Cochem

Hello from the Mosel River in Germany! We have had an excellent time cycling up the Rhein to Koblentz and then up the Mosel to Cochem. We have been on our bicycles every day since Amsterdam (except for one in Rotterdam) and loving it. The weather has been just about right for riding: cool with a little sun here and there. It has rained on us just about every night but the days have been fairly dry. We have not put the tent away wet yet.

The ride from Rotterdam was really flat, windy and kind of plain all the way up to Dusseldorf. We cycled most of the time along the top of the dikes where the Dutch have built some really nice cycle paths. Like I said in a previous post, the cycle paths in the Netherlands are the best. Cyclists even have right-of-way in almost all situations we learned. We really did not see any topography of any sort until we got to the area just south of Dusseldorf. Up till then I think we were sleeping in areas that were lower than the level of the river. It is quite amazing that all of this water management business with windmills and all has been around for many hundreds of years.

We have been alternating between staying with hospitality club folks, other cyclists and campgrounds with just the right mix to get some privacy and to have interesting discussions with local folks. For the past few nights we have been camping along the Mosel River and visiting the towns and castles that dominate this entire valley. The hillsides are vineyards and the valley bottom is small villages where the sell their local wines. The most common variety is Reisling.

Yesterday we cycled to the town of Beilstein where we walked around for a while and just enjoyed the atmosphere. The towns 180 residents run like 30 restaurants, hotels and wineries. We then cycled a few kilometers to Brutting where they were having "Winzerfest". We had some brats and drank a bottle of wine while listing to about 1000 Germans sing to this oompah-oompah band. It was quite fun. We have pictures and a video but I forgot the camera cable again so no photos for you today. I will put them up later.

Tomorrow we head back down to the Rhein and then south to St. Goar. Should see some good castles in the next few days!