Bernkastel-Kues to Trittenheim, and on to Trier

Yesterday's ride from Bernkastel-Kues to Trittenheim was another easy one (about 30 km) along great paths.  As we cruised along we passed a couple of riders speaking English, and after leap-frogging a bit we ran into them again at a little cafe in the little town of Neumagen (and just in time for a strudel break).  Phillip and Debbie are from Ventura and have been bike touring for almost two months, heavily loaded by our standards and camping most of the time.  They were able to give us some good ideas for where to go as we head north from the Mosel.  Other than a Rick Steves tour group we saw at our hotel in Bacharach they are the first Americans we've encountered on the whole trip.

Neumagen lays claim to being Germany's oldest wine town.  There have been a number of Roman excavations dating to about 200 AD.  One (which has a replica on display in the town) is of a Roman wine ship, which was a marker on the grave of a Roman wine merchant.

This small column (also a reproduction; all the originals are in the museum in Trier) is a road marker from the same era.  The relief below shows Roman tax collectors at work.

We rolled into the small town of Trittenheim in the early afternoon.  It's compact, mostly modern, and very quiet.  We had reserved a room at Wein und Gasthaus Lentes.  After cleaning up we went down to the gazebo for a cool drink. We joined Pierre and Karin who were spending a long weekend there from their home in Belgium; they've been coming to this winery for vacations for 20 years.  We had some of our hosts' excellent dry Riesling, and then glasses of the their sparkling wine.  Before walking to a nice Italian restaurant in town for dinner we were able to join my siblings for our regular Friday zoom.

After breakfast this morning we continued up the Mosel to Trier (42 km).  This stretch of the Mosel is simply beautiful: small neat villages, vineyards running up the hills, and easy riding along the cycle route.

At Schweich our route crossed the river on a bridge, and we could see below us next to a campground this path-side restaurant with many bikes parked.

We stopped for some excellent kuchen.  Although I am learning more words in German I continue to struggle with pronunciation: when I asked for kuchen at first the server thought I was asking for Coca Cola.  Sigh.

It was an entertaining spot for a break.  In addition to all the cyclist traffic there was a small seaplane landing and taking off right in front of the restaurant, and river cruise ships just downstream.

As we neared Trier the cycle path passed through and around an industrial area for a few km.  Once we crossed the river into the city we had the usual white knuckle riding to reach our hotel.  Even though drivers are polite and considerate, navigating through unfamiliar urban traffic is always a little unsettling.

After cleaning up we walked a couple of blocks to the pedestrian area, which is an interesting mix of Roman ruins, buildings from the 1600s, and very modern structures.  We had a few shopping items we'd be been holding for our next big city and we set to work.  After we'd crossed them off Ellen suggested we find a photo shop to see whether I could get new passport photos (I'll need these when we return to Mainz and Frankfurt).  We found a shop, Foto Fix, on Google Maps and after considerable searching including walking around the block located it in a basement corner of a shopping mall.  Not a shop, just a picture booth, but it was set up to produce legit passport photos.  Amazing.