Weinberge (vineyards) in Southern Germany

The Mosel is a river that flows through France, Belgium, and Germany.  It enters the old country near the town of Trier, which is the oldest city in Germany, dating back to the Roman times.  We were visiting some relatives in the town of Mülheim an der Ruhr, which is smack in the middle of the industrial/coal capitol of the European country.  We had decided to take a trip with the Wiegel family, to where they had a small travel trailer parked on a tributary of the Mosel.  From Mülheim, we drove roughly along the Rhein (Rhine) River.  It was a drive of several hours.  Being used to the distances in America, this trip was pretty short, but every drive through Germany is a vista paradise.

View of the Mosel River and villages

As we entered the Mosel area, it was pretty clear this area was going to be very nice.  The first thing we noticed were the many vineyards that carpeted the surrounding hills.  Both sides of the river were lush green with the many thousands of vines that paralleled the contours of the hills.  One has the choice of driving along the river, experiencing the villages and views at one's leisure, riding on a train that parallels the river, or taking the slow scenic route on an enclosed boat with dining facilities.  No matter how you do it, you will not cease to be impressed by both, the evidence of antiquity (castles and houses up to 800 years old) and the enormous varieties of vineyards.  We chose to take the car route.  We were not disappointed.  All along the way there were restaurants that offered great German cooking and wine tasting from the local wine cellars.

We were pleasantly surprised on a tour of a wine cellar we visited.  These cellars are mostly constructed of concrete, granite, and limestone.  They are also constructed underground, making them dark and very cool.  In the middle of our tour of this particular cellar, the proprietor opened up in a operatic baritone voice enchanted us with a song that reverberated throughout the cellar.  It was an experience we felt very blessed with.  It is even more of a blessing, because I believe this gentleman is not longer with us.  It was, therefore, an immeasurable blessing.

An impossibly steep slope for a vineyard.

Some of the vineyards we saw actually seemed to defy gravity.  It was obviously a huge feat to have planted these vines on mountain goat terrain.  It was even more impressive to imagine people negotiating these unbelievable slopes to harvest the grapes.  I can't help picturing people bent with arthritis caused by standing on these steep slopes and carrying heavy baskets of grapes.  Human ingenuity never ceases to amaze me.

Burg-Eltz by foot.

Equally impressive were the numerous castles we encountered as we drove the scenic highway.  It seemed there was either a castle ruins or a restored and functional castle on almost every hilltop we passed.  Some of them were used as museums and offered tours.  Others were actually still used as residences and were not available for tours.  We heard of a very nice castle that still belonged to a family that had owned it for hundreds of years.  Although they didn't live there, any more, there were still private areas of the castle that were not open for viewing.  We parked in a designated parking lot and had to walk about two kilometers to get to the castle.  The castle, Burg-Eltz, was constructed in a very defensible location on top a hill.  It was, at least for tourists, only accessible by foot.  The weather was perfect, on our walk to the castle.  We were presented with a detailed way of life, as it was hundreds of years ago.  On our way back to the parking lot, it started to rain.  A nice gentle rain would have been pleasant, since it was warm and the trail was not all level.  It was a cloud burst.  We all ran, fast as we could and for as long as we could--stopping to rest under large trees to catch our breath--but we were fully drenched by the time we reached the car.  We immediately drove to the small hotel Evelyn and I were staying in, which was in the same campground that her relatives kept their travel trailer in and got into a dry change of clothes.

One of the interesting folk lore stories we heard was at the junction of the Mosel river and the Rheine river.  The Rhine Gorge mainly played an important role in german folklore and art, most noteworthy the Loreley Rock."  Heinrich Heine named one poem after this rock, blaming a beautiful maid (instead of strong currents) for a lot of shipwrecks in the turbulent waters.  The legend was that a female spirit, beautiful maiden, probably a mermaid of the Rhein, would lure ships into the treacherous waters with her mysterious singing (or murmerring), causing shipwrecks.  The Lorelei Rock looks over that stiff current from 120 meters above the river.

