Germany: Cochem

Other than the hassle of going back to the airport and going through the odious ritual of picking of a rental car, this was a pretty low key day.  Well, except for one part!

For the next five nights we are going to be staying in the Mosel River town of Cochem.  It's at a lovely spot on the river with a picturesque landmark castle.  The hotel we are at is centrally located and our spacious room has a nice view of vineyards and a funerary monument shop.  Halloween is around the corner...

To get our bearings we went for a walk and I also asked Hans if he would accompany me on a little field trip.  I brought some of my astrophotography equipment with the hope that I might create a cool image at some point but I needed to scout out a pathway up the hillsides to a decent vantage point.  The notoriously steep slopes of the valley were no joke.  We climbed two paths in some pretty intense afternoon sunshine.  Unfortunately the sun was in our faces as we tried to take pictures of Cochem itself.

These tracks and trams are used to move equipment and grapes up and down the vineyards all over the Mosel River valley.  The grapes are harvested by hand by some pretty strong people!

Here they primarily grow riesling grapes and sometimes pinot noir

Back down in town and after a bit of rest we went to dinner at a traditional German restaurant, Zom Stüffje.  Hans got the jägerschnitzel (of which I was very jealous) and I got a seafood flammkuchen, a kind of German variant of pizza.  The streets of old Cochem were lovely in the evening and we had a nice walk back to the hotel for some relaxation time.  I found a very addictive gameshow on TV called "99 - Who Beats Them All?" and I'm still upset that we didn't get to see how the season ends!

Looking back to the other side of the river and the slopes that we climbed a few hours earlier. 
We made it up to a level that's about even with the top of the church spire in this photo.

 

Wer schlägt sie alle?