Day 18: Return to Vancouver (Goodbye Hello Kitty)

We are up early before 0800. We reorganize our suitcases to accommodate all our wine bottles and ensure the weight is below 30 kg. After weighing we are below 25 kg in each suitcase so that is great news. Off to get our breakfast of German pastries and purchase some for the plane inclusive of a sandwich each. Sometimes the food on the plane is pretty unappetizing. Lana says she has no idea what you do to eggs to give them such a rubbery consistency on the breakfast meals. Sunny, blue sky day in Frankfurt with an expected high of 24. The expected high in Vancouver today is 16 and mostly cloudy. We purchased some food/candies at REWE and this needs to be packed into our suitcases and carry on.

Some final thoughts before we leave our hotel room to check in at Lufthansa:

• Weather during our entire trip has been excellent. Mostly very warm and sunny.
• Our rental car worked out well with no issues and it accelerated and braked when needed. 
• Our Garmin GPS mostly functioned, but with the occasional challenges causing some moments of near panic.
• Being immersed in Riesling for more than two weeks resulted in even a greater appreciation of this white wine which is delicious dry, off-dry, semi-dry, fruity, semi-sweet, sweet and very sweet. Plus, it shows its terroir through its flavour profile. Very food friendly, ages for years/decades and after opening can stay fresh for many days. It is very under-valued price wise so an excellent bang for the buck.
• When we brought up the Mosel as our vacation destination we asked asked one of our German friends if he had been there and his answer was "I am not old." At the time we weren't really sure how to interpret his response. However, we now understand what he meant as we were surrounded by people in their 60's, 70's and 80's vacationing in this area so can confirm that this is true in the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer and Nahe. 
• The Mosel is incredibly scenic and beautiful. 
• Visiting Weinguts in these areas is well worth the effort to make contact and then schedule an appointment. Very informative, un-pretentious, interesting, generous and engaging for anybody interested in Rielsing. This can be the very best Riesling you may have the opportunity to sample.
• Our two most favourite Weinguts were Forsteister Geltz Zilliken in the Saar and Carl Loewen in the Mosel. Unfortunately, neither Weingut exports to British Columbia. Each of the Weinguts we visited were excellent and we would be happy with obtaining wine from any of the 25 we tasted at. Of 26 Weinguts we had appointments with only one Weingut cancelled, but with lots of notice and for a good reason.
• German cuisine is mainly comfort food and we continue to love Deutsch food. Regional cuisine has its merits as well.
• Blogging is fun, but time consuming and will provide a good legacy for both of us.
• We met so many wonderful people during our trip and the Weinguts in particular. 
• If we had greater capacity to store wine at our home, then that would be very dangerous for me.

And last, but not least, Lana has been wearing her white Hello Kitty Van's shoes on this trip. She's a huge fan of Hello Kitty and has had these shoes for years. They've been everywhere--Paris, Champagne region, all over Portugal, New York, London, etc. They have started looking a little worse for wear so rather than pack them home, she will leave dispose of them here. Lana takes a moment of silence to say goodbye to Hello Kitty. I remind her that she still has 3-4 pairs of OTHER Hello Kitty Van's shoes as she bought the entire series on sale several years ago!!!    :)

We bought a couple of more Mosel Riesling wine in Duty Free at Frankfurt airport before we boarded. The Lufthansa flight was delayed, but we landed in Vancouver around 15:00. Waited 50 minutes at the carousel before our three bags arrived. The cashier wasn't too friendly today when I went to pay for our overage on wine. We paid $225CDN at the Cashier which is by far the most we have ever paid for Canada customs duty on the extra litres (about $10CDN per bottle). Oh well, still a good deal and we have wine we could never find in Canada. The best news is no wine was damaged or lost! Beautiful sunny day on arrival in Vancouver.  :-)

Our lineup of Mosel wine purchases. 30 bottles in all.

Day 17: How to return a rental car

We awake in our hotel room in Koblenz to another sunny blue sky with an expected high of 23 degrees. Church bells ring on the hour. Our hotel room was relatively quiet during the night and we had excellent pillows. Yes, small things make a difference. We have learned the wifi only works with the first two devices so Lana isn't able to use her iPad only her iPhone. We need to return our rental car to the Frankfurt Flughafen (Airport) before 13:00 and then check into our airport hotel we always stay at. It is about 110 kms and a 70 minute drive?

