Today we left YVR for Germany for 25 days of beer, Bauhaus, Bavaria and burgs (castles).  We decided to fly with KLM because they’re clean, efficient and friendly (and the meals come in little Delft boxes).  The nine hour flight was relatively non-eventful and we landed in Amsterdam at 1000hrs.  Then began our train saga.  We took a train from Amsterdam to Utrecht, then an ICE train from Utrecht to Koln (Cologne to us Anglos, station seen below.  More in a later post as we will be visiting Koln in a few days.), Koln to Koblenz and finally Koblenz to Cochem, which is our home base for the next few days.

Cochem is a darling little town in the middle of the Moselle Valley, Riesling wine country.  The train from Koblenz to Cochem was definitely the most picturesque part of the journey, following along the Mosel River, flanked by vineyards, sleepy towns and castles perched on hills (more photos on a later day).  We checked into our inn, Weingut Haxel at around 1830 and admired the shady patio of the inn’s adjoining wine space.

We crossed the street to a sunny patio to fill our very empty bellies and sample a glass (or 2.  Or 4, in my case) of some of the local Riesling, enjoyed the setting sun and cooling off and headed back to our inn so we can be fully charged for our first full day of sight seeing.