| Hessen |Mosel Valley | Harvest | Trier | France |

Hessen

Frauenberg Bench

We began our two week October Herbstferien--Fall break from school--with some friends in Hundshausen, a small town north of Marburg in Hessen. (See if you can find it on a map!) However, we were only able to get there after a small delay. It took 6 hours to travel from Leipzig to Hundhausen, rather than the usual 3 because of the various Staus encountered (see "Short Vacation"). All the schools in Saxony have the same vacation schedule, causing massive congestion on the first day of a holiday as everyone tries to flee their home town. Fortunately the various German states follow different vacation schedules, otherwise we would still be between Leipzig and Hundshausen. Even so, it took us two hours to get from North Leipzig to West Leipzig, a distance of only 10 km.

Nature Preserve Signpost

We took a short trip from Hundshausen to Frauenberg, a ruin just east of the university town of Marburg, which has the distinction of being the first castle built by a woman in this region of Germany. While there, we followed the time-honored German custom of walking along the many Wanderwegen situated around the hills and valleys near the ruin. This provided a number of views of the fall foliage, which was just beginning to change. We also encountered a shepherd, a sheepdog, and the flock, and Kendra had the good fortune of seeing a lamb being born.

After spending the afternoon at Frauenberg we headed to Marburg, walking through the old town of half timbered houses and shops. Clearly, winter was not far way. There was a notable chill in the air as the angle of the sun was quite low to the horizon.

The next day, we were off on the rest of our trip, not knowing exactly where we were going, although we were definitely heading south.

Mosel Valley

Woods at Berg Eltz

 We left Hundshausen, heading for Gießen and then on to follow the Lahn River Valley, eventually ending up at Burg Eltz near the Mosel. Berg Eltz is tucked away in a hidden valley on the Eifel massif, which borders the Mosel to the west, and is opposite the Hunsrück massif on the east. It is a quaint little castle and was the first we had ever seen, during an earlier visit to Germany. So, it seemed an appropriate place to visit. From there we spent the night in the small town of Müden right on the Mosel. We had a wonderful view of the harvest moon over the Hunsrück at nightfall and river mist in the morning.

Our first stop the next day was the town of Cochem, site of yet another impressive castle, the Reichsburg, dating originally from the 11th century, but destroyed in 1680s, only to be rebuilt in the 1800s. On one of the Reichsburg's towers is a very impressive mosaic and many of its walls were covered in ivy, beginning to turn a brilliant red. The castle interior was a museum with many interesting artifacts, such as a suit of armor made for a 7 foot tall knight, and had been meticulously decorated when it was reconstructed.

Swan Boat Prototype

After exploring the Mosel by car and foot, it was time to take a boat trip. However, figuring out a specific trip to take was an adventure. As it turns out, we were on the tail end of tourist season and several of the nicer boat trips had stopped running the day before we arrived. Tourist season was definitely winding down. However, we eventually settled on taking a one way trip, with return by bus, from Bernkastel-Kues to Traben-Trabac. The funny hyphenated names are due to the fact that in many locations two towns face one another, resting on opposite banks of the Mosel, but are connected by a bridge in-between: a marriage of sorts, resulting in the hyphenated name.

Our boat was a tourist boat, but because of the time of year, and the cold, there were only 3 passengers on it, other than ourselves; the boat could accommodate up to 500. Needless to say, we had lots of arm room as we set off up river, but not much body heat to keep us warm. Taking the boat gave a very different perspective from driving on the shoreline: great views of the buildings built along the river, panoramas of the many vineyards, some of which had the name of the Weingut (vintner) prominently displayed in their midsection, as an advertisement for all to see, and views of the numerous sundials built into the hillsides. We also had a bit of a thrill going through one of the many locks made necessary by the 70m fall of the Mosel from Trier to the confluence with the Rhein River in Koblenz. We eventually ended up in Traben-Trabac at the end of our boat trip, wandering around, eating lunch, and taking a bus back to the car, which was parked in Bernkastle-Keus, home to many a swan.