We head out into the Altstadt to get a Chai Latte at Starbucks and visit the local bakery Hoefer for our breakfast of German pastries. What an incredible selection of goodies! Yes, German pastries are tasty. I had two for breakfast!

Hoefer pastries.

Hoefer plum streussel cake.

Chalk board at Hoefer. Hey, our last chance at German pastries. Lana loves the look of the round dark brown loaf of bread and is trying to figure out a way to get one home  :)

We checked out of our room and then walked to the parking garage with our suitcases. Cost for the entire time was 15 Euro. Like Canada, you use your ticket to pay at a machine and then get to the exit and push your card in so the gate opens. Once we were up on the street and trying to drive to Frankfurt Flughafen our GPS decided not to cooperate. It was completely lost for at least the first five minutes of driving. It finally came on and we were on our way for the long trip to Frankfurt. As usual, lots of road construction, slowing traffic and general frustration at the pace of traffic with the construction delays. When we were close to the airport we missed the turnoff for the rental car returns but only because there's no warning and when you see the sign there's no way to get over into that lane in time. But Lana figures out an alternative route and we follow around to the next turnoff where she spots a sign for rental car return--thank goodness--you'll understand why shortly.

 When we come across these signs while driving and your exit is on the sign I say "that sign means now you're f____d!"

When we returned our car to the car rentals at the airport this is how the dashboard looked. As you can see we only had 68 km of diesel left and the needle was in the red range. We were proud of ourselves! We had pre-paid for a full tank so we got our monies worth! Plus, we were told we put 2,132 kilometres on the car. Lana says you know you're close when your getting warning messages from the car to fill up!!

 Frankfurt am Main train station partial map. We are pretty good with finding our way around using their train system given the number of times over the years we have used it. Very weird that twice today the train we were on was checked by train security for tickets. This rarely occurs in our experience. 

We had communicated with our Frankfurt buddy Markus to meet for lunch downtown on the Hauptwache in front of the main entrance to the Galeria Kaufhof. We take the S Bahn train and are about 10 minutes early. For only 15.80 Euro you can buy a full day card (we used it 4x each) that can be used by up to five people. It is a beautiful sunny and warm day. We are dressed for the weather, but many locals are in jackets and much warmer clothes. Markus picked an Austrian-style restaurant (Salzkammer) in this busy part of downtown. Great chat with Markus and spent more than an hour and a half at the restaurant outside enjoying the great weather.

Lana's lunch of the daily special of Heute mittag menu. Selbeirohm suppe (cream of celery soup) and Risotto mit Hazelnuss, ricotta, tomato und salat gemister. Plus, the local drink is Apfelwein. 

Randy's order of Original pan-fried Viennese-style Schnitzel (veal escalope) served with fried potatoes and wild cranberries for 13.50 Euro. Plus, I had a nice glass of 2015 Grüner Veltliner wine from Austria. 

Lana's big opportunity to do some serious shopping finally. This area is full of shops and malls. Lana bought tea and some clothes/shoes at COS. We bought one bottle of wine at the Galeria Kauhof being a German Müller-Thurgeau wine variety. Can't find this variety in Canada. Back on the train to the airport hotel and change to take the train back into downtown area for dinner. Markus recommended a great German restaurant, Atschel, located in the Saschenhausen neighbourhood. Easy to find with Google Maps. We sat outside in the back of the restaurant at a communal wooden table with a wooden bench. Our partners at the end of the table were two young women from Japan. Probably, our last chance to eat outside for a long time. 

 OK, I can't be in Deutschland and not have a dunkel beer! Dunkel Krug-Bräuvom Fass for 3.70 Euro. Delicious! Yes, my shaver conked out and the converter won't work with the shaver so I am growing a grey beard. 

Randy's order of Roasted pork in a beer brew with home-made Swabian Spätlese noodles and salad. Forget the salad as there is so much meat to eat and noodles!   :-)

 Our order of Handkäse a regional cheese specialty.

Lana's order of a Frankfurter Schnitzel. She was dying for another schnitzel before we left Deutschland. The green sauce is the Frankfurter part--another regional specific dish that is basically a green herb sauce to have with the schnitzel.

Tomorrow we fly out at 13:30 and it is a direct flight to Vancouver (YVR). We are going to miss Deutschland and the Mosel Riesling wine. I finished the night by watching a European Champions League match between Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid live. 

Day 16: ... and then there were none...

