Last night before we went to bed, our cruise director announced that we would not be sailing tomorrow. Apparently, a fisherman had seen a crack in a bridge under which we need to cruise. Until it is checked out, we are docked in Trier.
But this morning we discovered we are now being bused to Bernkastel for our tour and wine tasting.
We arrived around 10 for the village tour. Turns out they are having a wine festival here this weekend so it was a very festive place.
Above the town are the ruins of Landshut Castle.
Bernkastel is said to have one of the prettiest market squares in the Mosel Valley.
Bernkastel is filled with an amazing concentration of half-timbered houses. Such houses were the homes of the working and lower classes of medieval times.
In this one above, the one on the right is original to the 1600's and the one on the left is a reconstruction.
The houses are also known as "wattle and daub." These houses were constructed of woven lattices of wooden strips called wattle. Then they were "daubed" with a sticky matter such as wet soil, clay, sand, animal dung, straw, etc. When it all dried together, it was covered with plaster. We've seen the houses almost everywhere and it is amazing they are still standing.
We also saw one of the oldest houses in the village - 1644 - which had an unusual configuration. Why? When it was built, the owners had to pay taxes on the amount of ground space it covered. A clever way to reduce taxes was to build the lowest floor so it would take up the least space and expand the upper floors.
This is one of the old city gates.
We walked to a restaurant which is known for "Bernkasteler Doktor" wines. Legend has it that wine from a particular vineyard in Bernkastel cured 14th century Prince-Bishop Boemund II of Trier overnight after he drank 2 bottles of wine and he declared it medicine.
The vineyard is owned by 2 families, and benefit from the reflection of roofs nearby. You can see the slopes of the vineyards above us.
Our guide was very entertaining and told us she is both a podiatrist and a certified wine taster. She said that before the festivals where people often stomp the grapes with their feet, she does an inspection. If someone has athlete's foot they cannot participate because the condition would start the fermentation early.
She talked about how wines were used to purify water in past centuries, usually 2-3/5 wine to water. Unfortunately, some of the containers they used to store wine in contained lead.
She showed us a weinhotte, used to carry the cut grapes. It could hold 50 kilos or about 110 pounds.
We ended our tour with a wine tasting at Dr. Pauly-Bergweiler Wines where they have been making wine on this site since 1556.
It is now produced elsewhere but we were treated to a tasting of 5 white (Riesling) wines. I've never thought I like Rieslings, because I think of them as sweet. However, 2 were dry (trocken) and I liked them.
Afterwards we had just a few minutes to walk through the wine festival. Ed snagged a sausage from this colorful vendor.
While there we got word the bus is moving again so we were transported by bus to a new port.
Unfortunately, we are way off schedule now so tomorrow will be different.
We spent the rest of the afternoon lounging and walking around the boat.
Tonight we went to the Chef's Table again in the small dining room. We had the same menu as before, but it was worth it just for the presentation. We also sat at a table for 8 and met some lovely new people.
While we were in the lounge, we passed the wine festival in Bernkastel.
So festive.
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