Besancon, Moselkern, and Returning to our Roots

The Citadel

Besancon France

Next day we moved on to Besancon since on previous trips we'd see the “Citadel” on a hill over the town. We walked up to it and while it was interesting, and a WHS, we found an ancient gate dating back to approximately 175 AD, built in honor of Marcus Aurelius’ far more intriguing.
Marcus Arelius Gate
To think the Roman Empire extended this far in 175 AD. This is a beautiful town in eastern France we’d highly recommend people visit. We also had one of the best Mussels and Fries we’ve ever had by using Google Maps and Google Plus and following directions to a place that looked deserted but was a very good restaurant.














Moselkern and Roots


On the move again we arrive in Moselkern and hike to Burg Eltz. If you said we’ve been here before you’d be correct. Back in 2004 we visited Moselkern and Burg Eltz and we wanted to get back to funky back country villages and scenery. Here we hike back into the Castle for the picturesque walk that it is, and later go to a nearby winery and purchase an amazing bottle of Riesling wine from this Mosel region. The wine is so good in fact we drive back to the village to purchase another bottle. As we talk later we comment that this has taken us back to our roots of how we have traveled in the past.
Burg Eltz

Our accommodations aren't a 4 star hotel, they are a Gastehof on a back street in Moselkern,owned by Fam. Heirlich with very comfortable beds, and feather comforters that keep you warm, and no noise except for the church bells at 7:00 am. At any moment you can just turn back over and go back to sleep. Travel doesn’t need to be any more comfortable than this! And a typical hearty German breakfast and he explains that what you don't eat to make sandwiches with to 'picnic' later. Hard to argue with that!

 As we walk to Burg Eltz , a 7 km round trip and later along the Mosel river in the beautiful Sunday sun Sandra says to me, "You know, we still could have done even this trip with the bike". And you know she is right.

Volendam

As we finish our trip in Volendam we are treated to another spectacular day. We are at a 4 star hotel within easy access to the old town. Weather is still holding at 14C and sunny!
Van Der Valk Hotel view Volendam
Statue of Small boy looking at cats in a window.
What trip to Holland doesn't include a photo of a windmill





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hope for the Best, plan for the worst!

Image
 Hope for the Best, plan for the worst! Ready to Ship This year we re-committed ourselves to travelling back through parts of Europe on our bike. Westjet's BikeAir program was not well founded at the beginning but in June seemed to have found it's feet. We found reasonably priced premium Economy seats, chose Rome as the destination as Barcelona/Spain doesn't honour the EU temporary permit for moto's for leisure purposes. We wanted to avoid as much of the high tourist season and high heat temperatures.  Plan for the Worst We knew that Westjet would fly the bike from Vancouver as well as Calgary with a small surcharge but since we had family to visit we decided to truck the bike to Calgary and visit family in advance. That worked great and a benefit was my son-in-law came to the cargo drop-off and I got a picture with the bike after the customs clearance was given for it. Next day, was flight day, our premium economy seats came with priority boarding passes and we were th
Read more

Switzerland - Sept. 21-23 - Lukmanier Pass and Disentis

Image
   Lukmanier Pass and Disentis Our last morning in Menaggio and we wake up to threatening skies. We knew they were forecast but we hoped we'd luck out like the rest of our trip and have great weather. It was not to be. After our final breakfast at the Hotel Merloni we load the bike and head towards Lugano, Switzerland.  This is a memorable highway for us that dates back to mid May 2006 when we rode from Colmar, France to Menaggio on a day that got colder and colder and began to snow on the Gotthard Pass. So much so, that we were turned back and had to take the Oberpal pass to Disentis and the Lukmanier Pass to Lugano.  I always characterized that ride which turned to pouring rain once you got over the Alps, "as driving inside a firehose" . We've been in contact with Heiko as he wanted to ride the pass and meet us 1/2 way and take us to his friends place in Disentis, CH. His last report was everything was cloudy but not raining there, and with it still dry when we prep
Read more

Ostia Antica and Ostia Lido

Image
 Ostia Antica and Ostia Lido After a nice hot humid afternoon getting repacked after recovering our riding gear from panniers etc. we enjoyed a nice pizza at our B&B suite hotel. They run an extremely successful B&B, pizzeria near Ostia Antica, which was the birthplace of Rome before Rome. We had been here passing through in 2006 and stayed in 2014 while visiting the ruins of Ostia Antica itself. Our neighbor Jeff who has a degree in Archeology remarked about how impressed he was with OA and it is impressive. Our 2014 Ostia experience is here .  This morning, Sunday, we reset and were just going to go for a walk when I suggested we head close to the Lido and then take our walk there. It was a good plan. Neptune and Friend to the left The Lido was busy when we got there around 10:30 am as it was super sunny, 33C humid and real beach weather. As we walked the Lido we got to see Neptune with a guy fishing beside him, and jam packed beaches. Beaches crowded The architecture there i
Read more