Life: Idiotropic

Driving here in Germany is always relatively easy especially with the super-quick autobahns. The scenery is beautiful too which is almost irritating to me since I can rarely photograph it. But, may be that's a good thing. Sometimes I get caught behind the camera and miss a few things. The autobahns go by so fast and have no place to stop for a photo-op no matter how beautiful the area is, so it forces you to stare intently out the windows absorbing it all in. The photo above is one that I was able to catch driving along a country road near our gasthaus. The plateau above the Mosel expands with rolling hills and quaint villages tucked here and there. Many you don't see until you come right up on them. Like our gasthaus... it is completely hidden among trees behind a hill as you drive below the Burg Pyrmont.

On the 10th, we drove down to Burg Pyrmont with Ken and Sarah to the little Gasthaus, the Pyrmonter Muhle, where we'd stayed in May. When we'd moved here I had the notion that Europe was so big and since we had a fixed amount of time here that we should never stay in the same place twice, but this place is special and still serves the best German food that I've had living here. The half-timbered inn sits just below Burg Pyrmont and next to a beautiful little waterfall that spills into a pond and a little stream that winds around the area all the way to Burg Eltz and beyond. There's a nice walking trail there. The sign at it's entrance said "Burg Eltz 2.5 Std". Kirk had guessed that meant 2.5 stunde or hours, but we double checked to make sure. Yep - he was right... not a hike that the little ones could accomplish, but Ken and Sarah, Kirk and Tiara took off for the long walk and I met them there 2.5 hours later. While they walked, the girls and I had a little rest time in our tiny room, then we went out to the terrace overlooking the waterfall and relaxed. The girls played at the little playground there and I sat with a German couple talking and drinking cappuccino. They were from the area and were having a pint of beer and some coffee after completing the hike from the other side.

After some quiet time with the little girls, we wound throught the rolling hills to Burg Eltz. There are no highways or main roads to get there. I drove along a narrow farm road between fields of corn through a little village where I saw a tiny weather-worn wooden sign with the white painted letters, "Burg Eltz." So I followed that until the road sloped down and the trees got thicker and suddenly I was at the parking lot. We walked down the steep path to get there. The weather was perfect and though I'd been to this castle before, the view is nonetheless breathtaking. That castle is right out of a fairy tale. The hikers had just arrived almost exactly 2.5 hours since they left and had settled in at the cafe with coffee and chocolate cake.
Before we left there the girls had a chance to walk down to the little stream that runs past the castle. I told them not to walk in the water. All four of them did... not completely intentionally. I think they were honestly trying just to stay on the big rocks, but those little feet managed to get wet anyway. But, for them, a rocky stream is more exciting than an old castle any day of the week, especially if you get to play in it.
The hikers and kids had worked up an appetite, so after some clean up back at Pyrmonter Muhle, we went down for dinner. I don't remember what we all ate, but I remember all fighting a bit over the soup and that the salad was phenomenal. The kids all ate their schnitzel and fries and though I didn't ever really know what I ordered, it was delicious. My meat came with "gratinated" potatoes on the side. The potatoes are done differently here. They are sliced thin like our scalloped potatoes, but the cheese is lighter and the sauce is very buttery. It's one of those sinful melt-in-your-mouth dishes that brings you back for more. Those are the kind of meals where you just forget about calories and take on more of a "carpe dium" attitude.
One thing that both irritates and delights Americans sometimes about dining in Europe is that the pace is a bit different here... a bit, meaning, horrendously different and painfully slow. Most times, that is annoying. For us, we try to savor each moment here. There is so much to see and do. Relaxing is nice, but if you're only spending a weekend or a day at some place, then you don't have time to enjoy a leisurely 3 hour lunch and a numbifying 4 hour dinner. This particular night, relaxing with friends, the relaxed pace was just what we needed. After dinner I got the girls up to bed, then came back down to join Ken, Sarah, and Kirk. We sat out on the terrace talking and enjoying some nice German Dornfelder wine until midnight. The kitchen was closed, the lights were all off, but our waitress said that she would stay until we left, so we sat in the candlelight with no reason to hurry talking, laughing, and enjoying a beautiful German night with friends.

Breakfast is wonderful here in Germany and it hasn't lost its appeal even after living here for 10 months. Fresh brotchen, meats, cheeses, jams, and liverwurst. Hard boiled eggs, musli, orange juice and coffee. We all stuffed ourselves before checking out. Then, on the way to the river, we stopped at Burg Pyrmont. This was the second time we'd stayed at the Inn, so I had really hoped to see the castle above it. But, the photos are about it. We saw it from below. We saw it from behind. We didn't get to go inside because it was closed on Mondays. The German couple I'd talked to the day before said that there is a restaurant there that serves a very nice dinner and serves beer in terracotta pots. I guess that means I'll have to go back again - for the dinner, not the beer.



In May I'd been awed by the steep hills covered in sticks, but now... sticks don't hold a candle to the grape filled greenery that grows up and around each hill up and down the Mosel River. We drove from Burg Pyrmont to Bernkastel-Kues, a very nice town with a large number of wine-tasting shops nestled among 16th century half-timbered houses. Boat tours are common all along the Mosel, so we took one for about an hour. The kids loved it and I enjoyed taking pictures. All the green on the hills are grape vines with the exception of the trees. All that flat green space - it's all grapes. Even as we walked later through the town, the grape vines ran down the hill and came right up to the back of the buildings and into peoples little yards.
After the boatride, we met Ken and Sarah and wandered into the town to have some lunch and try some wine. The Louer wine shop was one that Ken and Sarah had been to before, so we sampled some nice white wines and bought a few to take home. I was particularly excited because they had a large bin of corks that were free for the taking... I got a small bagfull to take with me for some "crafty endeavors". I'd really wanted to take the entire bucket of them, but Kirk didn't think that was necessary. :( Winetasting was followed by a nice lunch (I had "gratinated vegetables") and a walk through the town. The half-timbered buildings are all 16th and 17th century, but the new paint walks a fine line between quaint and tacky. It is nice when you see a couple, but they were overabundant and very bright with color. Tourists were antlike throughout the streets and there was no end to the tacky German souvenier shop. That is a disappointment here. Where there is something to see, there are tourists, and where there are tourists, there are tacky gift shops.
What I did love were the clusters of grapes dangling like jewlery from vines that climbed up and over doorways and the large cascades of bright flowers spilling out from most windows. Those touches of beauty are commonplace here, but still very nice to see.
As we walked back down one street toward our car we passed a fire station. It was a modern building sitting among the old ones. You could see old buildings and grape vines in the background. There was nothing especially notable about the station itself, but we all came to a stop to look up at the flag that flew there. Until then, I'd forgotten the date. It was September 11th, and there, in that little German town, was an U.S. flag flying at their fire station.

Burg Landshut sits on a hill overlooking Bernkastel-Kues and the Mosel valley. We drove up to it and had a snack there. There are no words for the view. You just have to see it. The castle itself was surrounded by grapes on their vines. Inside was a small cafe where we had coffee and dessert. The castle was a ruin, but still looked very nice from the outside.


From this Burg, we started for home, sad that the day had run out and wishing we could take more time. I know I should see as much of Europe as possible, but with such a beautiful place only 90 minutes away, it is very tempting to do frequent return visits there.