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| Cochem is along the Mosel River. |
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| Rathaus (Town Hall) - couldn't get it to flip:) |
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| Town square |
We enjoyed a wonderful day in Cochem, Germany. It is about 1.5 hours away (in good traffic). Cochem is a beautiful town along the Mosel River. This weekend was a wine festival so it was busier than normal, but still enjoyable.
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| The castle atop a hillside of vineyards |
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We hiked up to the Reichsburg (Imperial Fortress). It took about 20 minutes and was pretty steep. The boys did great...no complaints. They enjoyed guiding us with the map we had gotten from the Tourist Information Center. They did very well.
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| Mosel River |
The castle is 1,000 years old! There's a beautiful view of the town and Mosel from the top. The tour was in German, but there was an English script that we could read which was informative. The boys enjoyed reading it, too, which kept their attention. The highlights were the 150 meter deep well, the backwards winding spiral staircase, the secret passage way, and the original false door that was put in to make the room symmetrical.
We also toured the 200 year old mustard mill (Historiche Senfmuhle). Again, the tour was in German but we had an English text and the guide could speak English. It was interesting to see how they still use the old methods of making the mustard. I'm not a fan of mustard, but Greg bought three specialty types (cayenne, honey, and a recipe from the 1500s). The boys even tasted the mustard samples. It's not ketchup but they were brave.
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| Crossing the Mosel to the Mustard Museum |
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| Learning about mustard:) |
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| Along the Mosel |
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| Enjoying the playground! |
After the tours and walking we gave the boys a break in the playground along the Mosel. They had a blast playing a game they made up. Kaleb even got in on the fun and played with a little German boy:)
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| Daddy and the boys heading home. |
