MONDAY, 11th SEPTEMBER : TRITTENHEIM to MAINZ

People have asked us after previous trips, what was the favourite place we'd visited and we have always replied that there isn't one favourite, that we haven't been anywhere we haven't liked.  However, coming to the Mosel River at Trittenheim yesterday, we agreed that it could be at or near the top of our favourites.  Our first visit to the Mosel was in 2009 with good friends Robyn & Laurie and we rented an apartment in Bernkastel-Kues for a week.  It was a good move as we were able to take advantage of the quiet mornings before the crowds of tourists arrived and the equally quiet late afternoons/evenings when they'd all left, doing our own touristy road trips in the middle of the day.  The river winds its way from southern France, where it is the Moselle, to Koblenz and it's easy to lose all sense of direction. We have visited on three other occasions, twice with 'Boris' and now with the rental motorhome and have noticed the increase in the number of motorhomes and of cyclists travelling along the river.  We are so glad that we did what we did when we did, before the popularity explosion.

Late yesterday afternoon when the temperature had dropped significantly, we went for a walk, hoping to stop in at the hotel near the stellplatz 

for a cold beer, but the hotel was crowded with diners so we wandered around the streets looking for an alternative but didn't find one that was open.  

However, there was a wine bar on the lawn between the bridge and the stellplatz so we stopped there and had an excellent white wine each for a change!  

We left Trittenheim at 8.30 this morning and headed for Bernkastel-Kues, stopping at an Edeka supermarket which had a bakery/cafe, for coffee and a filled roll each and along the river to take one or two photos.

Across the river to Neumagen-Dhron where we've stayed a couple of times, we could see that the stellplatz was full

Piesport, stellplatz full!

The Mosel River at Piesport

A few grape vines

When we arrived in Kues, we parked in the shade 

took a few photos of Bernkastel, on the other side of the river

and sorted out our belongings, some of which we are leaving at our hotel near Hahn airport, for the week we will be in Sardinia.  While there, we donated our leftovers to a Norwegian couple we chatted to and to a couple of girls from Hamburg with whom we'd exchanged coins, for the parking meter, for paper money.  Once done sorting, we crossed the river into Bernkastel which was chokkers with tourist groups 

so we didn't stop but drove through a tunnel, up the hill where there are several hair pin turns and the inevitable roadworks, through open countryside to Sohren where the hotel is located.  

Having left the bag with Carlo, we headed to Mainz along the fast road, detouring into a small town for coffee and a snack at a bakery/cafe, then through open countryside 

across the Rhine River again and are now in a camp by the river

have been for a wander, into a quiet part of town where we called into a hotel for a cold beer, through a tunnel decorated with stunning graffiti, past a river beach and as the sun sinks slowly in the west, are now ready for a good night's sleep.