Started out the day with the Mosel on our left and vineyards on our right. First stop was to watch a crew of rowers getting a workout on the river; next stop the sundial painted on the side of the rocks at Wehlener. There are actually several of these sundials up on the cliffs in the vineyards around here. Chugging along through the requisite picturesque villages till we came to a great place for a coffee stop at a caravan park in Wolf, right on the river. We were just in time to see our ship, the Olympia, go sailing by. A chance to try out poffertjes, which the others hadn’t ever had. They are one of my favs from Heritage Festival! This was also the place where we discovered a wine vending machine on the corner of a street!
On the road again bound for Traben-Trarbach, where we saw the Bridge Gate as well as the remains of Grevenburg Castle. A pathside picnic table served us as a lunch stop. Continued on towards Punderich again through the vineyards, which makes for beautiful cycling. Stopped to watch a crew of grape pickers emptying their containers into the collection vehicles. This looks to be very hard work, not for the weak! Continued on till we came upon an old viaduct up the hill.
Finally arrived in Zell, to be greeted by the Schwarze Katz, a statue of a black cat, which is the symbol of the town. As the tale goes, two wine merchants were trying to decide on which cask of wine to buy and had a “few” glasses of wine while they pondered their decision. They still couldn’t decide but when a black cat jumped up onto one of the barrels, they decided that was the one to buy. Zell is another beautiful typically German town with many wonderful old buildings.
Once I had had a chance to clean up, Irv and I went out to explore the town a bit and ended up at a street side wine bar where we sampled some very fine Riesling. Mer and Richard joined us and sampled some of the same. We liked it so much, Irv purchased a bottle for us to enjoy on board. After dinner, talking to a neighbouring table, we discovered we could bring our own wine for a 6euro corkage fee. So that’s what we will be drinking with tomorrow’s dinner!