Anniversary side trip Part I: Mosel River valley, Germany

For our ninth anniversary Heather and I spent the last day and a half 200 km southeast of here in the valley of the Mosel River, in the state of Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany.
The valley is famous for its Riesling grape, which is grown on steep vineyards on either side of the river, which becomes the Moselle in Luxembourg and France.
We spent Thursday night in Cochem (below), a town established in the ninth century.


We took this picture from the Mosel River bridge. The castle overlooking the town is originally from the twelfth century, but was heavily damaged in the seventeenth century by Louix XIV's troops. It was restored in the nineteenth century, which explains why it is in such good condition.


This is the market square, typical of the southern half of Germany. Half-timbered medieval architecture is prominent in the river valley, but not as much on the plateau through which we drove (from Aachen to Koblenz), probably because the river towns are older and were not damaged in the Second World War.



This is our hotel, the Alte Thorschenke. Click on the picture to get a better view of Heather to the left of the door. As you can see, the inn is an extension of the old medieval town wall. Our room was on the top floor on the other side of the tower (I'll post pictures in Part II). The restaurant is to the right.

The building is from the fourteenth century, but the dining room is more "modern" (18th-19th centuries). As you can see, it had plenty of gemütlichkeit, except for the music (a local radio station playing cheesy American music from the '60s-'80s). The food complemented the hunting-lodge decor well. Heather had duck breast in a peppercorn sauce, and I had the "wild game plate," which featured three cuts of deer (steak, liver, and, I think kidney-- the menu was in German and our waitress did not speak English) and stewed red cabbage. Good stuff! We drank local "dry" Riesling, which was good but still a little too sweet for my taste.

This picture does not do the huge boar's head justice. We were the last people at dinner, which allowed us to walk around the room and take pictures.

This was a great start to our anniversary trip, which continued on Friday as we drove along the Mosel river toward our final destination, the Roman city of Trier...