September Holiday: Sunday, 21.09.2025

As had been forecast, Sunday saw a radical change from summerly sunshine and warm temperatures to cooler and wetter weather. It wasn‘t exactly cold yet at 19 C, but rained on and off (more on than off) all day.

Morning view from our room

Still, we caught a time mid-morning when the rain let up and even stopped for a while, and of course we quickly donned our rain jackets and went out.

Our Art Deco front door

Along our street are some beautiful buildings, and we also went inside the church in our neighbourhood.

This old door from 17-something reached maybe chest high for us.

Up the steep slope between the ubiquitous vineyards, we soon reached the skywalk.

From there, it wasn‘t far to the top of the hill, where a park with sculpures and benches, playgrounds and a visitor centre with a tiny library, café and meeting rooms is.

Before reaching the houses of Kues again, we came across this chapel:

Our way back through residential streets was interesting, too (we love looking at houses), but the rain was gaining intensity by then, and so we spent the afternoon in our room resting and reading.

The hotel‘s restaurant is closed on Sundays, so we had to find an alternative for dinner. A short walk along the river took us to a place that had a table for us in spite of us not having booked in advance. We enjoyed the meal, prices were very reasonable and service friendly.

On our way back to the hotel, not only did we see a rainbow (better than in the photos), but also caught a beautiful sunset to end this very relaxing day.

September Holiday: Saturday, 20.09.2025

The first photo taken that morning from our room doesn‘t look all that promising, but the day turned out to be summerly warm at 25 C and beautiful throughout. 

We opted for hiking shorts and short sleeves, and apart from the most dense woodland bits, I wore my sunglasses nearly all the time.

From a leaflet we picked up at the tourist information, we chose a circuit called Bernkasteler Schweiz (Bernkastel Switzerland), because of its mountains and rocks etc.

Shortly after leaving the last houses of Bernkastel behind, we reached a small waterfall.

Next was this tiny chapel on a rock above the waterfall.

From there, the path went through woodland and between meadows, up and down, along a beck and over rocks.

This very large parasol mushroom was about half way up my calf!

Bernkastel and the Mosel river

It was beautiful and there were some, but not too many other hikers about.

Reaching the end of the circuit, we decided to walk on to visit the ruined Burg Landshut (Landshut Castle), the one we have been looking at from our room and our table at the rooftop restaurant since our arrival the day before.

The foundations of the sturdy walls are what is left of a Roman castellum, built in the 4th century. The fortress was modernised and used for centuries, until a fire in 1692 destroyed much of it. It was abandoned after that and is now a very popular spot for tourists, with a restaurant and beer garden.

It did not take very long to get there, and we were hoping for a refreshing shandy, which we got eventually - but the place was so busy that we were seriously thinking about leaving again.

We also spent 1 Euro each to climb the tower and admire the view from up there before we walked back down into Bernkastel, crossed the Mosel on the central bridge and walked to our hotel in Kues.

Before showering and getting dressed for dinner (which was once again at the rooftop restaurant of our hotel), we sat on the balcony for a while, resting after having walked about 17 km all in all, and drinking plenty of water.

The last summer day for a while, and we really made the most of it.

September Holiday: Friday, 19.09.2025

The day marked the end of our stay in Münstermaifeld and the start of a week in Bernkastel-Kues, about 80 km away further south along the river Mosel.

Breakfast, packing and loading the car didn‘t take all that long, but handing over the keys to our hosts turned into a nice, longish chat, leading to a guided tour of their latest project, the renovation of an abandoned dance hall down the road. The historic building impressed us with its many original features like the old parquet dance floor, art deco frieze, doors and windows. An incredible amount of work and time (and some money, of course) has been invested by the family, but the couple and their three grown-up sons seem to thrive on things like this.

We finally said our good-byes and set off, but didn‘t drive far - at the bottom of Burg Pyrmont (Pyrmont Castle) we stopped and had a beautiful woodland walk to the castle.

View from the parking lot

Pyrmonter Mühle (Pyrmont mill)

mill pond

A cave along the way

However, the castle itself is not open to the public, contrary to what the wikipedia article linked above says - it is now managed by a catering and events company, and if you want to get past the large gate and sturdy walls, you will have to book a wedding or other event at the venue.

This is as far as we got!

The smaller gate next to the large wooden one allowed at least a glimpse of the courtyard.

Still, we enjoyed the walk and close-up views of the castle; the entire detour took us maybe an hour.

At 2:00 pm, we arrived at our hotel in Bernkastel-Kues, a little too early to check into our room. We had no problem waiting a bit, since we were sitting on the sunny rooftop terrace with a glass of sparkling wine for our welcome.

The balcony in the corner is ours.

Then we were given our key and moved in. This is our base now until next Friday:

That‘s the balcony we saw from the rooftop terrace.

And this is our view from it.

Staircase; we‘re one floor up.

Art deco door to our building, next door to the actual hotel and restaurant.

We walked along and across the Mosel into Bernkastel old town (we‘re staying in Kues), where crowds of people were strolling the narrow streets. Icecreams in hand, we joined the crowd for a while but then climbed some of the steeper paths behind the houses and into the vineyards for the views.

Tourist information is in here!

Lost place not far from where we‘re staying.

Back at the hotel, the evening was still warm enough to dine on the rooftop terrace, and a very good meal it was, too.