Mosel Grape Harvest

Mosel Mountain

The Mosel is known worldwide for its wine and it is no surprise that everywhere you go you see vines and vineyards. For us, we were fortunate to be traveling along the Mosel during grape harvest. Grapes are grown on incredibly steep slopes and it is quite impressive to see the terraces and vineyards tucked away among the rocks. Equally impressive is the method of harvest. On the steeper slopes there is a system of tracks with carts that are used to haul supplies into the fields, but the grapes, after they are picked, are carried in plastic buckets by the workers. Once the grapes are brought to an area where a vehicle can be driven, the grapes are dumped in wagons attached to small tractors, which are used to cart the grapes to be processed into wine. Vintners are found in all the villages and you can have an impromptu wine tasting during most hours of the day and night (within reason). Some vintners charge for the tasting, while others simply hope for a reasonable sale. The protocol is to buy at least a couple of bottles of wine if you stop to taste. No problem!

Trabac Door Detail

We had a tasting in Graach, conducted by the son of the vintner, who spoke good English, normally works as a telecommunications engineer in Frankfurt, and was very informative about the sociology of wine growing in the Mosel Valley. One of the more interesting topics concerned the nature of hiring workers to harvest the grapes: "In the past, most of the temporary workers during harvest were German. But now, they don't want to work the fields. They can earn higher wages elsewhere, or they feel it is beneath their station to harvest grapes."

" Now, most of the workers are German speaking Poles, but it getting harder and harder to hire Polish workers. The economy in Poland is improving quickly and many Poles feel that they can do better working at home. This is becoming a difficult situation here, to hire enough workers during harvest."

"Another difficulty is that we have to contract workers a year in advance, so we have to set the schedule without knowing when we can harvest. Some years, when the workers show up, it is too early to harvest and we must pay them while they wait for work. Other years the harvest is early and we have no workers to pick the grapes when they are ready." Agriculture here, like everywhere, is not an easy business.

Our discussion was quite interesting and resulted in the purchase of several bottles of extremely good wine. We also found out why there were so many Polish cars on the road along the Mosel.

Trier

We ended our tour of the Mosel Valley by visiting Trier, the first German city along the watercourse of the Mosel as it flows from France to the Rhein. Trier was the primary Roman city located on German soil and offers some of the best preserved Roman ruins in Germany.

We arrived in Trier in the late afternoon primarily to scout out a place to spend the night. We ended up in a Zimmer in Waldrach, a village near Trier. The house with the Zimmer, which was situated in the woods, had originally belonged to the village forester and was occupied by his son and his son's wife. They were incredibly friendly, giving us ideas of what to visit in Trier and helping us plan our route to the Mediterranean Sea in France, so that we could avoid the quite expensive French highways.

Garden View of Roman Baths

The next day we headed to Trier, parking our car in a small neighborhood and walking from there to the town center. An old Roman wall along our path was our first glimpse of the many vestiges of the old Roman Empire scattered throughout the city. Eventually we entered the city center at the Porta Nigra, a large 4 story edifice built in the 2nd century as an entrance into the old walled city. It is an impressive building, and the architectural details on the interior make one wonder why the old German buildings built at the turn of the century, or even earlier during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, had once seemed so old. Or at least they did through the eyes of someone coming from the New World. From there, we headed up through the very busy, market square. We also visited the Dom (cathedral), which contained some very interesting art work and architecture, primarily in the Baroque style.

Next, it was on to the old Roman baths, an engineering marvel and one of the largest in the Roman Empire, although they may never have been used. The structure consisted of a series of baths; caldarium, tepidarium, and frigidarium providing, one would guess, a complete experience. One of the most fascinating features of the baths was the extensive series of underground passageways that were used for heating and circulation. Finally, the last ruin we visited in Trier, before leaving for France, was the old Roman amphitheater, which was the site of many a battle between gladiator and beast.