A foggy morning in Bernkastel-Kues as we were downstairs for breakfast and scored another window seat. We picked up our laundry that was neatly folded by the laundromat lady and then she wrapped it in paper. Wow! It will be about an 80 minute drive to our first wine appointment located closer to Koblenz. Given we were earlier than expected I phoned them from the road and they agreed to move our appointment up to 11:00. More time for us before our next appointment in the Mosel.

We arrived at Weingut Matthias Müller located in Spay (pronounced shpie). This is a Weingut that is part of the Mittelrhein wine area. We are no longer in the Mosel wine region. I wanted to get a chance to try some wine from this area to compare to the Mosel. We were greeted by Maryanne who is the wife of the owner/winemaker and the mother of the other winemaker being son Johannes. They are absent harvesting grapes (Pinot Gris). They pick with friends and family. They own 10 hectares and contract another 9 hectares. In an average year they bottle around 150,000 wine. 90% are Riesling. Hand pick all their grapes. 5% exports and they go to Hong Kong, Texas, Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Interesting that they are a member of the VDP and there are only five members from this wine region. How does their wine differ from Mosel? Mittelrhein produces very good dry wines, but especially Feinherbs. Wait up to five years to enjoy. Good sugar quality here. Acid is OK and more acid in the grapes then more residual sugar needed and vice versa. Their principle is that the wine is made in the vineyard and not in the cellar. How you tend the vines is the key to your success. The son believes in a little more in technology than the Dad. They have the current German champion Trocken wine which is a GG of course and costs 19.50 Euro. It will need five years of aging before drinking. We bought a bottle as we can easily see the potential. All the wine was excellent and so inexpensive.

Another couple was in purchasing some wine and we got talking. The older man has a sister in Stockton, California since the 60s. Lana is able to have some basic conversation with them german :) Interesting fact: Maryanne explained the reason they use the word 'stein' to describe the beer glasses is many centuries ago there was no refrigeration so the glass kept the beer cold. Stein in German means stone. We were at this Weingut for close to 90 minutes.

On the road to our first Weingut appointment. It seems that wherever you drive during our trip you will come across these gigantic wind turbines. In this example, they are just off a major freeway.

 Weingut Matthias Müller. On the right you can see a modern looking narrow building. They had this designed a couple of years ago and it is so modern. Lots of natural light and clean touches. Apparently, an Austrian-style design to the interior. 

Our wine tasting host Maryanne who is the wife of the winemaker and their son is the second winemaker. Yes, that is a lot of wine as we tasted 19 bottles. 

We asked for a recommendation for lunch and she told us to just walk next door. There is a Hotel Alter Posthof and it has a restaurant on the ground floor. We decided to eat outside as it is such a beautiful sunny warm day. The server spoke decent english which was unexpected in such a small village. The food was pretty good.

Lana's order of Zartes Schweinefilet unter Weiner Salbeikruse mit haugemachten Mandelkroketten und bunten Salaten. Basically, pork medallions with bread crumb crust with sauce and a salad. 

Randy's order of Herzhafter Schweizer Wurstsalat mit knusprigen Bratkartoffeln. Basically, wurstsalat with fried potatoes. A very delicious salad. 

Beautiful white castle on the top of a hill that dominated the scenery as we were driving in the Mittelrhein. We had to take a picture. 

 I am not that bad of a driver but this another one of those crazy switch-back roads that is quite common in the Mosel.

Lana was laughing at how long this street name is--she said it would never fit on a Canadian address form :)

OUR LAST WEINGUT TASTING

Our GPS unit indicated about 20 minutes to Weingut Lubentiushof, but of course as always occurs in this area of Germany is that there was a barricade on a key road. We drove at least 10 minutes out of our way to get to our destination from another angle. Yikes! We are back in the Mosel and this particular area is called the Terrassenmosel (eastern portion of the Mosel towards Koblenz). Weingut Lubentiushof is located in Niederfell. Difficult to find parking on the narrow street in the village so we parked down by the Mosel. At the gate was a barking dog who was quickly calmed down once the owner Susanne showed up to welcome us. The dog became super friendly.

Weingut Lubentiushof is a boutique winery as their average production is only 25,000 to 30,000 bottles each year. They export (30%) some wine, but none currently to North America. They are only lately bottling the last of their 2015 vintage wines. They are well known for their dry Riesling wine. They own 4.5 hectares and all on steep vineyards. Susanne believes the difference between them and the Mittelmosel is their valley is more narrow and steeper slopes. All vineyards are worked by hand - no machines. Besides 2015 vintage they have had poor production due to weather. Plus, more mineral focused here and more stony ground. 

