Rothenberg and Ernst, Moselle River Valley

Rothenberg


Moselle River Valley

Castle in the Moselle River Valley


21 April 2008: In the morning, we decided to check out Rothenberg again with the hopes that it wouldn’t seem like such a ghost town as the night before. It was a Monday morning and it was still slow, but there were enough shops open to peek into. Most were knickknack shops. And, every couple of doors are bakeries, all of them selling this pastry called Schneeballen, which literally means “snowball” because it looks like one. It’s made from flat strands of batter rolled up into ball, fried (I think) and then coated with powdered sugar, chocolate, etc. We had a couple bites, but didn’t finish them. We wanted lunch instead and still I was still craving Asian food more than German. In the mean time, Sean was so hungry that he got a “German hamburger” (beef and pork with onion, egg, salt and pepper) as an appetizer. Then, we found ourselves in a Chinese restaurant. It seemed really weird to not be able to read the menu, not because it was in Chinese, but because it was in German. Although it was not the most authentic stuff, it wasn’t half bad. Rothenberg is supposed to be one of the cutest walled cities around, and it was cute. But, I think the wider streets and car traffic killed it a bit more than the others we have visited. Still, we had fun on our way out when we found the steps leading up to the lookout fort in the front of the town. There was even an old cannon pointing out of one of the little square “windows”.

That afternoon, we headed to stay at a winery in Ernst, a town in the Moselle River Valley. On the way, we went through Frankfurt. It made us feel we were really coming full circle and our trip through Europe was coming to an end as we passed by the airport that we originally landed in Euorpe in, almost two months ago. The Moselle River Valley is nice, quiet wine growing region. It’s amazing to see that they can put vineyards up these very tall, steep valley walls. Again, it was a very peaceful setting. Tired from the 350 km drive, we opted to have dinner at the restaurant next door instead of walking into town. Sean had more schnitzel, the best one, and I had the goulash, then saved room for an apple strudel for dessert. Kai was more interested in the playground in the front of the place, rather than eating.