We booked a VRBO house in the Cochem area for a few days so that we could explore the beautiful Mosel region and show the kids some of our favorite castles. Evie finished school on Friday the 23rd and we headed out for the 2 hour drive west. The house was part of the Ferienresort Cochem - a Golf Resort just south of Cochem. It was a really cute cookie cutter type neighborhood with tons of rentals packed right in. It is in a really great location with access through the winding hillside roads to the small quaint towns on the Mosel. The weather was iffy with rain predicted so we didn’t have a concrete plan of activities and planned to to take it day by day.
Our rental is a dopplehaus - double house, only a few in the complex
Saturday we decided to head to Burg Eltz about an hours drive from where we were. The distance isn’t so far but taking into account the winding roads that take you up and down the hillsides of the snake shaped Mosel adds on time. It was beautiful with the changing fall colors and vineyards. Once we parked in the lot we were instructed to walk a different way to the castle than we did when we visited before. Everything is now different with Corona, one way footpaths marked to avoid too many people in one place. Our walk took us through the trees on a nice little hike to the castle. It was the best to turn a corner and see the Burg a Eltz standing tall and alone in the middle of the forest under the shining sun. My favorite castle!
We purchased tickets to do the tour so the kids could see inside, they loved it! There were quite a few people touring but only a max of 12 were allowed on each tour. After the tour we grabbed a bite at the Imbiss right on the property and then made the steep climb back up to the car. We were happy to have gotten there early because the line of people to get in at 2:00 was very long! Here is the link to the Burg Eltz pictures on the picture tab of the blog.
That was a lot of walking for the kids so we stayed back at the house for the night. We made homemade pizza and William joined me in the sauna for a little bit.
Sunday we decided to go into Cochem and take the 1 hour panoramic river cruise on a KD ship. We took the KD Cruise line many times before on the Rhine and it was always a nice time. We boarded early, got the kids some ice cream and Riesling Schorle for the grown ups. It is interesting to see the towns from the vantage point of the water.
There were barely any people on board. The captain was telling us how all of the river ships have suffered during the Pandemic. The river cruise boats were only running at 1/3 of their capacity and the day tours as well. So the kids were excited to have the boat as their "playground" and no one seemed to mind. Here is a link to the picture tab on the blog of the Cochem pictures.
After the boat the kids wanted to ride the little green train that we had seen from the boat. It was a bit rainy so not a bad idea to ride around and see Cochem through its narrow crowded streets.
The ride was short, all in German but a nice chance to get out of the rain and see the town. Afterwords we walked the streets a bit to find some food. Evie found a cake shop that she needed to go in so Daddy took her and I took William to get lunch and we met back up at the bottom of the hill to head home. Everyone was content to stay in and warm up the rest of the day. That meant sauna time for mama :)
Monday morning Daddy and Evie took a long walk through the resort and William and I met up with them a little later. We were planning to visit a theme park but it was closed. So we decided to hop in the car and drive along the Mosel figuring we would hop in and out of the car at different stops.
Our house was where the blue dot was. We drove North to Cochem and followed the river along to the East before stopping in Ellenz Poltersdorf.
We walked along along the river front of the town. It was just so adorable, as all of the towns are that line the Mosel. The vineyards, winerys, quaint buildings and fresh fall air made it such an enjoyable walk.
Across the river we could see the Burg Metternich sitting atop the town of Beilstein. It was so picturesque. I can remember reading about Beilstein before in Rick Steves Germany book but we never visited. He said it is nicknamed the "Sleeping Beauty of the Mosel" because until about 1900 it was inaccessible except by boat. There are less than 200 residents and about 30 guesthouses!
We had walked pretty far, almost to the next town but William wasn't having anymore of it. Dave took him back to the car and Evie and I enjoyed the stroll by ourselves. We encountered a little farm that had sheep and goats that came right up to the fence. She was in heaven! We came upon the next town where Dave had already found a playground for William.
The kids were content as could be to stay at the playground the rest of the day. I took the time to walk through the little town, climbed up to the top and into the vineyards to have a look "down" and as you see below, it was quite pretty! Ellenz-Poltersdorf is not big, in a country like setting and surrounded by the beautiful vineyards and Mosel. On my walk it seemed like every other house I passed was a Ferienwohnung or Holiday House.
A view of Burg Metternich
After a good long play at the spielplatz we got back in the car and made our way to the house. We stopped at Kalle's Imbiss and grabbed an early dinner to eat at the house.
We had a great mini-vacation. It was only 4 days and the kids wanted to go back home of the 1st day but they managed just fine and were definitely happy to get home to their rooms, beds and toys! We got home on Tuesday and has the remainder of the week to relax. The weather was not super great (lots of rain) for the fall break but Evie said it was nice to have a break from school.
This will be our last trip for a while. We are hesitant to book a house during the Christmas break because we don't know what the Covid situation will be like. Currently as of November 2nd, Germany is in a partial lockdown to help control the rising cases of Covid. We can only hope this will help to ensure we are not in full lockdown and quarantine during the winter. That just means we will have to keep it fun close to home!
Be sure to click on "The Hoffman's 2nd European Adventure - The Pictures" tab at the top of the page. The pics from the trip have been uploaded to Shutterfly. I've also been trying to put the videos on the YouTube channel as well. Here is the link to our YouTube.
We wish you safety and health during this crazy Pandemic we are all living in!
Bis zum nächsten Mal,
Tschüss!
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