Funny story that in the Terrassenmosel the men "stop shaving when the grape harvesting begins and will only shave when they are happy with the vintage." 2014 vintage was not good and her husband never shaved until February 2015. Susanne talked about this area has terraced vineyards given about 150 years ago the winegrowers decided to install terraces. Check the picture below. 

They practice spontaneous fermentation in stainless steel tanks and do not use any wooden barrels at this time. 80% of the wines they produce are trocken or dry style. Another interesting story was they are not in the VDP, but were nominated this year and then in the final vote were vetoed. This was a real scandal in Deutschland. Some of the Weinguts communicate that they charge for their wine tasting. To date, of those Weinguts we never paid. We figure that if you bought at least one bottle then the fee was waived? This Weingut charged us 30 Euro for the wine tasting @ 15 Euro each.

Weingut Lubentiushof. Award winning designed Weingut (wine tasting room). Their actual winery is across the river near their major vineyard. 

Susanne talked about one of the unique things in this area of the Mosel was the terraced vineyards. This is rare in the Mosel, but in this area most of the steep slope vineyards are terraced. 

Wine tasting room at Weingut Lubentiushof. Very cool architecture with brick, concrete, wood and a beautiful staircase up three floors. Artwork, lots of natural light and high ceiling made for a great ambience. 

Weingut Lubentiushof owns most of this steep vineyard across the Mosel. It is named Gäns (Geese) due to the history of the original rich owners once a year would provide the town with geese for cooking that were raised at the bottom of the vineyard slope. 

Another bridge across the Mosel, but this one is incredible. Super high and it must be the same type of bridge they are trying to build upstream. We suspect the earlier "unfinished" bridge, once completed will look exactly like this one. 

Map of Germany showing where Koblenz is located.  :-)

Some adventure in trying to get close to our hotel in the Altstadt zone of Koblenz. We are staying in the Altstadt Hotel Koblenz located in the heart of the "old town". The GPS takes us to a designed barricade road and no entry possible. We find a temporary parking area close by and Lana heads to get the keys to the hotel and find a parkade. As I am parked a young guy parks right behind our car boxing us in. When he returns and we are waiting for him he gives me grief! Anyway, Lana has a map that shows a parkade close to our hotel and she finds it on the GPS so it can take us there! As well, we have a map of Koblenz. When Lana checked into the hotel it was in their coffee shop. Lana is 5-0 today with finding things:  she found the hotel, the parkade, the hotel again walking from the parkade, Starbucks and lastly, the restaurant for dinner tonight. She's on a streak today as sometimes she can be directionally challenged!!

Of course, no elevator so we humped our heavier suitcases (wine bottles) up two floors. We kept the carry-on luggage in the vehicle as it has about 10 bottles of wine. We have a clean and small room with an excellent wifi. Lana somehow discovers a shoe store with a pair of ankle boots on sale! Lana is supposed to be on a mission to find the Starbucks that isn't too far away and inadvertently ends up at a shoe sale.  I am a little dubious!!! We sat outside Starbucks in the shade doing some people watching. The first thing that was so obvious to us is that we were in a city! More cosmopolitan, many cultures, people dressed in the latest styles etc. A sense of energy in the air. Plus, we were not surrounded by grey-haired baby boomers and cyclists. There were even Asian couples strolling around.

Beautiful modern building in a mall across the street from the Altstadt. Check out the designs. We took this picture while sitting outside the Starbucks which adjoins this imposing building. 

The last Weingut gave us a recommendation for dinner tonight in Koblenz. Gerhards Genussgesellschaft restaurant located in Deutsches Eck area is our destination tonight. We arrived at 18:40 and got a table outside. Unusual location as the restaurant is behind some high walls. We were asked by staff to move closer so no problem. Our server spoke some english and provided an english menu. This is a classy restaurant and the prices are above average, but the quality is there. We loved our meal and the ambience and would recommend this place. Ironically, it does not serve German food.

Our Riesling wine was served very chilled. We have noticed in other Mosel restaurants that the Riesling is served much colder. I like it colder as well, but if it is too cold then you lose the nose and the taste until it warms.

 Last glasses of Mosel wines. 2014er Riesling Weingut Heymann-Lowenstein and 2014er TANJA Cuvée Rosé, trocken Schlosskellerei Affaltrach, Württemberg.

