Moselle valley

dinner at the camp site restaurant on the Moselle near Koblenz

typical view of the valleys

Castle Eltz (where else?)

we left the car in the car park this time!

in the courtyard of the castle

a castle we saw from a supermarket car park (we stocked up today)

lunch village

Trier from the Roman Black gate

I meet a Roman!

The Black gate

Trier Cathedral

Moselle Valley - August 31

A whole day drive along the Moselle river valley, longer than the section of the Rhine we drove along yesterday.  The weather wasn't so good, cloudy and cooler than the last few days.

We decided to visit one of the many castles in the area so went to Castle Eltz, begun 1,000 yrs ago and has been in the same family for 30 generations.  It was an amazing place, as you see from the photos.  We had a guided tour but couldn't take photos inside.  This castle really captured the flavour of a medieval castle, 3 branches of the family had 'houses' in the castle complex, the room shapes dictated by the rock.

Then we drove along the river  looking at the castles and the vineyards... We had lunch at Beilstein, a tiny fortified village in a crevice on the hillside, with a ruined castle above.  We continued to Trier where we visited the Roman remains, the Black gate and the museum.

Then having seen famous German cities, towns, castles, Cathedrals and rivers we decided to go to Luxembourg which is famous for...um...?

In the village we camped at was this old building, one of Germany's oldest half timbered structures

castle in the middle of the Rhine

one of many castles

a ruined one we went up to

another castle...

...another one

..another one

...more...

...you get the idea!

we didn't know you couldn't drive in here - no1

hamburger in the vines

we didn't know..no2!

 

The Rhine Valley

The village we stayed at last night had a brochure in English so we took a quick look around this morning before going to Rudesheim where we got wifi with our coffee and did some emails.  Then we drove alongside the river Rhine through the Rhine Valley.  You can drive on either side but can only cross by ferry between Mainz and Koblenz.  We drove on the east bank.  Most of the castles are on the other side so you get a good view of them.  We visited the Loreley lookout area and 2 ruined castles.  At one place we were the only people there (except 1 man).  At Loreley it was fairly crowded with tourists.  At the ruined castles we seemed to drive up footpaths and into the courtyards, it was fairly tight but hey, we don't know!  We can't read German!  We then went on every motorway the satnav could find around Koblenz and we are now camped on the banks of the Moselle river.  We have run out of food so will go to the little restaurant for dinner.  (Actually we have needed to go to a supermarket for days.  Yesterday when we camped we just got out the chairs and the wine.  Then had to put up the tent! :-$  We finally had soup for tea last night but now that's run out too!)

ps.  great meal and good wine.  I got a carafe, Malcolm had a beer.  So much food - the Germans are big on meat, mainly pork.  I went straight to bed after dinner!

 

 

...and part 3

the residenz

The citadel from the bridge

..the bridge from the way up to the citadel

citadel

courtyard of citadel

The town from the citadel

on the bridge

Stainless steel tree sculpture

in the citadel courtyard

...Part 3 Wurzburg

We parked outside a hude building like Buckingham Palace called the Residenz but didn't go and look around.  We headed into town for lunch (good old subway again)- looking out on the old streets of town.  On the skyline over the fancy bridge over the river was an impressive looking building - the Marienburg Fortress.  It was the hottest part of the day, about 26 degrees so of course we climbed up all the steps and looked around the place.  It was actually very interesting and picturesque and we got ice creams in the courtyard and sat in the shade for a while before retracing our steps back to the car and out to an obscure place in the country to camp.

Scenic routes part 2...

the lake, early morning

Bamburg

In the Cathedral

the Abbey

The Cathedral from the Abbey

old town

Scenic routes in Central Germany and Northern Bavaria

Part 2 - Bamburg

We woke up to fog but it soon started to burn off - the lake appeared.  It was all a bit chilly for sitting boiling water for coffee though so we packed up and left, hoping a cafe would be open in the little town/village at 7.30 or 8.00 am - but this is not France or Italy where people go out for breakfast so we had to stop on the motorway instead.

We zipped along to our first scenic destination, the city of Bamburg.  The most remarkable thing about the old part of this city was the Imperial Cathedral (built 1237) which has 4 towers all with copper spires (greened with vertigris).  Thing is you can't really get a good photo that shows the whole building.  Anyway the streets around were (as usual) picturesque - and we walked up to an abbey and looked around the terraces up there.  Then we set off for the motorway again heading for our next destination...

Scenic routes (?) in Central germany to Northern Bavaria (part1)

big cakes!

in the castle courtyard

the castle

Scenic routes in Central Germany and Northern Bavaria

Part 1 Eisenach

We drove across some fairly uninteresting farmland until we reached the hillier region of the Thuringian forest.  We walked up to Wartburg Castle at Eisenach which was built between 1155-1180 and is one of Germany's best preserved Romanesque structures (apparently!)  It certainly had huge slabs of cake in the cafe on the terrace.  Malcolm's was marzipan flavoured - they have a thing for marzipan here!

We didn't go in the castle because it was by tour only and there wasn't an English one for hours.  So we set off on what was supposed to be a 'scenic drive' through the Thuringian Forest.  We spent 6 hours driving through it but found the narrow roads through the forest gloomy and where there were towns they were dreary.  Almost all of them had the main street dug up so we had to wait ages at traffic lights.  The houses all had slate on the walls so were very grey and they had no gardens, their walls went straight into the dug up streets!

The most scenic thing was our camping place - a little town on a big lake.  We actually went there by mistake as the name was similar to somewhere else but it turned out to be a good choice.

 

Magdeburg and Quedlinburg

gilded medieval statue of a knight outside the town hall in Magdeburg

the old quarter

Hundertwasser building completed 2005

in the inner courtyard

just about to have cheesecake and strudel

a town that is still full of medieval buildings, street after street of them..

some big, some small..

cute..

steam train in the National Park

Today we went to two towns, Magdeburg and Quedlinburg .

Magdeburg was flattened in ww2 and rebuilt with East German tower blocks.  A little part survived, some churches, ruined Abbey etc...but the most interesting building was the pink one...Hundertwasser's last project.  (Kawakawa was the year before).  Those readers not from Whangarei might not know who Hundertwasser is, just google him!

Apparently there was a lot of controvercy around the project but it certainly is excellent.  Outside and in the courtyard are shops, offices etc and people live in the rest of it.  we have heaps of photos so can show you later Alastair and anyone else interested.

Then we drove to Quedlinburg which was the most amazing town, still completely with it's medieval layout and hundreds of buildings all half timbered.  Each new road and market place had new photo opportunities!  My camera didn't work today so I had to keep telling Malcolm to take that one!  We had lunch at a Greek restaurant, we ordered soft drinks but also got a free shot of ouzo!  Actually we spent so long over lunch we didn't have time to go in the castle/church that is on a cliffy hill at one corner of the town.  We only had a 2 hr parking and as it was we were half an hour late.  Not towed or anything luckily!  Oh well, highlight of that town missed!

Before we looked for a camp site we drove through a picturesque part of a National Park and saw a station with steam trains in.  While Malcolm was taking photos another one came in.  They have routes all over this part of Germany.  Then on and found a campsite with unlimited wifi for 1 Euro so I have had chance to do the last 3 days bloggery.