I look forward to the day when we might be able to revisit the area and perhaps see it from one of the large glass enclosed boats that traverse the length of the river from Koblenz to Trier. 

Travel for Travel's Sake

I think it is pretty apparent we enjoyed our time in Costa Rica.  After we left the Playa Del Coco area, we drove back pretty much the way we had come and spent the next night in the same Hotel Evelyn and I had stayed in our first three nights.  It was very affordable and a very nice place to stay.  It was Thanksgiving, so we decided we needed to eat out somewhere excellent.  We decided, since it was unlikely we would find Turkey dinner and, at Costa Rican prices, we wouldn't want to spend for Lobster, we would go the restaurant Evelyn and I had enjoyed so much on our arrival, "El Rancho De Lali."  As I described earlier, they had a Marascada dish that was to die for.  It was a combination plate that had rice, some salad fixings, and a huge variety of fish.  Doctored up with a little of their mildly "hot" pickled vegies made that Thanksgiving meal the cat's meow.

Our view of San Isidro from lookout on Hwy 2

The next day, we set off on Hwy 2, to drive through the mountains (slow going because of the many trucks that could not drive uphill too fast) to get to the second largest city in Costa Rica, San Isidro El General.  It was rainy and, for Costa Rican standards, a little cold.  We were driving through clouds, part of the time, and had to be very careful under those foggy conditions.  We stopped at an overlook above San Isidro and were blessed with a clear view of the city.

The Los Pinos Hotel Restaurant

We spent two nights in a little hotel, Hotel Los Pinos, which was perched on the side of a hill overlooking a tropical forest.  The Toucans clustered in the dense green foliage of the leafy trees as they flew from tree to tree.  The hotel sported an open kitchen, as so many of the restaurants were in the tropical warmth.
The rooms were meager, but clean.  We did have to talk to the hotel owners, because the pilot lite in the water heater had gone out and there was no hot water.  They spoke no English, so it was through a smattering of Spanish and pantomime that we got them to understand, at all.

We had arrived early enough that we decided to drive the remaining mile and a half into the heart of the business district and check out what the town had to offer. 

Central Park in San Isidro

Although San Isidro has a population nearing 50,000, the greater area that has grown up around the city proper is closer to 250,000.  The city was full of activity as the smiling and friendly inhabitants milled through the narrow streets and congregated in the central park area.  It was still overcast, with an occasional sprinkle, but the temperature was a very nice 75 degrees.

We spent the next day driving around the area looking at real estate for sale, which is abundant, but is very expensive.  I suspect most of the citizens purchased a long time ago and many were now trying to sell the the "wealthy" gringos. 

The view from our balcony.

The next morning, we set out for Jaco.  It turned out to be about a four hour drive.  We arrived in what turned out to be a reasonably large and populated beach community and it took us another half hour of driving around to find the time-share Jeff and Jane had booked for us.  Who would have thought?  It was a high rise condo project.  The Costa Rican economy had been just as negatively impacted by the American recession as we had.  There were six concrete towers erected on a nicely landscaped property.  Two of the towers, however, were just shells and had never been completed.  It turned out most of the rooms in the four towers that were completed, were empty.  Our room was on the seventh floor and looked out over a green masterpiece of landscaping.  There was an irregular shaped pool surrounded by concrete interspersed with islands of bushes, flowering shrubs, and small trees.

Evelyn in front of sign, big burger $2

We spent the next five days taking long walks, strolling on the beach, exploring the retail shops and making ourselves at home in the two bedroom apartment.  Although we made some of our meals in the well provided kitchen, we found a restaurant that served good food for a reasonable price and served breakfast and dinner.   We had long since learned it was better and cheaper to use American dollars to make purchases.  At 500 colones per US dollar, it made it pretty easy to calculate.




We have discovered no matter where we are, there is usually a good way to eat inexpensively.  We are, indeed, looking forward to our next adventure.