Burg Eltz and Cochem

So far we are adhering to our goal of going on a trip every Saturday :).  Yesterday we drove about 2 hours north of Kaiserslautern and went to Burg Eltz (Burg = castle) and a beautiful town called Cochem.  The trees here in Germany are at the height of their prettiest colors and the drive was beautiful.  With the help of Rick Steves (we have decided we definitely need to buy a bunch of his books after borrowing them from friends), we decided to park about 2km away from the castle and hike to the castle grounds.  When I say hike, I mean steep downhill to the castle and a heart pounding uphill climb back to our car!  It was definitely a work out, but the weather was beautiful for it!  

The inside of this castle is beautiful, but unfortunately we weren't allowed to take any pictures.  The tour takes you through 8 or 9 rooms that are all decorated with 14th - 16th century furnishings.  It was really amazing and our tour guide spoke Engish very well and was very knowledgable.  We really look forward to hosting visitors and this is definitely a place that would be great to go see again!

After the hike back to our car we drove about 15 minutes to the town of Cochem.  We rode a chair lift up to the top of one of the hills (I say hill, but the hills around here are really sort of like mountains :)) and had a beautiful view of the Mosel river.  The Mosel region is one of the wine areas of Germany, so of course we found a local winery and did a tasting.  The wine was delicious!  We walked around town a bit and had some dinner before returning home. 

We will definitely be returning to Cochem!  It was an awesome town and there is a castle there that we did not have time to see.  The castle at Cochem even does mediaeval dinners and dances.  

We slept in today and checked out the contemporary church service at Ramstein Air Base.  We did some shopping this afternoon and checked in with family via Skype tonight.  It was great to talk to (and see) our parents! 

Below are our pictures of our trip this weekend as well as the pictures of our house (still under construction :)).

View of the Mosel taken from along side of the road on our way to Burg Eltz.

View from the hiking path on our way down to the castle.

Burg Eltz

Burg Eltz courtyard 

The Mosel River at Cochem

The Living Room

The Master Bathroom

View from one of the guest rooms

Our future home! 

We are the end unit that goes until the other side of the blue "thing" (I don't know what to call it :)).