Dinner last night, as I previously mentioned, was at a nice little place behind our hotel, the same one we had lunch in.
We had tried to find somewhere else, but had no luck, which has been the trend for us on this trip. One place was open but they said they weren’t cooking because the kitchen was too hot.
Kirsten’s parents joined us for dinner, as they are also in Europe on holiday and it was only a tiny bit out of their way. Sandra and Hamish are very nice people and also very informative. We learned that the reason none of the vineyards here have to cover their vines as protection against birds, like they do in NZ, is because of the crows. Apparently they are bloodthirsty creatures who keep the population of all the other grape eating birds down.
The wall next to our table had a feature that we’ve seen all up and down the Mosel, on various buildings. It’s a high water mark from all the various floods over recent centuries. Here’s one I photographed from today.
These floods must have been pretty impressive. I guess they must just be an accepted feature of living here, much like Venice.
Another scorcher was predicted for today on our weather app, so we set off early and pretty much blitzed the cycling until we got to this amazing castle at the 38 k mark.
Reichsburg Castle was originally built around a thousand years ago but has had its ups and downs. It’s worst moment was at the hands of Louis the 14th of France, the Sun King, who had it demolished in the 17th century. It was resurrected by a wealthy industrialist in the late 18 hundreds, and renovated in what looks to me a mish-mash of styles from different eras. Apparently that was trendy at the time. He obviously put a lot of time and money into the place, a gift for his wife who was sadly unimpressed. She left him and their three children behind to run off with another man and have a further nine children with him.
We’d had lunch and ice cream in the adjoining town before joining a tour of the castle, so after our visit we cycled the last hour to our hotel for the night.
Our accommodation also calls itself a Schloss but that’s a bit of a stretch. As one of the google reviews said “don’t get your hopes up”. Our room is certainly pretty basic but at least the hotel has a functional Biergarten and we just had one of our best meals here so I’m quite satisfied.
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