Moseying through the Mosel

This past weekend I met the 'rents and my brother in the Mosel Valley region of Germany. (First trip across the pond for 3/4 of the Cook Clan shout-out!) Our tour started in Cochem, where we ate ice cream - that I ordered in German, y'all - and strolled through the streets until catching a train to our accommodations in Moselkern. Disclaimer: most of our activities this weekend can be found in Rick Steve's Guide to Germany. Rick Steves says "jump", we say "how high, and when should we do it to avoid the most crowds and get the best deal?"

Here's the thing about training around the Mosel Valley (and probably many other places in Germany): there are castles everywhere. Just like banks in Tyler. One on every corner. Our first full day of the weekend was split between roaming Burg Rheinfels in St. Goar and wine tasting in Bacharach. Rheinfels was amazing. It's basically the ruins of the largest castle overlooking the Rhein. And it has no structured tours or rule enforcement whatsoever. Which means anyone who chooses to can scale turrets, climb through windows, descend into underground tunnels, and army crawl through crumbling passageways. Yes, please. Danny - who braved the daunting task of traveling with the Cooks - and I ended the morning caked in German Castle Dust and having found ourselves more times on the wrong side of boundaries than the safe side. In other words, it was a success. After hiking back down we caught the train to Bacharach for some more hiking/exploring and a lazy-Susan filled with glasses of the wines that the region is known for. 

It would seem that the day couldn't have been any better, but the train ride back put the cherry on top of this travel sundae. We happened to share a train car with a group of Germany's Special Olympics athletes as well as a group of partying middle aged Germans. After filling the car with rounds of German drinking songs and toasts, the three or so couples started talking to the Olympians and asking them all about their medals and events and the like. Soon enough, one of the ladies turns around in her seat, looks straight at Danny, and starts rattling off in German. Danny responds as anyone would when being talked at in a foreign language - smile, shrug, look around, stammer, plus any combination of the four - before saying, "I'm American." Fortunately for us, this lady speaks "excellent English!" and proceeds to ask, "ahnd vwaaht shport do you play?" to which Danny responds and they talk about soccer for awhile. At this point, my entire family is in tears for laughing so hard, and after the party de-trained at the next stop we explain to Danny how he was just mistaken for a Special Olympics competitor. One that didn't medal, to boot.

The next day we hiked up a nature trail to Burg Elz and took a tour before leaving Moselkern for the medieval walled city of Rothenburg. We'd been seeing folks in medieval dress all over the train stations, and Rothenburg just so happened to be their destination. The city was hosting a huge, four day renaissance fair that weekend, adding even more charm to the city in the form of campfires, drums, folk songs, etc. We took the Rick Steves recommended Night Watchman's Tour and then ate dinner in Hell. Right outside of it, rather. Later that evening Brandon and I walked around the fair, enjoying the local culture and the musical stylings of a band with members ranging in age from 20-67 and repertoire stretching from Adele covers to Summer of '69 to oompa-pa's. The next day we walked the city wall and my mom and I poked around the renaissance craft fair, a bakery, and a Christmas store before starting the long haul back to Metz.

In short: I love Germany. All of the people I came in contact with were super nice. Germans like to have good, clean, fun. They actually do dance the do-si-do-swing-around-to-the-boring-part-of-the-chicken-dance-dance. Everyone sings. And they have castles. Let's all be a little more German.