The Magical Adventures of Jennifer and Steve: Cochem and Ediger Eller

We had another early start, but this time from our bed. We are now on the Moselle River and as we were awake at 5:30, we opened our curtains and watched the sun rise over the vineyards as we travelled along the river. We’ve determined the best time to have breakfast is 7:00 when the restaurant opens, as there’s only about 5 other couples up at that time – so you can get whatever you want quickly.

We docked in Cochem and due to a miscalculation on our part about the rest of the cruisers, we ended up with the group that includes the “gentle walkers”, it took awhile to get the shuttles loaded. However, we went up to Reichsburg Castle and had a very entertaining guide take us on a tour of the 7 furnished rooms of the castle (there are at least 50). We also saw replicas of suits of armour from other castles, including one that was supposedly worn by a wee little guy who was the originator of the saying “Kiss My Ass” which is apparently much worse (and insulting) in the original German. We were then taken on a city walk, which we opted out of when we found a wine store that offered tastings – we bought several bottles of wine (including a German Ice Wine (Eiswein)). As we meandered, we came across a little café/bakery that had Apple Strudel, so we had it heated up and ate it on a bridge while watching the boat traffic go by on the Moselle. We had a little free time before lunch and went to the Mustard Museum where we tasted several mustards and determined which ones we were going to bring home with us. Steve got a couple of fairly strong mustards. Back to the ship for a buffet lunch.

We had to stay in the same groups for the afternoon excursion to Ediger Eller, where the mayor (in ceremonial robe and tam) met us at our buses. He took us on a walking tour of his village (and set quite a blistering pace, I’m very happy to say, before being reined in by the cruise manager) and then we were “treated to” (imprisoned for) an organ concert in the village church (which also had a strange smell to it). It was your standard grand European church, although I really liked some of their modern stained glass windows (Jesus stomping the grapes looked like a character from Clone High). We left the church and went to a local hall, where we were treated to a wine tasting, more words from the mayor and a showing of a ½ hour German wine making movie that was made in the 1950’s for German school children (where the mayor provided a running commentary, including pointing out the young people in the movie by saying – that’s my next door neighbour who is now 78…). The mayor sang songs and got us to join in. The only song we knew the lyrics to was Ein Prosit, which we learned at Oktoberfest in Waterloo, so I guess our university educations were not a waste.

Dinner was sadly uninspiring. After dinner was a music quiz in the lounge, however 95% of the questions involved songs/movies made before we were born, so we sucked the big one on it (our other team member knew the songs, but couldn’t think of most of the names or movies, so we were SOL).