Deutschland: Bernkastel-Kues

 

We headed out of Konstanz Sunday morning and drove north to arrive in Bernkastel-Kues just after lunchtime. We checked into our hotel and then walked around the village for a bit. It’s quite honestly an idyllic looking German town. 

We decided to explore more of Bernkastel tomorrow so we could drive over to Spangdahlem. My guy was stationed at Spangdahlem Air Base when he was a little younger than our Nutter Butter. We spent about two hours driving through areas that he used to visit. It was beautiful scenery but more-so, it was pretty cool to hear him tell her about the things he did and share his memories of his time here with her. 

Bernkastel sits along the Mosel River within a beautiful valley known for its vineyards. The drive back toward Bernkastel was beautiful and just before we got back to town, we spotted some sort of celebration by the river with a live band. We stopped, because why not? And the band was quite good. We hung out a bit and listened to their varied repertoire from German polkas to a Journey medley!

We headed back to hotel and our Nutter Butter was done for the day. Chris and I headed out for dinner and then came back to our hotel along the river and watched the sunset from our balcony. A beautiful peaceful evening!

Sunset on the Mosel River

It really stays light here very late. This photo was taken at 10:50PM!

Monday morning I got up and headed out to get another look at the little village of Bernkastel a little early. When I say early, I mean early for Europeans - they do not start their days early compared to Americans! I was walking the streets to window shop and snap some photos and the streets were practically empty at 8:30AM. It was prime time for undisturbed photography though! And the village is just so charming!

This type of little building was my favorite.

Marktplatz

Behind the entire village were hillsides filled with vineyards.

A window in the Marktplatz

Bears! The Bern in Bernkastel means Bear.

This building was so intriguing to me - so wonky and uneven!

Our hotel

The church tower dates to the 4th century

CJ and I grabbed a pastry, we checked out of our room, and then we headed up the hill to visit the Burg Landshut or Landshut Castle. The castle overlooks the village and parts of the foundation date back to a 2nd century fortress. The fortress, called Princastellum, was a product of the Roman emperor in Trier who wanted to protect the entire Mosel Valley so he ordered a number of fortresses to be constructed along the river at a vantage point that one could see enemies. 

Sehr Gut!!

A Free Library! - the plaque on the side stated, "Because reading connects and books are an important cultural asset." Love it!!

Berg Landshut

The castle remnants that remain today were constructed in the 12th century and have survived multiple sieges and a fire. You can walk around the grounds pretty much at any time and the views of the valley are gorgeous. The remaining interior of the castle has been turned into a restaurant and can only be accessed during their business hours. 

View of the Mosel from the castle.

Such great views!

From a distance, the vineyards look like a patchwork quilt to me.

These working conditions are super steep. A very few of them have a rail system that uses a little rail seat and cart to help with the work. Otherwise, workers are working up and down these hillsides!

Worker in a vineyard

After leaving Burg Landshut, we headed to Trier. Trier is a fairly large city and is probably most noted for the Porta Nigra. Trier was the most northern city of the Roman Empire and the Port Nigra is the still standing northern gate of the Roman Empire. It’s really crazy to think of how far the Roman Empire expanded! 

Porta Nigra

Trier was a fairly large city in the empire - around 40,000 people in the 4th century compared to around 100,000 today. They began construction of the gate and the city wall in the 2nd century under Emperor Augustus. He is the same emperor that ordered the construction or the fortresses along the Mosel River. The city wall was 6.4 km and the height of the gate at the time was 32 m. It was constructed from large blocks of light colored limestone that weighed more than a ton each. The layers of construction were engraved by dates and it is estimated that workers were able to add four blocks a day to the gate during its construction. Over time the light colored stone darkened to black and it became known Porta Nigra. 

View out the side of the Porta Nigra

Eventually and entire church was built on top of the gate until Napolean orders it to be destroyed. However, even though the church was destroyed, the gate remained because a monk refused to stop living there.

There are several UNESCO World Heritage sites in the city and as we walked we found another - Trier Dom (St. Peter’s Cathedral) and the Church of Our Lady which are oddly connected not only on the outside but also on the inside. Trier Dom holds the Holy Robe. It is a robe that is said to have been worn by Jesus Christ just before his crucifixion. Legend says the mother of Constantine found the robe and sent it to him in Trier. It is specially preserved and stored in the church and only taken out at certain times - Holy Robe Days. People make pilgrimages to Trier for this event. 

After visiting the churches we headed for some lunch. Chris and CJ greatly enjoyed their traditional German hotdogs which were one of the “wurst” varieties. 

Afterward, we did a little shopping around the city and then headed for the car. We were making our way toward our next destination and stopped along the way at a Birkenstocks outlet!

We continued our journey and made our stopping point around Kassel at 8:30PM. We found a quick spot for some dinner which happened to be fabulous!! And then in for the night.

Tomorrow, we cross over into what used to be East Germany - part of Germany none of us has seen!