River Cruise Oct 7/14

On Oct 7, we had another leisurely morning on the boat as we cruised to Zel on the Moselle River.  After lunch, we boarded the buses for a lovely drive through the countryside to the town of Bernkastel.  We were offered a wine-tasting tour at the home of a friend of the VanDykes, but in lieu of that, Paul and I opted for a walk to the castle ruins above the town.  And I DO mean above! 

Surrounding this "St. Michael's Fountain"  ( St. Michaelsbrunnen), from 1606, is a row of well-preserved buildings.  This square is known as the Medieval Marketplace.  The building on the left with the flags is the town hall.

  On the front of the Town Hall is a set of shackles which Paul is holding.  Presumably, it is to shame the "bad guys".

 The "Spitzhauschen", or Pointed House, is commonly called the Bird Cage, and was built in 1416.  Very cute little place!

The walk up to the castle ruins was surrounded by grape vines, some of which had not yet been picked.

Part of the path was paved, most was cobblestones.  It was quite steep in areas, and required a few stops to catch our breath.

This was our first up-close view of the castle, with still a fair amount of climbing to go.

We made it!  I think Paul was just realizing how far we had climbed - all the way from the river!

A view of the Moselle River Valley from a castle window.  It's a long way down!

An interesting land-form.  The grapevines are planted from the houses up to the forest.  I wonder if it was all forested at one time.

It disgusted me to think that they actually make wine from these rotten, mildewed, fruit- fly-infested grapes! 

I found it interesting that at the end of a lot of the rows of grape-vines are planted rose bushes, some of them still blooming nicely.

Off we go back down to the town where the bus is waiting by the river.   Paul struck up a conversation with some people (surprise, surprise!) who turned out to be from Canada.

A display in a shop window - from block of wood to wooden shoe.

This is another square, called "Square of the Bears Fountain" (hmm, wonder why), in a newer area of the town.

This is a typical street in the older area of town, no straight streets, just build a house wherever there is room.  And this IS where people used to live, though now a lot of the buildings house shops.  It is just so cool walking around places like this, imagining what life used to be like.
Soon after this, the rain came down in buckets, so we made a bee-line to the bus, a wee bit earlier than planned.

That night at dinner, when it was time for dessert, the kitchen staff all came in carrying a cake with some kind of things that looked a bit like sparklers, but were much bigger, and lasted longer.  We were all a little nervous - the smell of the smoke spooked us, and we were glad when they burned themselves out!  They still gave us the dessert we ordered for dinner, then later we enjoyed cake and tea upstairs in the lounge - gotta love that!

All of the people who were celebrating special anniversaries on this cruise were honored, including us, even though we actually celebrated our 50th in June, which they knew.

Later, in the lounge, we enjoyed some special entertainment by "Mike", who was VERY entertaining indeed!  His repertoire included playing the keyboard, singing, playing the accordian, and the cow-bells.  Some people even danced the polka, etc.  It was a very fun evening!

Of the 61 guests on board, 3 of them were named Peggy (alias Margaret).  This is a very bad picture of all of us!