...Mosel Valley and Beyond...

Do you remember when I said in one of my previous posts that sometimes 'we have to take matters in our own hands'?

That's what we did! What are the odds to meet my son's girlfriend's family when I life in the UK, they live in Switzerland and her family is in the centre of Germany?

We worked out, it would only be a 200 kms detour, mostly through the beautiful Mosel Valley, to meet, let’s call them, 'The Bens' (Ben, the family dog, is the sleepiest, most gentle dog I've ever met).

...Deutsches Eck...

Taking a right turn at the 'Deutschen Eck' in Koblenz was a welcome change of scenery! Whilst the Rhine Valley is pretty wide and open in most places, entering into the Mosel Valley felt almost a bit claustrophobic.

The valley is pretty narrow with the Mosel River flowing along the bottom.

...Mosel Valley...

Villages are long and drawn out next to the river bed, built up to the sides of the valley. Every south facing or almost south facing surface of the valley is covered with vines - beautiful, tranquil, hardly any traffic, no tourists as yet!

And high up on the sides of the valley, castles are majestically looking down on you, still imposing their significance they had many years ago.  

Lonely vine growers tending their vines, giving you a wave from a distance. They are our distraction and we are theirs - very peaceful, so peaceful that we nearly don't realise, it's raining again!

Only the vast amount of still closed hotels & restaurants indicate there must be a thriving tourist industry going on at some point in the year!

We cut our days short. During those days I had my cold and cycling 40 to 50 kms appeared to be manageable and not too daunting. Cochem and Zell were lovely places to stay overnight and to have a wander around. But, as it was still two weeks before the beginning of the season there was little choice of places to have a glass of local Riesling and we ended up having it in an Italian restaurant.

Talking about open restaurants, there was a choice of Pizzerias, Trattorias or...Italian restaurants...but we are in the Mosel region and are craving for dumplings, hearty stews & pommes!! Some things don't change...

...At the Bens's...

And then, there was the 'big' day! We cycled into this small, 250 people village some kilometres off the Mosel river where 'The Bens' are living!

What a lovely and warm welcome we were given and we were made very welcome right from the beginning! Of course, there was lots to chat about, not just about our youngsters, oh no, that would have been too boring!

...Thermomix!...

And guess what? There was a Thermomix in the kitchen too - one of those magic kitchen machines which do nearly everything for you and I remember my team back at LMH many a times asking me to buy one...needless to say I was drawn towards it. So much, that 'The Bens' suggested I should have a go at it and let me made a chocolate pudding for dessert. Yummy it was!...

...Vulkan Eifel...

We then had a lovely sunny spring day exploring the surroundings of the village.

Did you know there were volcanic eruptions in the Eifel region of Germany (they must have been some years ago though...)? We discovered volcanic rocks, crater lakes and volcanic bombs.

And there was also a famous goats cheese farm with its very own, medal winning goats cheese making facilities. www.vulkanhof.de This goats cheese was just perfect for the risotto we cooked for dinner!

After some discussion, we've decided to cycle the longer, but flatter way back to the Rhine. This meant, after crossing some small hills early morning and in the rain, we rejoined the Mosel River in Alf and followed it all the way along back to Koblenz.

On route, we saw the same vine growers, same distractions, same waves - all very peaceful! So peaceful that we nearly didn't realize it stopped raining!

And we crossed our 1000 kms mark near Cochem!