Friday, October 11th
Heading out of Cologne, we entered our first destination into the gps. It is a town (or so we thought) that we added from a tour book since it was on our route. We’ll, we arrived at Nurburgring only to find that it is a casino and racing track. We almost bought a ticket to enter the race track – as a driver – but Diane kept saying, “It sounds like a race track!” The man said, Yes, ticket?” and we said, “No, turn around?” Then we looked up Nurburgring to find that it is a race track for on road vehicles.
Continued on to Cochem, a picturesque town sitting under a beautiful castle. We strolled along the river taking photos, then headed on to Spangdahelm.
Arrived at Denise’s about 5:30 pm. So nice to see a familiar face. She gave us the best room in her 5 bedroom house. She had two special welcomers, Bob and Squeaky Marie. After a bit of catching up, we headed out for dinner at a place Denise has been wanting to try. With the line out the door, we decided to go to the Truck Stop and though less fancy, the food was authentic and the beer, good!
Returned home and chatted until Diane started falling asleep.
Saturday, October 12th
Slept in a bit today. Phil made breakfast for the two of us while Denise slept in. We know she must have worn herself out getting ready for us to visit and working.
Once everyone was up and dressed, we started out to see the castle at Bernkastel-Kues. Not so fast, a main highway we needed to use was closed with no detour offered. The gps would not accept the fact that a main road was closed. We even used one of our smart phones, only to end up back at the closed road. We had to finally just try to get there without the “help” of the gps by driving through a couple of small towns in order to get past the road closure. After a lot of U-turns and wrong turns, we finally made it to Bernkastel-Kues. Whew!
Bernkastel and Kues are two cities connected by a bridge. Once there we drove through both cities but Kues was so busy we turned around and parked in Bernkastel where we took a few photos of the castle and Kues. Note: the green glassed area is probably not original to the castle.
Walked around to find a place to eat and had a late lunch at Bahnhof Cues. Met two men dining at the next table were from North Carolina! Diane had sauerbraten and it was pretty good.
Took the opportunity to get some shopping done at the nearby stores, before heading back to the car. Denise found a pair of jeans and Diane found some windmill cookies. The drive back to Denise’s was not near as difficult as as expected. We found a Rewe grocery store and stopped in there, too. Denise did some grocery shopping on her own, while Phil and Diane scouted the store for “goodies” and they found them. Diane found rolls made without milk and some rice cakes. Phil found some sausages and a can of rice! Then Diane found some frozen potato pancakes. All the fixings for a great breakfast. We’ll, not the rice. But Phil loves his rice! Phil and Diane took so long shopping that they found Denise standing tiredly, waiting for the two of them. She was amazed that they could find such interest in shopping. Phil shared that he found a can of rice, but was disappointed that he didn’t get sauerkraut. Once back home, took advantage of Denise’s washer and dryer and then called it a day.
Sunday, October 13th
Phil and Diane used three “finds” from grocery shopping and made a breakfast of sausage on rolls with potato pancakes. But no canned rice. Yum, a hardy breakfast?
Then onto finding more castles. But wait. Once on our way, Phil decided we should fill up the gas tank since we got lost yesterday, he didn’t want to take any chances. So we used the gps and chose fuel. Picked the closest one and hit start. A lot of kilometers later we arrived at a huge facility that said Tank Pool. We saw no gas pumps, only large trucks, fences and huge buildings. Okay, that didn’t work. So we go back into the gps and look for names of gas stations that sound familiar to a Denise. Another 20 km and we were successful. Yeah! Onto the Manderschied Castles.
The Manderschied Castles are two perpendicular castles each built in its own country (of their eras) separated by the river, Lieser. The Upper Castle was built in the 900’s and the Lower Castle In the 12th century. Interesting. We drove to the Lower Castle as we noticed people down there. After a 5 euro per person entrance fee, we walked past a few “medieval” venues, each with there own items for sale. Phil and Diane were interested in exploring the castle and weren’t sure they needed a second ticket to do so, so they just wondered up the steps. Denise wisely decide to wait for them. We’ll, they didn’t get far. The castle steps, if there ever were any, were worn smooth over time and it was like walking up a hill of slippery rolling pins. Diane and Phil turned around about 20 steps up the hill of steps. Meanwhile, Denise thought she’d try a bowl of the onion soup from one of the venues only to find out it would cost 7 euros. Enough of this place!
Denise suggested we visit Dudeldorf to see where Patton chose not to destroy the wall, but instead forced his tanks through the town arches. The scrapes are there to see. Pretty neat to see such a remnant of history.
Since it was Sunday most things are closed. We didn’t find a restaurant on the way home, so Denise made us burger and fries. And Phil got to have his can of rice.The man loves his rice.
After dinner, Diane and Phil worked on this blog until Phil decided to call it a night. Denise and Diane talked until they yawned theirselves to bed.
It is a wonderful friendship that can pick up after 9 years of not seeing each like it was just yesterday.