Order of Fregola Sarda (Sardinian pasta similar to Israel couscous) with Salsiccia (italian sausage) and shaved Pecorino and sage butter. Very yummy and interesting pasta which was super little balls. 

Order of Grilled pulp (Octopus) with Sepia-Mayonnaise, chorizo sausage, olives and baked potatoes. Very tender and juicy octopus. Lana had checked the menu online earlier and noted that there was this octopus dish available. She knows that I love octopus :)

Deutsches Eck Koblenz. This is where the Mosel (on the right) empties into the mighty Rhine river (located along the bottom of the photo). After our dinner tonight we walked over to this landmark although it was very dark so no chance of our pictures. Lots of river traffic and a number of tourist boats pulled up moored and serving dinner to their customers. Two of the boats were from Strasbourg, France. 

This is a video of the faucet in the tub at our hotel in Koblenz. Lana was laughing in the bathroom after saying that she was going to miss the jacuzzi tub from our last hotel room. She asked me to come and see this and it was pretty phallic :-)

Day 15: "Beauty will pass, hectares will stay"

A beautiful blue sky and sunny morning in Bernkastel-Kues. When we go downstairs for breakfast we score a window seat for the first time! Yeh! Our first task today is to find the laundromat the hotel confirmed was a very short distance away. We did find the laundromat (Schnellreinigung Schroeder) and thankfully a second employee showed up who spoke some english. We discovered that this place does your laundry for a price and you pick up the next day. There was no option for a self-serve laundry facility in this town. If this large town by Mosel standards doesn't have one then there are not any options. We give them our small bag of laundry for 12 Euros and we are told to pick up tomorrow morning by 0900. This works for us as we don't need to be driving towards Koblenz until after 0930. In our travels though it is unusual not to find a self-serve laundry.

Second task is to figure out how much more diesel we need? When we received our car rental at Frankfurt Flughafen (airport) we purchased a plan where you bring the car back without refilling. It is a set price and they fill the vehicle on return. There is a dial on the dashboard that confirms how many kilometres are left given the existing fuel level in the tank--quite helpful really. We stopped at the local gas station and put in 5 litres of diesel (1.049 Euro per litre - for us Canadians remember that is in Euro dollars so add 40%). When we checked the updated remaining mileage it was 270 kilometres. My calculation of kilometres left to drive is pretty close. Of course, we want to return the car 'bone dry' to ensure the deal works in our favour. Lana says we should run out of gas just as we're pulling into the return kiosk then push it the remaining 10-15 feet if needed LOL!!!  :-)

The only wine tasting appointment we have today is scheduled for 12 noon at Weingut Dr. Loosen (pronounced LOW-zen). For us B.C. people, this is one of the very few Mosel wines you can find in a Government Liquor Store (LDB). This winery has a world-wide reputation and very difficult to get an appointment. A number of his (Ernst Loosen) wines have been recommended by our Vancouver wine critic Anthony Gismondi. Another example is my research determined "Riesling Auslese from Erdener Pralat site is one of the world's best sweet wines." Plus, "Kabinett wines are models of feather-light winemaking genius." It is less than 10 minutes from our hotel by car. It is a 33 minute walk according to Google Maps so we will walk on this beautiful day. We leave early to ensure we are on time. We arrive in about 30 minutes and Markus comes outside to greet us and escort us into the wine tasting room. In a short while we are joined by a younger couple (Dave & Kelly) from Hoboken, New Jersey and a beginner (young lady) sommelier located in Essen, Germany.

Ernst Loosen inherited the Weingut from his parents who had not taken good care and it was basically bankrupt. He really turned this into a going concern. Markus indicated for him the Mosel Riesling is a "balance between fruit and acidity." They export 80% of their wine and 90% of these exports are non-dry Riesling. When I asked about their 2015 GGs he answered that they will not bottle these until end of October 2016. These GG will spend 12 month on their lees before being bottled. Markus was full of stories and told us about why our first wine tasting was a Pinot Blanc. Apparently, an old winemaker had a parcel of vines between two of their wines and Loosen offered to buy. The deal was he had to buy another parcel which had the Pinot Blanc. Dr. Loosen's Pinot Blanc (Weißburgunder) was delicious so a very good outcome.

The method Dr. Loosen uses to title their labels:
Entry level wines    use name of the slate on label
Second level           name of the village on the label
Third level              name of vineyard on their label

Interesting fact is there are 32 Mosel Weinguts that are VDP against a total of around 5,000 Weinguts in the Mosel valley. Many of Dr. Loosen vineyards are blue slate, but they have red slate vineyards and volcanic red soil = terroir.

