Bernkastel-Kues

We are now in a campsite in Millau, beside the Tarn River, in Aveyron, southern France.     No internet for nearly a week, except for catching up quickly on messages, by using our phones, in the popular free internet places such as McDonalds and Starbucks.    

And at last we have internet, and a really good connection, and free too.    I have felt so deprived.

Also it is still chilly, and raining, and has been since we left Holland ten days ago.   This piece of information is for people who live in the UK and think that they only have the miserable weather.    Yes we have experienced it too, in west Germany, in the Alsace, in Paris and in the Loire Valley.    And now it is raining in Millau.    We are hoping that the Cote D'Azur is sunny and warm.    We are counting on it.    We need sunshine.

So back to Bernkastel-Kues.     We first travelled along the Moselle River, from Koblenz, which is a haphazard city of motorway junctions.   Once this was a fine town bordering the junction of the Moselle and Rhine rivers.  But alas, it is remembered now, for the motorways, which appear to travel over the top of the town. 

The journey along the Moselle is very picturesque, with grape vines clinging to the steep sides of the hills on one side of the river, i.e. the sunny side, and lovely little towns and villages along the way.    The area is known for Riesling wine, fruity and mild, which sadly we did not sample, as the beer was more appealing. 

Bernkastel, on the edge of the river Moselle, with Kues as the counterpart on the other side of the river, is one of our favourite little towns, as it is with many other people too.   The place is always heaving with people, and this did not disappoint us, on Saturday, 2nd June.   

 It is a medieval town, with plenty of picturesque half-timbered houses, and lovely squares where you can sit and drink a glass of wine (or beer), and watch the world go by.   That is when you can find a spare table and chair, which we did eventually, and enjoyed our German beer, or in my case a modified version, a  radler (shandy).

 Then it was off to the stellplatz for us.   A magnificent area, about 5 minutes drive from Bernkastel, with excellent facilities, including electricity, bar and cafe, toilets and showers, and an enormous motor home service area.  We paid a very small fee of 10 Euros to stay there.

 There is a view of the grape vines clinging to the hillside on the other side of the road.   As well as a view of the Moselle river, which ran alongside the stellplatz.

The stellplatz was also very full of motorhomes, on the Saturday night.

 Brian and Susanne stayed in luxury in the Hotel Zum Josefshof , in Graag, a ten minute walk from the stellplatz.  We had a lovely meal there, snitzel of course. 

And I forgot to say that the cycling tracks running along the Moselle are excellent, although we did not have time to use them.   And the roads in the area were to be free of traffic on the Sunday, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. so that cyclists could have more freedom.   How is that for a cycle friendly place.