Germany
Merl

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  • Day 5

    Erkältung, platter Reifen und floaten

    July 30, 2024 in Germany ⋅ 🌙 23 °C

    Ich bin schon recht erkältet seit gestern und hab heute etwas zu kämpfen gehabt. Aber es geht schon mit der richtigen Einstellung dazu. Hier ist es eben sowieso am schönsten. Tara will bleiben und ich glaube auch, dass es kaum einem schöneren Platz in greifbarer Nähe gibt. Dazu kommt, dass ich erstmal wieder fitter und Taras Rad wieder geflickt werden müsste, um weiter zu fahren. Der Reifen ist nämlich platt, wie wir eben festgestellt haben.

    Vielleicht machen wir aber noch ein paar kleine Ausflüge in der Umgebung. Wir hatten heute trotz allem einen schönen Tag und waren mit unseren Nachbarn lecker essen im Nachbarort.

    Den nächsten Tag packe ich hier im Kürze mit hinein:

    Heute ist Dienstag der 31.07 und wir sind weiterhin einfach nur am Platz. Der Reifen wird auf Dichtheit geprüft, die Wäsche gewaschen und Tara vergnügt sich weiter mit ihren Mädels. Auf den Bildern sieht man auch, wie sie ihre Freundin Anna durchs Wasser floatet. Schön, wie toll sie das macht! 😍
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  • Day 4

    Mädelstruppe? Auch die gibt es hier 🥳.

    July 29, 2024 in Germany ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    Sachen im Pool versenken und wieder auftauchen oder Kartenspiele spielen...so sollte Urlaub aussehen. Mutti legt sich derweil eine Runde aufs Ohr 👂🙂‍↔️. Ein kleines tükje doen...so sagen es die Niederländer. Davon gibt es hier übrigens so viele, wie Sand am Meer 🌊.Read more

  • Day 3

    Mesenich Family Camping

    July 28, 2024 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    So, angekommen nach circa 20 km und 2,5 h Fahrt. Langsam versteht sich, mit kleinen Pausen. Wahnsinn, wie schön es hier landschaftlich ist. Und das Wetter könnte nicht besser sein!

    Der Campingplatz war anscheinend ebenfalls ein Goldgriff! Super niedlich, klein und ruhig gelegen. Mit Pool ( das war der Hauptgrund) und direkt an der Mosel. Bilder folgen...Tara hat übrigens schon eine Freundin gefunden, Anna. Hier bleiben wir also erstmal 😀🥰! Sicher für 2 Nächte 🌃Read more

  • Day 18

    Sweaters and Jackets on

    October 10, 2023 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    Hello from Treis Karden, Germany. Today Mike and I finished our planned 18 days of biking over about 900 kms. Since Saturday we have been enjoying the beautiful Mosel River valley between Koblenz and Trier. We know lots of people who have visited this region - including 2 Victoria friends who cycled here only a few weeks ago - but this area is a first for both of us. The Mosel is a favorite spot for Germans and other travellers because of the quaint old towns that are strung along the river like beads on a chain. The climate is milder than other areas of Germany and the main industry is wine-making, so what’s not to like! The Mosel river is a major transportation link to the Rhine but unlike the Rhine, this river is full of cruise boats and day-trip boats. Biking is a major activity and we have been cycling on busy trails alongside mostly ebikes. Every few kms there is another huge camp ground with white camper vans lined up facing the river with people sitting in lawn chairs gazing out to Mosel, usually sipping wine.
    As you do when you’re biking, we’ve noticed a lot of things along the way. In one town there was a large group of people wandering around a field looking like they’d all lost their car keys. We finally figured out - after wandering a bit with them - that they were collecting walnuts in green husks that had been falling from the surrounding trees. It wasn’t immediately obvious what the green husks were so we cracked one open - aha!

    The Mosel is fairly narrow and it flows in a series of tight turns. The river banks are steep and every inch is covered in vines. Viticulture was brought to this area by the Romans for a source of wine for their troops. [Wow, I don’t remember anybody worrying about my source of wine when I was in uniform.] We’ve seen some interesting adaptations for harvesting the grapes including a cog railway system going up to the vines carrying bins up and grapes back down. The grapes around here are almost all harvested already but we saw workers high up the slopes by 9 every morning working away on the remaining crop.