In 1868 the ruling Prussian government classified the Mosel vineyard estates and then charged higher taxes dependent on whether your vineyard was classified Grand Cru versus lower classifications. Dr. Loosen has six GG wines which is very unique to the Mosel. They also bottles a GGR or GG Reserve in order to elevate their GG's  This isn't an official category, but they are trying to convince the VDP to make one. Sounds like what Ernie Loosen wants, Ernie Loosen gets. After all, they own 50 hectares and produce on average around 300,000 bottles yearly. That is the biggest production we have encountered. The Dr. L export brand is their entry level wine. Many of their vines are 40-50 years old and in some older vineyards the vines are more than 120 years old--all are ungrafted. "Quantity of older vines is low, but quality of wine high".

They leave their GG calibre wine on lees for one year except the entry level wines. Made in stainless steel first and then into the old German oak neutral wooden barrels. Screw cap on first and second level wines and drink within 3 to 5 years. Spontaneous fermentation of course. I asked Markus how the GG wines age he indicated the sweetness disappears and less acidity so the flavour of the grape remains. No botrytis grapes are used in their GG wines. They may pick up to 3 to 5 times in a vineyard. All grapes are hand-picked by up to 50 pickers with many from Poland and Romania. In fact, Ernst Loosen built two houses for the pickers stay in during the harvest season. Alte Reben designation means vines greater than 25 years old.

Another interesting story about how winemakers children will marry between families to retain vineyards in the same family. There is a family connection with Robert Weil (Rheingau), S.A. Prüm, J. J. Prüm and Pauly-Bergweiler. An old German saying ..."beauty will pass, hectares will stay." One thing we were wondering about was the fact that within a vineyard, there are parcels. Within each parcel, there are rows and then vines. We're learned that in some parcels, one winery may only own 2 rows. Or that within a row, two different wineries may own different plants. This might cause confusion when it comes time to harvest. How did this happen we wondered? Well, today we learned that when a family patriarch passes, his vineyard might end up divided amongst all the children. The only way to do this would be to give parcels and even rows to different children. Over the years as each patriarch passed, the splitting would get finer and finer thus resulting in one or two rows here, four or five row there, etc. etc.

Marcus tells us that there's a very small slice of a vineyard where two rows have mixed ownership BY PLANT!! And that during the past 2 harvests, Dr. Loosen has accidentally harvested all the grapes. This resulted in a very upset neighbour. It was too late to separate the grapes as they had already been pressed so Dr. Loosen paid the other owner out based on average yield per plant and quality of the grape. Easier said than done as Dr. Loosen offered to pay for "spatlese" quality but the owner insisted they were "auslese". Also, the owner argued that the yield was 50% more per vine than what Dr. Loosen had estimated.  The funniest thing is that apparently all this negotiation amounted to about 100Euro--which for Ernie Loosen is pocket change and a complete waste of time for him to even be concerned about :)

We have wondered about flooding on the Mosel and Markus indicated the last big flood was in 1993. We finished our wine tasting with a tour of the old wine bottle cellar. It was a tough decision as the 2011 Erdener Treppchen Auslese at 90 residual sugar at 15 Euro was delicious. We bought the 2013 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Kabinett at 40 grams residual sugar for 12.50 Euro. Slight effervescence and a unique flavour profile that we could open in 2017.

We learned more about Riesling and in particular this Weingut that exports to B.C. Their primo vineyard is Erdener Prälat. Markus produced a couple of wine not on their list so that was very special. We drank 11 wines over a period of 100 minutes. Great walk back to Bernkastel along the slow moving Mosel in the warm sunshine.

Weingut Dr. Loosen nestled against the vineyards and beside the Mosel.

This is the VDP designation you will find on their wine bottles and on their Weingut. 

Entrance to Weingut Dr. Loosen

This is the wine tasting room at Weingut Dr. Loosen. Very nice and seems like you are in a cellar. 

Drank wine bottles that are being collected by the Weingut and on display in their wine tasting room. Lana's panoramic shot.

This is a 200 ml wine bottle that is specifically made for Weingut Dr. Loosen by an Italian manufacturer. Lana said it looked like a baby bottle!! No Icewine produced though since 2012.  :-(

We encountered three swans while walking along the Mosel. We started feeding them small pieces of bread. Towards the end they lost any inhibitions and were getting pretty aggressive with their beaks. Maybe we shouldn't be feeding the swans?

