Bargain offer - two posts in one!

We tried to post this yesterday, but were defeated by weak connectivity, so here it is, followed by today’s report: two for the price of one! However, I have just found that the WiFi here in the harbour is not good enough for me to add pix - I'll do that as soon as we have a good connection.

Saturday

Back in motion – after a morning of boring things like returning the hire car and shopping, we finally set off up the Mosel after an early lunch. Not that we have come very far: about 12 kilometres to Winningen, which we visited in the car last week. It has the advantage of fuel stations on the riverside to top up our tank, and also good Riesling.

Our three days in Eastern Germany were most enjoyable: we visited Nuremberg, Regensberg, and on our way back, Rothenberg.

This rather provocative Eve is to be found in Regensberg: 

The skeleton holding a beer can (?), or perhaps an hourglass, was there too. 

While in Rothenberg we found the ideal sundial for the wall of our house in Provence. A pity it’s not immediately available.

The drive back to Koblenz with our friends Mike and Joan, who will be cruising with us for a few days, was long and boring: for some reason the whole of Germany seemed to be going somewhere, presumably to have a holiday. The consequence was long queues and long delays. But we made it eventually.

Sunday

We set off up the river full of optimism – which was quickly shattered by a three hour wait to get through the first lock of the day – fortunately there were to be only two. First there was a barge going up, then another arrived to overtake us. It looked as if there might be room for us and the other five boats waiting, but at the last minute a passenger excursion boat arrived and took our places.

Some crazy people rowing emerged from the lock:

The next disappointment was a pusher coal barge, which took up the whole 170 metres, leaving no space for us. Then finally we were able to get in: six small boats behind another barge:

It was a similar story at the next lock, but the wait was “only” 45 minutes or so.

So we decided to call it a day a few kilometres further on, here at Tries-Karden:

Oh, and there are castles on the Mosel too: