Today we took a river boat cruise to Beilstein, about 1 hour away from Cochem. The cruise was beautiful and we even got to go through a lock. There were vineyards on the hillsides just about the entire way. The morning was foggy and the air was crisp and smelled good.
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| looking back on Cochem from the boat |
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| into the lock |
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| through the lock |
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| Beilstein! |
Once we got to Beilstein, we followed the cobbled roads up and up and up to the ruined castle, Burg Metternich. The castle had beautiful views.
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| view from the castle |
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| view from the top of the last standing tower of the castle |
Other than the view, the only other interesting thing about the castle was the cafe (the actual castle isn't much to look at). Their menus didn't have any English, so I decided to be adventurous and order the Erbsensuppe. Unfortunately for me, erbsensuppe turned out to be split pea soup. I do not like split pea soup. But on the upside, I now know what erbsensuppe is and I shan't order it again! A very valuable lesson. Tommy was nice enough to trade with me.
After we were done exploring the castle (it was pretty small), we headed back into town. We found the old synagogue. Apparently, in 1840 about a quarter of the population of Beilstein was Jewish, which has since declined. The building that housed the synagogue was build in the 1300s.
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| the synagogue |
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| narrow street |
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| cute little town |
Beilstein could only be visited by boat until 1900. The town has one bus stop and one mailbox. It's very tiny and very quaint. Tomorrow we are taking the train to Moselkern and hiking to Burg Eltz castle!
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