    The signs in town all advertise “federweisser” which is the new wine that hasn’t fully fermented. Although we have a no drinking and biking policy, generally, we did stop once at a wine stand along the bike route to taste the federweisser which is very cloudy, sweet and tastes more like grape juice than wine really. It has a low alcohol content because it hasn’t aged.

    Our normal routine has been to, first, power through a German breakfasts - not for small appetites - hitting the trails by 9 and enjoying the mist coming off of the river. The weather has cooled considerably since the start of our journey and we are now full-on sweaters and jackets each morning. The rides have not been backbreaking given our ebikes and the flat terrain. There are lots of places for morning coffee and bakeries to pick up lunch. We’ve stayed in a number of lovely small villages with friendly and efficient proprietors. My only regret as we finish this part of the trip is not having given the city of Trier more time. It is considered the oldest city in Germany and it was one of the 4 capitals of the Roman empire. There are many great things to see and we only scratched the surface. Although the city was heavily bombed during the war, it has been carefully rebuilt. My favorite site was the Basilica of Constantine which was built around 300 AD and contains the largest hall from ancient times.
    Mike’s favourite thing about Trier was Restaurant Kartoffel - meaning potato restaurant. Given that Mike thinks beer and potatoes are two of the main food groups, he was in his glory at this spot and it made up for me dragging him around to all of the historical sites earlier in the day.

    Tomorrow we return our rental bikes which have mostly remained intact with the exception of a light I managed to break off in a spill. We’ll take a few “ admin days” in Koblenz before heading to Italy to RV with Tara. It’s been a great adventure so far and Mike is so pleased wth my navigation skills that he says I am still his favorite “schnuckiputzi”. ( I think I’ve just been called a potato dumpling). Time to hang up the bike shorts. My bike gloves are ready for the burn pile.
    I’ll sign off now from Germany and perhaps pick up again next week when we get to Sicily.
    Love Mom/ Heather
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  • Day 11

    … zwischen Bullay und Neef …

    July 30, 2023 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    … zwischen Bullay und Neef geht es unter der Bahn durch mit anschliessendem knackigen Aufstieg (ungefähr 300m mit +9%) - ich höre nur noch von Antje: „… der Schweizer schaffts!“ und dies gibt Tom den Antrieb es auch durchzuziehen … 😎👏👍
    … das Video entstand kurz nach der knackigen Stelle … 😀
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  • Day 7

    Trier-Pölich-Bernkastel-Kues

    June 12, 2023 in Germany ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    Weiter geht es bis Trier wo wir vor der Stadt ein Parkplatz finden für uns die Stadt zu besichtigen. Es ist eine alte Römischen Stadt mit seinem Kaiser Palast.. Dann geht es nach Pölich wo wir die Nacht verbringen.. und am nächsten morgen flanieren wir durch die schmale Gassen mit seine Spitzhäuschen viele alte Fachgeschäft eine sehr schöne Altstadt das ist Bernkastel-KuesRead more

  • Day 7

    Käfer Eddi, Eiertausch und Pinguintanz

    August 1, 2024 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

    Wir haben entschieden einfach schön hier zu bleiben. Samstag kommt Papa noch dazu und wir verbringen einen schönen Tag gemeinsam vor Ort. 🥰

    Gestern haben die Kids mit den niederländischen Nachbarn aus Friesland eine kleine Tanzeinlage auf die Beine gestellt. Der Pinguintanz, zu bestaunen im Video unten.

    Spannend war auch das Eiertauschspiel, die Kids sind zu dritt los und haben aus einem Ei unglaublich VIELE SÜßIGKEITEN getauscht. Leider haben wir davon kein Foto gemacht.

    Und natüüüüürlich wollen wir Eddi den Käfer und Wurmi den Regenwurm nicht vergessen, diese wurden bestaunt und in die Freiheit verholfen. Wurmi hat sogar sein eigenes Reich erhalten: Wurmhausen. 😂

    Wir Erwachsenen saßen dann später noch bis Mitternacht zusammen und haben uns nett unterhalten und viel gelacht.

    Heute, am Donnerstag, regnet es immer wieder, aber das macht uns nichts aus. Erkältung ist fast weg. Erstaunlicherweise erholt man sich an der Mosel genauso gut wie im 24 Stunden entfernten Kroatien. Eine wirklich lohnenswerte Erfahrung, wie ich finde.

