Worms to Klotten & the Mosel Wine Region

Hated to leave such a wonderful hotel in Worms but wine country was calling. The drive was more uneventful…thank God! We avoided some of the smaller roads and used the autobahn 61 up to Koblenz area, over to A48 and then the small two lane L98 down to Klotten.

Because altstadts have small narrow streets, if possible, try to get a detailed map of the streets and the city. We stopped at the T.I. on 416 which follows the Mosel (pronounced MO-zuhl by the Germans not mo-ZELL) River. We found Gasthaus Castor and I parked the car while Melodie made contact to find our parking area. As you can see, the streets are very narrow and I parked up the hill where the dark car on the right is located from the hotel.

The German host spoke no English. “Meine Frau sprichts Englisch aber Sie ist zum Werk.” So Melodie, with her famous French hand gestures, was able to explain I was in the car and we needed to park. Great! It’s through a gate right next door but that’s DOWN the hill in the opposite direction. So I let gravity do it’s job while I kept the car backwards in neutral and maneuvered the street without hitting any cars or buildings. Once parked, there was no way I was moving that car until it was time to depart the next morning.

Speaking to us in German all the time, we were able to catch his meaning once in a while as he proudly showed us his hotel. We would be the only guests for this evening. He and his Frau, Virginia, a Filipino woman with limited English but great German, were the hosts and owners. They had 21 rooms but only let out 9 of them to guests. She works in Bonn during the day and takes care of the all the rooms after work. He makes breakfast and cares for the guests and the property during the day.

Our room was through a maze of hallways and staircases. I imagined my grandchildren having a blast hiding and running up and down the stairs and halls as they played. A door to our room led us into a hallway with the toilet behind one door and the shower and sink behind the other before reaching our room. Another locked bedroom was down this small hall but would be unoccupied so we had this area to ourselves. With two twin beds, a wardrobe and a sink in our room, it was very comfortable and the ornate woodworking of the staircases and the bar/restaurant area made it cozy. They no longer open the bar and restaurant to the public. It was too much work for them as the man was up in years and his wife much younger but unable to handle it alone.

Settled into our room, we had the key to the front door as well as our room and headed out for a walk down 416 to find a wine tasting…or two! The first one was locked up so we headed for the 2^nd of 3 that we had scoped out. We were welcomed and the owner was gracious in helping us find wines that we would enjoy. Wein Lenz makes their own wines and can’t ship to the U.S.   Eleonore and Rainer Lenz began making red wines long before the Mosel region was allowed to grow red grapes 20 years ago. The wines were wonderful and I ended up buying 2 Rieslings and 3 red Rotello (a sweeter red) and a glass etched for Wein Lenz. All that for only 33 euros (roughly $40!) was a good buy! Now to get all those bottles back up the hill 300+ yards to our room! Had to make a stop and rest on the bench as a train just overhead went roaring by giving us a great breeze to cool off.

Wine in room and out of the warmer weather, we decide Italian food would be fun for a change so we head to Pizzeria Da Giovanni.

It’s just around the corner from our Gasthaus. You think getting used to German is bad…how about the proprietor speaks German and Italian but no English. So we point and gesture to order our pizza to share and wine and a beer to go with it. Well, I end up with a CARAFE of wine not a glass. So after Melodie finishes her beer, I use my best German (had to think about it for a while first) to get him to bring her a glass to share the wine. We had a good laugh and dinner was molto bene! The proprietor even treated us to a shot glass of his Patrone Speciale which appeared to be a frothy pineapple juice with alcohol. A wonderful day all-in-all.

Back to the room to spend an hour on the balcony overlooking the streets of the Old Town (altstadt). I would really need to get in shape to maintain a level of energy to master constant hilly roads as we walked everywhere!

Shower and bed. Tomorrow we go to Burg Eltz to beat the crowds then on to Kreuztal…our home away from home for the remaining two weeks of our trip.