The V where my shirt is unbuttoned is revealing what looks like a very poorly patch of skin. Technically it’s sunburn, but it looks far far worse. My head isn’t doing too well either.

From one perspective it’s self-inflicted and entirely my own fault. From another, if you had a Mercedes roadster and were driving up the Mosel valley following the river from Koblenz to Trier in the sunshine, wouldn’t you put the top down too?

It’s an 87 mile drive you can do in around 90 minutes. I may have taken the scenic route. (Note the time is BST, not local).

Mostly I was just following the river, with it very rarely out of sight. Sometimes I popped up into the surrounding hills to admire the view.

I stopped a couple of times, but only really got out of the car in Cochem, where I also had breakfast.

Sadly that’s my final eis cafe visit for a while; will be leaving Germany too early tomorrow to pop into one. The ‘birds nest’ effect in the menu was better than the real thing; the key difference was the effort put into the ‘eggs’. Although I did make a change: This should have included Baileys, but I asked for it ohne likor due to driving. Shame.

After buying some honey for my cat sitter and finishing my stadtbummel I returned to my car, to find a small thin German in uniform peering intently at the rear number plate. As I walked around to the back to put the honey in the boot he walked around to the front, so I asked him in German if everything was ok. Obviously he replied in English, telling me he couldn’t see a parking ticket. My expression of confusion must’ve been exquisite, as I told him the sign had said up to two hours parking.

Apparently it is indeed up to two hours, but you have to pay for them. He pointed out a ticket machine I hadn’t spotted, so I promised to buy a ticket as soon as I’d put the honey in the boot. He looked deeply unconvinced until I closed the boot and walked to the machine, at which point he wandered off. Two euro later I got back into my car and as I drove out of town I waved the ticket at him. He smiled and waved back.

Being a cynical bastard I’ve kept the ticket, just in case.

If you’ve ever had Reisling wine then I’ve almost certainly just driven past where it was grown, where it was pressed and where it was bottled. Every village, hamlet and town has at least one wine press just stood in the open, often used as an advertising hoarding or a flower bed.

The river is slow and meanders through the steep sided valley. It’s very pretty but in hindsight I should’ve followed the river to Cochem then cheated and cut across the plateau to Trier instead. Although then I’d have missed one of the finest of the 30 or so bridges I’ve seen today. It was awesome, not least because they’re still building it:

In Trier I figured that as this is the last day in Germany of this trip I’d best hit tradition #4:

Kaffee und Kuchen. Oh yes. With bonus wildlife too, I spotted a lizard sunbathing by my table. I has photographs 🙂

I really should have reached Trier sooner. It has some awesome architecture. Stuff from Roman times and a humungous cathedral, it’s a very interesting place. Oh well. Photographed the cathedral and basilica anyway..

To be fair, Koblenz is a 2-3 day trip in its own right, Cochem worth a day or two, Trier 2-3, a full day exploring the towns between all of them, then there’s Lorelei just up the Rhine from Koblenz, the Nurburgring less than 50km away, literally hundreds of excellent churches and chapels and the various distilleries, vinyards and other wine industry attractions.. in a day and a half I’ve done two weeks of tourism.

Speaking of the Nurburgring, not long after leaving Cochem I saw four 1950s era open top Porsches take the turn towards it. Mentioned this to a friend, he’s going to check the crash videos to see if they made it around – I’ll confess watching them head off while thinking to myself, “You’re going to die!”

Dinner tonight was gourmet veal ragout in filo pastry pasties followed by jugged hare de la maison, fileted with mushrooms, small flour dumplings and brussels sprouts. Also some weird tasteless thing the waiter told me was a sort of German pasta so I tried some and left the rest.

Going to gloss over the war score today. Having seen fourteen castles (not including city walls, gates, fortifications, misnamed schlosses and well built manor houses) covering a few thousand years of human conflict lets not bicker and argue about who killed who. I’m on holiday, this is supposed to be a happy occasion.

Today’s drive is beyond Google Maps’ capabilities. It’s mostly ok until Cochem, after that I can’t get the route to follow the river properly. Trust me, every curve on that river was followed – hence the discrepancy between Google’s distance assessment and my car’s actual measurements.

My room tonight is basic – but I’m paying £36 to stay in what Google describes as an 8th century classic hotel. They’ve put me in room 13; the unlucky part is that it’s on the second floor and there’s no lift. A complete non-issue, except trying to carry my suitcase back down in the morning will cause pain and damage to my knees 🙁

View from the room is in the wrong direction, and would be hell for someone with hayfever.

The view from the hotel terrace facing the other way however..

That’s Trier, Germany’s oldest town. Their university is older than America. The two big buildings about a quarter of the way in from the right are the aforementioned cathedral and basilica.