Thursday in Bernkastel-Kues, Germany

This morning we're cruising to Bernkastel-Kues. We passed this castle on the way.

The vineyards along the Mosel utilize every bit of dirt available!  They use different types of slate  spread on top of the hills to change the flavor of the grape produced.  Another amazing fact is the vine root is about 30 ft down into the hill.  One vine can produce grapes for about 100 years.  This area of the Mosel is known for the white wines, especially the Reisling wine.  They say the grapes do better on the slopes because they get more sunlight then if they were flat.

These ruins appear to be a church.

This old castle is in the town of Bernkastel-Kues. It has been a ruin for many years, but is now being restored.

We are ready for our walking tour of the old town.

These markers on the wall show the various flood levels over the years. There has only been one serious flood since the locks were installed around 1993 on the Mosel River.

If Daddy were still alive (Ed), we would have bought this for him!

This house dates to the 14th century. It's an example of building in a manner to pay the least taxes possible. They were taxed on the square footage of the ground level.

Kevin is showing us the manacles in the town square used for punishment of the lesser crimes.

An interesting statue, It does, of course, have a story (legend); much too long for this post.

These markers are found in front of homes which once belonged to Jews. They indicate that the family did not return after WWII.

We visited "Dr. H. Thanisch" winery which is owned by the wife of the man in the picture. He hosted our visit.  He was very thorough and we tasted four types of white wine.  In making their wine they shoot for quality not quantity.  One thing I thought surprising is they use only the yeast from the grape.  They do not purchase yeast and add to the mash.  They do have a distributor in the states.  We ll have to look them up...the wine was yummy!

The inside of the cellar was humid and very damp. We were advised not to touch the walls!

These wine barrels under the mountain in the winery have candles on top of many of them.  They said its for either of two reasons.  One is if the oxygen level got too low because the fermentation process uses oxygen and the candles went out that meant you want to get out too.  The other reason had something to do with the fermentation process on individual barrels going bad which would be an alarm on a barrel.