On our walk back to our room, we stopped at Venezia Eis-Cafe for the regional ice-cream favourite Spaghettieis (spaghetti ice). Soft ice cream pressed through a cylinder with holes so it comes out looking like spaghetti. It is pretty good. This restaurant was packed. We ate outside in the shade.

Lana's order of Toast with Salami und Käse. Basically our Canadian equivalent of a grilled cheese sandwich complete with ketchup for dipping. 

For dinner tonight we decided to drive to the place we tried to walk to last night. Yes, this restaurant is up at the top of the hill. There is no way you could walk that distance unless you have a lot of time and are in excellent shape. This German cuisine restaurant is Waldschenke With Heart. We were welcomed and early because there were no other diners. We picked a table against the window so we could look out over the Kues side of the river and in fact could clearly see our hotel. We are very high up through all the steep vineyards below. Our order took 30 minutes to arrive despite the fact the place was empty. 

Randy's order of Gefüllte Klößemit Heckfleisch und Lauch auf Weinsoße. Basically, potato balls stuffed with ground meat, bread cubes and some vegetables on a Riesling cheese sauce. This is a regional dish and delicious. Lana loved the Riesling cheese sauce and will be googling for a recipe!!!

 

Lana's order of Wurstsalat mit Hausbrot. We have described this dish before and the Hausbrot is the house bread. It is a huge portion and I help her with it but we still eat only about half of it.

 Lana's panoramic picture taken around 19:00 from the restaurant area. As you can see we are quite a distance up this hill.

We've been having some challenges inserting videos into our blog pages. Lana did some research and decided to add the videos to her Youtube account so here are three short (3) videos we filmed so far (we think you can't access them in previous posts).

At Weingut Melsheimer fermenting wine (3 seconds)

Braunenberg music man (16 seconds)

Aldi auto bun dispenser (9 seconds)


Our last task for the day is to sort the wine bottles in their wine skins between the three suitcases and re-pack our suitcases. Tomorrow morning we drive to Koblenz although we have two wine tasting appointments before we reach Koblenz.

Day 14: 24,000 steps +

Another foggy morning, but forecast is for a sunny and warm day. Our plan is to meet our German friends Philipp and Manu in the Nahe (you pronounce this Nah-huw? although it has taken me about 2 weeks to figure this out!) for a walking trail of 8 kilometres that passes by several wineries. Sounds like a great idea!

The hike is called "Weinwanderung". This is the english translation from the webpage:
Siefersheimer Bänkelches route:
Sunday, September 25, 2016
On the eight-kilometer loop trail southeast of Siefersheim wine hikers will pass 15 benches that give this wine its name hike. The trail leads past the Ajax Tower, a winery has built from lovesickness, around Galgenberg back to Siefersheim.
Seven wineries and the "Siefersheimer herbalists" invite to eight stations to taste the Siefersheimer wines and culinary specialties.
Start and finish walk through the Rheinhessen Switzerland is the center of Siefersheim.

We will meet our friends in Siefersheim at 12 noon. According to our GPS this is a 70 minute drive. Lots of time to have breakfast and get ready to depart with more than enough leeway to be on time taking into account any possible traffic diversions.

We actually arrive at 11:15 so are pretty early. We find parking near Weingut Sommer where we are supposed to meet our friends. This area is packed with hikers/walkers. We decide to see if the Weingut might have a toilette we could use? There is a group of walkers and the owner, Helga Sommer, talking. Eventually, we are included in the conversation and one of them gives us a pamphlet. The group wanted to know where we were from? Asking in German, Lana answered in German "Kanada" and one guy then asked Lana if she was "Indian" and Lana responded "nein" and then said "Chinesisch" (Chinese in german). Then the fellow said  "halb halb"? Basically, the guy wanted to know if Lana was 1/2 Chinese and 1/2 something else? Lana slightly offended said "nein" again. Pretty weird...

Route Map of Siefersheimer Bänkelches

Helga was so helpful to us and let us use her toilette. Plus, we were given a refreshing glass each of her Riesling "Prosecco". How generous and hospitable. 

Our friends Philipp and Manu. Helga allowed Philipp to park his Porsche in her parking lot. Lana is holding the pamphlet/map of the route we will walk. 

One of the 12 stations along the 10 kms of the loop trail. Our information showed closer to 12 kms walking. It was in the high 20s so very hot and very little breeze. Some pretty good uphill climbs.

