Bacharach to Traben-Trarbach (Sunday 17th September 2017)

Folks, I’ve extended the piece on yesterday’s adventures with some commentary on the “Rhein am Flammen” spectacular.

This morning we said good-bye to Bacharach and the Rhine and headed over the hills to the Mosel river valley to the town of Traben-Trarbach. GPS-girl took us out of Bacharach on a road we had only ventured down a couple of hundred metres or so over the last few days. It revealed to us that Bacharach is a larger village than either of us has guessed. Up the hill-side we went and soon found ourselves on the autobahn and speeding toward the Mosel. Turning off the autobahn we slid down the equally steep roads of the Mosel valley and soon arrived at our destination. The trip was only about 60-70kms, taking just an hour or so.

We pulled into a cafe to get our bearings a coffee and a cake, which Kerry reckons is a lot like the cake we call a Beesting in Australia. We found our accommodation down on a street called “Am der Mosel” which pretty much tramslates to “On the Mosel”, which is exactly where it is. Now the fun began. Am der Mosul 28 is an apartment building comprised of about dozen apartments. I found the one with the name of our host, head the buzzer ring but no one appeared. I had the hosts mobile number but couldn’t call it because my SIM was only good for data usage, not voice calls. We drove down the street, found a bar and asked to borrow their phone to which they happily agreed. Called the number and got voice mailbox!. Hmmm, on to Plan C. We went back to the cafe we’d just had coffee at and, finger-crossed, asked if we could log in to the internet and send an email, thinking the host might have an email client running on her phone. I did that and thought, why not abuse the privilege I’d just receiveda dn try a Skype call. I maintain about $20.00 of Skype credit on my account so I can call from Sykpe on the computer to a land-line or mobile anywhere in the world – just for emergencies like this. To my great surprise and delight Frau Struer answered her phone. With me speaking English and she German we managed to agree to meet at the property. I think all it took was three key words/phrases – Smith, her property’s address and 10 minutes.

 

Right on time we both arrived at the property and with stilted phrases and hand gestures we had an exchange of money and keys completed. Amazing! The apartment is very nice. I’ll put some photos up tomorrow.

 

 

 Not wanting to waste a half day we headed off for a drive to the nearby town of Cochem – chosen for no particular reason. The road followed the river for a large part of the 42km journey through some very pretty scenery. It’s similar to the Rhine valley, of course, but different enough to be recognisable as different terrain. The Mosel is quite a bit smaller tha the Rhine (the size of the boats and barges reflect that), probably 15% wider than the Murray near Echuca.

 GPS-girl took a weird turn in a little village about 8kms from Cochem, but with our adventurous spirit up we followed her advice knowing it wasn’t the best way to Cochem. Up a narrow little lane we went, in places almost touching the buildings on both sides. The village disappeared and was replaced by a road full of steep, tight hair-pins with vines, open fields and pine forests flanking each side. The road leveled out and we were once again motoring along when, cresting a rise in the road, we were confronted by a red and whitre boom gate!! GPS-girl!!! Needing a card to raise the gate we re-traced our steps back to thew village, stopping along the way at one of those hair-pins which had a a picnic table right at the apex. There we stopped for some biscuits, cheese, salami, pickled onions and fruit. The sun was warm, the breeze was light and the view up the Mosel valley to the village of Alf was stunning! Not a bad place at all to stop for some lunch.

 

 Kerry had her first go at driving on this trip, gamely taking on the steep, winding descent and the narrow lane-way in the village below. She did a great job, driving for perhaps 20 minutes before she’d had enough for the day. Soon we were back in the apartment at Traben-Trarbach. It was about time we tackled some washing so we filled the bath and knocked over all the clothes that had accumulated during the last week. Well, that earned a drink so we walked up the street along-side the Mosel into town, found a bar and had a drink while we watched the warm sun set behind the part of the town that is on the other bank. It got cool very quickly so we headed off to look for dinner, settling on a kabab at one of the very few places that are open on a Sunday night. We ate that on-site and wandered back home just on dark.