Today is a 32 mile day to Cochem.  It’s a beautiful town as well as having a castle overlooking the city. 

I woke up today at 0630 for a 0800 breakfast and a planned departure at 0930.  It looked a little scary right off the bat with low clouds hanging over the vineyards. 

But the clouds lifted and the cool of the morning dissipated so that before long the day was filled with a blue sky and warm temperatures. 

I had a couple of problems…. Yesterday after a near catastrophe, I ended up with a flat tire only 50 meters from our hotel.  Yesterday I had no desire to fix that flat so I waited till this am.  No issues changing the tire but as soon as we took off, I noted a slight imbalance in the front where the flat was…. A kind of thumping.   Like the road had an irregularity at a regular interval.   I mentioned it to one of the guys and asked if they saw anything funny with the tire, like if the bead wasn’t fully seated.  Well, the answer became clear shortly after.  We went through a chicane and all of a sudden there was a severe bumping and rubbing.   So I stopped and sure enough there was a large section of bead that popped out of the rim.   I let the air out and reseated the tire in the rim and refilled the tire.  Voilà!!  It was fixed!!   But the area was worthy of a photo so I took one. 

From there we continued on enjoying an even pace of around 11 mph.  One place we took a little time at the town of Zell.  Out front of the town, in the center of the traffic circle there, was a large black cat with a glass of wine.

   

What’s the story on this you ask???  Well…… Zell (Mosel) is one of the largest wine-growing communities on the Mosel.

With a vineyard area of about 400 hectares (nearly 1000 acres) and nearly four million vines, Zell is well known around the world. The most famous vineyard is the “Zeller Schwarze Katz” (black cat). The wines that come from it are known around the globe because of their unique quality and wholesomeness. The secret of the “Zeller Schwarze Katz” begins in 1863, when wine merchants were out and about in Zell. After an extensive wine tasting at the winery, three barrels were on the shortlist. But they couldn’t quite agree on which was the best.

Suddenly the cat jumped onto one of the barrels, made a hunchback and hissed at anyone who tried to approach the barrel. The merchants quickly agreed and decided that since the black cat was so persistently guarding the wine barrel it must be the best. A short time later, the same merchants came back to Zell and bought all the wines from the same vineyard as the one in the barrel that was so fiercely defended by the cat because this wine had sold like hot cakes. The vineyard in which this wine was grown was eventually named “Zeller Schwarze Katz”.

Following Zell, we crossed over the river and kept going…Rebecca was bound and determined to get a picture of a May Pole and we stumbled on this one in Sankt Aldegund…

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Our next stop was in the small village of Alf.   It’s another one of the wonderful places along the Mosel.   We stopped at an Italian coffee shop for some water and coffee.  Then later we stopped at a nice restaurant by the river in Senhel…

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Nice little refreshing stop!!  We only had 10 miles to go between there and Cochem.   Halfway between the two places was a small village called Beilstein.  To get there we needed to ferry across.  

Beilstein is a gorgeous place!   Tons of people were in the town sightseeing and stopping for food and drink.   There is a castle overlooking the town as well here and people hike up to see it. 

One interesting spot we saw as we were leaving town was this wall with the various flood levels from years in the past….. amazing that the village was restored after such devastation!

We took the ferry back across the Mosel and then we rode the final 5 miles into Cochem.  Quite a view there…..

One of the group, Mike, hiked up to the castle, Burg Cochem….spectacular I’m sure

Our hotel is very nice although the rooms are on the small side but the beds are comfortable.   And while the showers are small too all you are doing is cleaning up.  Then we headed out to town for sightseeing, drinks and dinner. 

 

Tomorrow, we’re going to try to beat the forecasted rain by 1 pm.  If we can get started by 0830 we may make it!!   Now to get some sleep…… a gift from the hotel, Sleep Sheep!

More tomorrow!!!