The 'famous' Ajaxturm located along the trail. This is an english translation: 

The 1865 designated Ajax tower stands in the hallway "Heerkretz". The legendary, unusual in size and shape vineyard storm is reflected in the local Siefersheimer crest. On the Origin of Ajax tower following story is told: At the beginning of the 19th century lived in Siefersheim a rich farmer's son, goodly and a brisk dancers. When he walked through the streets, followed him so many, shy girl look. The daughter of the miller from the "Cats Steiger" mill was in love with him. The girl's affection was the reply. But the stubborn Müller was to connect. He had years ago once lost a case against the father of the young man. The daughter was therefore married to a wine merchant and died soon heartache. But the young man stayed unmarried. At the spot where he had once met his sweetheart, he built a tower. The dog in the later crest commemorates the faithful "Tiras" who accompanied the couple on his walks. He is the symbol of faithfulness unto death.

Example of choices at each Weingut located on the route. Notice the selection "Weinschorle". This is a pouring of 1/2 wine and 1/2 mineral water. Philipp likes this choice. 

Randy and Philipp in the shade of a tree holding Obststreuselkuchen which was either peach or cherry. Both were delicious and there was a good queue of people who would agree.   :-)

Randy getting ready for another bite of Schnabel-Burger.  A delicious pork patty with a slice of cheese, pickles and a sauce with mustard. Wow, so good! In case you are wondering about the name it is derived from the fact Weingut Schnabel was serving it.   ;-)

Lana's panoramic photo of the highest point of our loop trail and apparently won some award as the best view of 2016. Wide open valley with many vineyards and farms. 

It was an enjoyable afternoon for the four of us. Lots of walking both uphill and downhill. Being in the middle of the vineyards was very cool. I drank three glasses of wine; two Riesling Trockens and a Scheurebe Spätlese. The food we ate was delicious. It was very hot, but sunny. We sat when we could to enjoy our wine and/or water and sometimes food. So many fellow hikers enjoying the same wine and food. Many families with kids, older couples, groups of friends and families. The spectrum of humanity. You pay for your food and wine of course. If you like any particular wine you can purchase a bottle or bottles at the parking lot area. The prices of a bottle of wine ranged from 3.50 to 5 Euro in the parking lot. More expensive if you bought on the trail. 

We finished our fantastic wine and food hiking trail around 15:30. Chatted some more with our friends and then they were off to Wiesbaden and we returned to Bernkastel-Kues arriving around 17:00. Great drive with no detours or road barricades!

This is a problem when driving and your GPS decides to malfunction and show your vehicle between two roads in the middle of a farmer's field!!!  Eventually it corrects itself but your heart skips a beat when you see this on the screen LOL. 

Lana naps and I begin looking at various sites for some ideas on dinner tonight in Bernkastel-Kues. We decide on a restaurant with good reviews that according to Google Maps is located in Bernkastel. It is still a beautiful day so we begin walking around 18:30. We find the correct street and begin climbing a street on a hill behind Bernkastel. We find signs for the restaurant and keep climbing and climbing. Finally, we are up very high above the river and no sight of any restaurant! I phone them and their english is limited. Lots of missed communication and we finally give up. 

This shows how high up we were as we are looking down on Bernkastel and relatively even with the castle. This really is a beautiful setting for a Mosel town. 

We walk down to the town below. Wow, what a climb we had made and with no dinner. We find a restaurant open and an outside table at Moselblümchen. The sun has set already and a breeze has come up. Very darkening and threatening sky with some drops of rain. With the dark clouds and swirling winds it is pretty cool to sit below. It doesn't rain so all is good. Our server speaks english and provides english menus. Food came slow, but it wasn't too bad when it arrived. 

 Lana's order of "Hackfleischbällchen" meaning meatballs in herb cream sauce, boiled potatoes and salad from the buffet inside. They were very tasty but but now we were eating in the dark as you can see from the photos. 

Randy's order of "Eisbein" or knuckle of pork salted with Gräwes (sauerkraut and mashed potatoes mixed). It was OK.

By the time we are paying our bill it is now slightly raining and we have a long walk back to the hotel. No taxis in sight so off we go. It rains on and off until we are about five minutes from our room when it really begins to rain. Oh well, it is laundry day tomorrow morning. 

With the wine festival hike and the walking into and out of town and the trek up and down the hill we put in 17.50 kms walking. Plus 100 'stairwells' according to my FitBit. Pretty good effort today.