The Mosel

Last night we passed the Kaiser Wilhem I monument and entered the Mosel river. This is a tributary of the Rhine and everything seems closer, the hills rise right next to us. This is a Riesling growing area and as we cruised we could see workers on the steep slopes picking the last of the grapes.

We started our day with a glass blowing demonstration by Karl from Wertheim, a town with a thousand glass blowers. He is the sixth generation to blow glass. Karl holds the glass with his bare hands because of its heat insulation properties. For example, fiberglass has replaced asbestos as insulation, and you can even buy glass fiber wallpaper. Karl met Dale Chihuly in Vienna by accident when Chihuly was quite young. Twenty-one years later Karl was asked to be a teacher in Chihuly's school. This was his conversion from scientific glass blowing to artistic glass. Karl gave us an interesting and funny presentation on artistic and industrial uses for glass. Margaret was recruited from the audience to help. 

In the afternoon, we walked the town of Bernkastel. It had a beautiful market square with timbered buildings and slate roofs. There are several strangely shaped houses with small foundations because taxes used to be based on the size of your foundation.

Upside down house

The vineyards surround the town and we marveled that workers could pick the grapes on such steep slopes. We ended our tour with a wine tasting of four local vintages from dry to sweet wines. Their highest grade was called Doctor wine because legend has it that it removed the pain from the actions of a past prince/bishop.

Picking Grapes on the steep hilside

I decided to scale the hill to Burg Landshut which dominates the town. The views of the town, river, and vineyards were striking, and the climb warmed me up significantly.

View from Burg Landshut