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Cochem, Germany

What a wonderful sleep last night, as much as we loved our last accommodation the loft bed was really not meant for someone of my age, size and delicate disposition – not complaining as it was very cheap and only the second two nights of our stay. However, the German bed and pillows were more for my size and the breakfast which includes a glass of sparkling wine (I declined – yep really) was very good too. I am trying some moderation but all these new cheeses and meats are very tempting. Good yoghurt and tasty moist bread rolls and even a toaster for Vernon (he has missed that), real eggs and bacon, fruit, pickles, liverwurst, honey from their hives and even chocolates! Breakfast runs from 8am to 12pm LOL. The coffees are the biggest we have seen on holiday – so we were well fortified for our day around town and further trip planning.

After some research we took a shuttle bus up to the castle for the Falconry show. It was funny on the bus as when the driver asked if I wanted a return ticket I asked if one could walk back (Vern and I had discussed this option). Now to clarify we checked not because we are dumb, but after our Italian experience of windy hilly roads with no pedestrian tracks there was no way we were having some autobahn nutter run us over. The driver with a dead pan face looked at me as if I was stupid and said “Yes”, “is it a nice walk, is it far” – he looks up hill and back at me still as though I am from the third rock from the sun, “um, how long – 10 -15 minutes – is there walking tracks?” “yes” “ok, I will have two tickets, one way please”.

The falcon show was good and the owls were especially appealing. One falcon seemed to love my head in particular – curly hair perhaps? We enjoyed a good and cheap lunch in the castle cafe which had beautiful views. For a moment I felt right in my royal element! We had a tasty pea and sausage soup and sausages and potato salad. We did not do the castle tour as we plan to visit Burg Elz in a couple of days.

We enjoyed the walk and views on the way down in the warm sunshine and made our way leisurely to the train station to get some planning information. We arrived 2 minutes after the part time person finished but he saw us scrutinising the boards as he was leaving and came to help us anyway. He showed us that the self service machines will actually print you a selected itinerary and of course lots of options to choose from. Awesome, as our wifi at the hotel is terrible and this obviously is the DB (German Rail) information direct and up todate.

Armed with lots of options for the next couple of legs we walked back along the riverbank to our hotel. Things are quite good value here, I bought a 0% Radler beer and an apple juice from a petrol station and it cost €2.20 total! On the way we passed a bus with a trailer and healthy senior people loading their bikes into a clever rack system on the trailer. I joked to Vernon and said it was probably a Dutch bus called happy travels. And then we had a good laugh as we came around the other side to see it was Dutch and it was called “happy travels”. I really should pick the lotto numbers this week!

Dinner was a recommended restaurant from our hosts on our sunny side of the river, on a terrace with grapes and a postcard view of the river and town. The menu had dishes using mustard from the local historic mustard mill. I had salmon with Riesling and mustard sauce served with boiled potatoes and salad, and Vern had Pork with honey mustard sauce and bratkartoffel ( fried potatoes). I got a local medium white glass (huge serving) and it was the most delicious white I have ever had.

Good parts recorded I must say that the restaurant food here in Cochem is of a pub standard. Not bad enough to send back, but clearly no trained chefs. They are very heavy on salt, not sure why but we both noticed it and it is not the good rock salt either …. I certainly hope it improves as we further our German trip

Back at the hotel we tried the Internet after I did some off line typing and it kept timing out when we were uploading photos and videos which is so frustrating and time consuming. On the way upstairs one of the senior owner brothers stopped us on the steps and started to chat and we didn’t get away for about 20 minutes making it well after 11pm. We have nick named him Fritz and he is the most animated German we have come across, more like an Italian. Arms wave about, I got poked with a finger several times to make a point and he could speak as rapidly as a native English speaker. He caught us on the first day and held us and another couple up for at least 15 minutes before we could politely exit.

Anyway it was actually quite interesting hearing his history (64 years old) and of his youth growing up in Frankfurt. Stories included visits to uncles who were involved (as translater) with high up folk in political circles linked with Geneva in war times, mysteries with big cars, cigars, high end prostitutes, USA and military, drugs and corruption. It all started due to his disgust regarding German policies of police etc having easy access to your internet, passwords, pins and more.

Another interesting character and I bet a fantastic movie script.

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