchs overlooking the Mosel. What a wonderful place to just sit and look out over the valley.

The vineyards between Mesenich and Senheim had all sorts of images of well known local vintners and people of notoriety.  This a local, favorite friar of the past.

This little car was what one of the local vintners used to hold his sampling of wines.

Can’t have a German festival without a band. See how steep the vineyard terrain is.

At this second stop the lady there sold a peach schnapps. Here’s Jeff with his peach schnapps and the Mosel valley below.

The band caught up to us at the peach lady. Fun music, pretty setting.

The beautiful Mosel Valley.

Biking is a big deal in Germany and there's no better place to ride than along the Mosel River on a nice spring day.

At the end of our walk we were back to the Bitburger vendor and Jeff’s anticipated amber nectar. Say what?!?!? No beer, just wine?!?!?  Jeff looks quite bewildered.

Back in the car, we’re driving cross country from the Mosel to Kirchheimbolanden and their Maifest (May Festival). The yellow of the rapeseed fields was magnificent.

We’re in Kibo, just another little celebration of the arrival of spring. You can see what a nice day it is.

We saw this sign advertising a Bitburger-Stubbi. We had to find out what that might be.

Here it is, the Bitburger-Stubbi, their short stubby bottle. Lucky Jeff, he finally got his Bit.

Another great day in Germany! It’s finally warming up here so pretty sure there’s a lot more days like this one the way, both weather and festive.

Fünf von Mai

That’s Cinco de Mayo in German; 5 of May. That also happens to be Jeff’s birthday so we wanted to get out and do a little B-Day/Cinco de Mayo celebrating last Saturday. Since we’re in Germany we figured we’d start with a local Maifest (May Festival); a celebration of the arrival of spring. 

So here we are in Lanstuhl on a dreary, overcast day with light rain showers off and on.  Not a great day to celebrate the arrival of spring.  But, regardless, PROST!!

The weather conditions had put a real damper on the festivities. As you can see from the midway here we’re just about the only people at this fest.

Even the Deutscher favorite, bumper cars, were parked. All right spring celebration over.

OK, time to get to the Cinco de Mayo part of the day. Also in Landstuhl is a new Mexican restaurant called Tequilas. It used to be an Irish Pub so this building must be particularly well suited for some sort of ethnic operation. Interesting situation though, old, half-timbered building with a Mexican restaurant in it.

Birthday boy with margaritas.

Birthday boy with new Mexican friend.

Speaking of friends. Jeff and I were invited to an A-10/Cinco de Mayo/Birthday party Saturday evening at the Tina and Keebs house. Here you can see that presidents aren’t the only ones that have sexy blondes sing them “Happy Birthday.”

Cajun, Jeff and Magneto. That’s Magnito’s sexy blonde.

Tina was so nice to make some tasty birthday cupcakes. That's Nicole lighting the candles.

Jeff with cupcake, Kloster Andechs Doppelbock Dunkle (he got a whole case from Tina and Keebs for a gift) under a Bitburger umbrella.

So the beer and tequila did flow and it’s time to dance. What better way to do that than with a little help from Wii. Here’s Beth, Nicole and Erika.

Now the guys had to give it try too.  Magneto, Jeff and Crater.  Their arms should all be in the same direction and, of course, none of them are.

Here’s the video. It’s not pretty.

So Fünf von Mai turned out to be a really good day. Spring not so great but the friends and fun were extra special!!

Burg Nanstein

"Hey, let’s take a drive to the local castle ruin." Now, that’s something you’re not going to hear very often in the States. Well, that’s exactly what Jeff said last Sunday and, since it was such a great spring afternoon, that’s just what we did. The closest castle ruin to us is in Landstuhl, Burg Nanstein. Landstuhl is just south, across the A-6 autobahn, from Ramstein Air Base and a 15 minute drive from our house.

Burg Nanstein sits high on a ridge overlooking the town. It was built on the orders of the Holy Roman Emperor in 1162 to reinforce the defenses of the local area.

