Off on another cycling day - one of the longer ones at 47 km from Mehring to Bernkastel-Kues. A much more scenic route today along the Mosel because we were riding through and past vineyards. It would appear that most of the harvesting has been done, but there are still machines and people out in the vineyards taking in this year’s crop. It is amazing to see the acres and acres and acres of vines running up from the river, many of them very steep. We all agreed it must be darn hard work getting those grapes from the vines to our table! At one point we stopped to watch them transferring grapes from the picker’s basket into the collecting cart. The pickers have a bucket on their back that looks a bit like our recycle bins, which they fill and then come down to the collection cart and just lean over to tip the contents into the cart. The older man at the cart gave us some grapes to sample. They were almost like raisins and were quite sweet.
A little further along we came upon a family harvesting the vines -looked like it was a mom, dad and four kids helping grandpa get the grapes off. The kids looked like they were having fun! (They weren’t in school because it was a holiday- German Unity Day.)
As has become the norm, we passed through wonderfully picturesque towns and villages - it would be nice to be able to stop and spend more time exploring some of them. Our lunch stop today was in Neumagen-Drohn, Germany’s oldest wine village, where there is a replica of a Roman wine ship. On to the famous Piesport, home to the well-known Piesporter Goldtröpfchen wines. On the way, Mer and I stopped to look at the ancient Roman wine press which is still in remarkable shape given that it dates back to the 4th century! Once a year there is a festival with a demonstration of ancient winemaking.We couldn’t pass through such a famous wine area without picking up a bottle of wine, so Mer and I (the others had already gone ahead) stopped at a winery to purchase one. (It was also a good to be able to have a pee break!)
Unfortunately at this point, it began to rain in earnest, so the rest of the ride was basically nose down and pedal hard. At times it was a light shower, but other times it was a significant downpour. We were very wet and just a bit knackered by the time we got to the ship in Bernkastel.
However, once we got showered and changed, the rain had stopped and we were able to head out and explore the town a bit. It is everything you might imagine a German town to be with the iconic wooden framed buildings. We wandered a bit through the town, then decided to stop and sample a glass of the area’s wine - a Trocken for Irv and a Halb-trocken for me! Back to the ship for our tour briefing for tomorrow’s cycle, dinner, a couple of games of cards and dice in the lounge and thus ends another day!