    Leni und Ute sind heute abgereist und Anna und Tara entspannen sich gerade mit Buchlesen und quatschen in Annas Wohnwagen. Ich soll auch auf keinen Fall mitkommen, damit das klar ist 😂.
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  • Day 3

    Tag 2 Auf gehts nach Mesenich

    July 28, 2024 in Germany ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    Guten Morgen. Wir sind schon früh wach geworden und haben bereits alles gepackt. Luci, ein kleines niederländisches Mädchen, hat uns dabei Gesellschaft geleistet. Das einpacken ging schnell, wir scheinen ein echtes Dreamteam zu sein. Die Fahrt aus Cochem haben wir jedoch noch vor uns. Erst muß Taras Rad kurz in eine Werkstatt...die zum Glück heute auf hat.👍🥳Read more

  • Day 6

    Mosel - R&R and wine

    December 14, 2023 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 5 °C

    Yesterday, we straddled the line between lazy and adventurous as Danielle recovered her strengths from the stomach issues that have plagued her since Berlin. We slept in at our posh hotel, grabbed the breakfast (included), and went back to the room to veg for a while - Danielle read her book and I took a very long bath. Eventually, we managed to get out of the hotel for a 3 PM wine tasting at Marcus Molitor winery a few towns over (recommended to us by our friend Ryan Seal). The tasting was great, with some excellent Rieslings as you would expect - plus, a few really intriguing Pinot Noirs, relative newcomers to the region.

    After the tasting, we ran over to Brauhaus Kloster Machern for a tasty dinner of wiener schnitzel and sauerbraten for her and him, respectively. Now full and tired, we got back to the hotel by 8 PM, whereupon Danielle went to check out the spa and pool while I took another long bath and read. Yes, I take too many baths. Plan for tomorrow is to check out another winery, so likely more of the same!
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  • Day 14

    Cochem

    October 16, 2023 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C

    We were awake at 8:15am this morning and I’d had another rough night of sleep not being able to get comfortable atall. I’m currently not enjoying the trip as much as I should, and in all honesty I have considered just heading for home but I think I’m probably just feeling sorry for myself and my bike.
    My first thoughts this morning were to head back to Polche where we stayed a few nights ago and got water. I was feeling crap and knew that we had all services there and we can stay there for 3 nights for free so I set the sat nav and at 10:30am we left the park up at Elitz Castle.
    I was only 2 miles down the road and now not feeling too bad and suggested we head into Cochem which Ellie had found on Facebook last night. It has a beautiful view across the river to the old town and ancient castle on the hill and there is designated Motorhome parking where we can pay by the hour. I think if I can just keep going maybe my head will get back into travel mode and if I find a bike shop that can repair my bike I’ll probably be happy even if I can’t ride it. The back end of this trip is tailored towards the bike so it seems pointless heading there now, but we’ll see how I’m feeling as the trip progresses.
    We turned Wanda around and headed 10 miles down the road, down the 20% gradients and along the road where I had my accident and 30 minutes later we had found the Motorhome bays in Cochem.
    It was a euro an hour so we popped €2 in and thought that should give us enough time to get a few pictures and have a look around and then we set off along the footpath down the side of the river.
    Once at the town square we crossed the bridge and continued down abit further until we had a magnificent view of the old town and the castle in the background. We were lucky with the light as any later the sun would have blown the pictures out like they did at Elitz castle.
    Pictures taken, we then headed into the town Center and it was a proper medieval old town that looked like a cross between Diagon alley from Harry Potter and something from King Arthur. Most of the shops were catered for tourists so we managed to get our collectors mug here to go on our travel shelf back home then we wandered the streets and alleyways looking like tourists until our time was up on our parking ticket.
    Back at Wanda I’d already found a picnic area about 3 miles up the hill behind the castle that lots of people have stayed at for a night before and as it was now 3pm we set off. There’s only room for 2 campers here and it’s an awesome spot to spend the night aslong as we don’t get moved on. We have fantastic views across fields with hiking trails either side of us and another camper with a stupid sliding door has already joined us so this is it for the night.
    Once we had parked we went for a little stroll down one of the hiking trails and had a great view of the Mosul valley we had just driven through, then we went back to Wanda, battened down all the hatches and settled in for night.
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