From the center of Landstuhl you can see Burg Nanstein high above.

Jeff and I first visited Burg Nanstein around 25 years ago so we thought it would be interesting to see what had changed. One significant change is the nice gasthaus and beer garden that’s been built since our last visit.

Here’s me at our beer garden table with Ramstein Air Base in the background.

Closer view of Ramstein. Here you can see the large air mobility ramp and the new multi-story billeting building. Behind billeting is the Kaiserslautern Military Community Center, the KMCC, of which billeting is a part, and includes a huge BX, food court, and concession vendors. This beer garden is a great place to sit and watch the arrivals and departures at Ramstein.

Landstuhl from Burg Nanstein. This is looking to the north toward Trier and the Eiffel region. Behind us is the Pfalz Forest that lays to the south of Kaiserslautern.

Another thing that’s changed is that now there’s an admission fee to get inside the castle. We passed on that because you can see most it from the outside. Here are a few images of Burg Nanstein.

As with all things German, there are rules and expected behavior, or there will be consequences for any "irregularity."

Well, that was last Sunday afternoon.  Very leisurely visit an 850 year old castle.  That's hard to do in Texas.  Cheers!!

Kallstadt

Back to the Deutsche Weinstraße (German Wine Road) last Saturday. This time we went to Kallstadt, a small town of 1200 people just north of Bad Durkheim, right on the Weinstraße. Kallstadt is a typical vineyard community with vintners lining the main street of the town. In addition to being known for its fine wines, Kallstadt is also famous for its saumagen, so much so that at least one of the town’s vintners uses that term on it’s wine labels, Kallstadter Saumagen.

You’re probably wondering what saumagen might be. Well, saumagen is a processed meat patty, very popular in this part of Germany that’s made from pig stomach and that’s exactly what saumagen translates to in English, pig stomach. Saumagen and mustard on a German roll; Jeff likes it, not me.

Kallstadt’s wine festival was called "Probe der 100 Weine" which essentially means, Checkout the 100 Wines.

Here’s Tina, Jeff and Keebs. We’re into the first of the 100.

Kallstadt set up their 100 wines in the town’s gymnasium. They had four stations; each one served twenty-five of the 100 wines. The first station, 1-25, at the front of the picture below, served all red wines; Portugieser, Dornfelder, Spätburgunder and more.  You'll also notice that the red wine station isn't too busy.  Germany reds aren't that renowned.  The rest of the stations were all whites; Riesling, Weißburgunder, Silvaner, Scheurebe and other local favorites.

The Kallstadt gymnasium.

Here’s where we set up our wine probe operation. They provided us with nice pamphlets that listed all 100 wines that we could sample. Jeff said the first wine he was going to try was #69, whatever it was; turned out to be a Riesling Kabinett Trocken (dry). In the end we tried 20 of the 100 wines; 15 white, 5 red.

Like I’ve mentioned before, in Germany, if you throw a festival you gotta have at least one carnival ride and Kallstadt certainly did. Here’s me with one of them.

Anyone for some saumagen? Jeff had one, Tina and Keebs a bratwurst and I had a serving of pommes frites.

Here’s one of the little, cute tractors that they use in the vineyards and this one is towing an equally cute trailer of some sort.

A closer look inside the cute trailer reveals a cozy bunk. Guess this must be for some late night vineyard work of some sort; nudge, nudge, say no more.

Couple Kallstadt scenes. Cute German bank.

Standing on the Deutsche Weinstraße in Kallstadt.

Well, we drove back to Kaiserslautern and stopped at our favorite beer garden, Bremerhof, for an evening meal.  Jeff had the Wildschweinbraten (marinated pork cutlet) with two Knodel (starchy dumplins) and German salad, I had two bratwurst, mash potatoes and saurkraut.  Bremerhof always delivers when it comes to food . . . and beer.

Nice, simple, fun wine festival. See how we're easing into the season. Half hour drive each way. Sample a few good wines, eat some good food, spend time with good friends, all makes for a good day. Ching-ching!!