We have officially taken our sister-rolls....I have become the correspondent and Betty is the photographer. So you will probably be hearing my ramblings for the rest of our trip.
Today was a beautiful day in the Mosel and Rhine River Valleys (yes we made it to both). We started our day with an amazing breakfast at Hotel Haus Lipmann. I keep saying it, but the rooms they served breakfast in were very impressive with all their antique weaponry and items. We then took our hike up to Burg Metternich which is directly behind the small village of Beilstein. The ascent was beautiful and a bit taxing, but we made it fine. When we arrived at the entrance we realized we forgot money -- oops -- so Betty (the younger, of course) offered to go back to the hotel room for the money. It seriously was only a 10 minutes trip, but she had to ascend those inclines and steps again and was huffing by the time she got back. The castle is in ruins, but offers picturesque views and a great hike. We then joined our friends Drivin' Derrick (car) and Tina Tom-Tom and took off for Burg Eltz, Rick Steve's favorite castle in all of Europe. It is over 700 years old, has never been destroyed and remains in the same family. They maintain a residence there and offer a great tour. We walked down the very steep road to get to the castle (it is actually in the valley - weird), but opted to spend the 1.5 euro to take the shuttle back to the car.
We then drove to Boppard, on the Rhine River. This town is the locations of many great memories for Tony and Betty as they spent 4 days there in 2009. A very, very curvy drive brought us to another quaint town this one on the Rhine. As with most memories, they are best left that way, but we enjoyed a nice walk down the river promenade, saw the hotel where B&T stayed and ate at their favorite Italian restaurant. The waiter they remembered was no longer there and they no longer had the 4 cheese pasta dish that Betty was so looking forward too. However, we did enjoy the Caperese salad and pizza we ordered.
On the way home we outsmarted Tina, as she kept trying to take us through alot of windy, curvy roads (we still have the trusty paper map in the car). So we tricked her by breaking up the trip into segments an bet her home by 10 minutes.....nah, nah, nah, nah, nah.
Home brought us to the patio for a glass of sweet white wine and hot apfelkuchen. We watched a thunderstorm roll down the Mosel, and, unfortunately, were sat too close to the ugly Americans (southern California by the way), who started talking politics, drones and meeting Danny Thomas. Then they asked the proprieter, David, if Rick Steves is a nice guy - duh - of course he is a good guy - he put this hotel on the map. Anyways, we exited a bit earlier than anticipated and returned to our room to continue to watch the sun set and catch up on the correspondence. One more day in the Mosel River Valley....what will it bring???
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