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.
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| View from the parking lot |
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| Pyrmonter Mühle (Pyrmont mill) |
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| mill pond |
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| 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! |
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| 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.
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| 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. |
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| And this is our view from it. |
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| Staircase; we‘re one floor up. |
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| 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! |
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| 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.
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