Cochem and the Mosel River

Nick had the day off this Friday (I'm assuming it was for Easter, even though Easter was last weekend. The Air Force has been frustrating with family days and holidays lately. Apparently there's too many people getting DWI and DUIs, so they've been taking away some of them, punishing a LOT of families for a few people's mistakes. I'm sure it's really going to stop them from drinking. Anyway...). So we decided we would go to Cochem, a town on the Mosel River. The Mosel is a river that runs from France into Germany down to the Rhine. It's a really windy, decent size river, through an absolutely gorgeous valley, with steep hills on either side. And, there's a ton of vineyards all over the hills. They have boats you can ride up and down the river, as well as a walking/bike path that follows it almost the whole way. Very nice. We were going to go on Friday, but Stella got sick late this week, and we thought it would be best to let her rest Friday. Plus, it was supposed to be 75-80 Saturday, so we were all for a nice trip.



We got to Cochem after an actually pretty drive along the autobahn for a change (usually it's pretty dull), and stopped at a restaurant a little off the beaten path for lunch. Stella was clamoring for pizza, so we had to honor that, since she seemed to be doing much better. It was the first time she actually seemed really interested in eating for a few days. We had a very nice lunch outside on their patio, and Stella had a lot of fun trying our food, and then riding on this rocking horse thing that was in the platz. She was in a great mood. Once refueled, we headed up to the main attraction of the town.



Cochem is known for its very nice castle, perched atop a hill in the middle of the town, its wine (like every other town along the Mosel), and the very nice riverside streets with shops and restaurants and stuff. The castle is really nice. It was completely destroyed in 1689 by King Louis XIV of France, and sat in ruins for 200 years. Then, they rebuilt it according to some old plans they had. It's quite amazing how they can do that. We took a tour (unfortunately in German, but we had an English info paper to read instead), which was cool to see some of the inside of the castle. Really, it was just so nice to hike up to the castle and enjoy the view and the lovely weather outside. Stella did quite well, although during the tour she was a bit cranky as it was naptime, and crashed afterwards. She just wanted to walk around (or, be pushed in her stroller) on the "mountain." She was still not quite herself, but we figured instead of her sitting around the house watching movies, she could just sit in her stroller and watch the scenery roll by.

*WARNING--the following is a description of something rather gross that happened next. Those with a weak stomach be warned!*

Well, we thought we'd be "sneaky" and stop for a little while so Nick could have a glass of wine, and I my ice cream I'd be wanting all day. There's something about walking around in beating down sun that just makes ice cream so wonderful... Unfortunately, Stella has ice cream radar that is finely honed, and woke up the instant we stopped, and kept asking for some. Mom couldn't resist and shared. BAD idea. Mom got up to go to the restroom, and came back to Daddy holding Stella, who was very upset because she had just thrown up all over Daddy, who I must say handled it all amazingly well. We have passed the parenting embarrassment test with flying colors, if you ask me, as we were in a very public place, still at the restaurant (though outside and on the edge of it thankfully, so as not to have her getting someone else or their stuff covered in grossness!) and didn't get embarassed. There's something about it being your kid that you just couldn't care less what other people think, you just want your child to feel better. You do what you can to conceal/clean up the grossness, but there's only so much you can do. Thankfully, we were right by a patch of grass and most if it got there, not on the table, etc. AND, Mom thought ahead and brought a change of clothes for Stella, and Daddy even brought some, too. So while he went back to the car, Mom got Stella all cleaned up, only to have a repeat 5 minutes later, though we all stayed clean this time. I felt kind of bad for the other people in the area having to watch, but what are you supposed to do? You can't run to the bathroom with a 2-yr-old mid-sickness, or really move anywhere. I just didn't make eye contact with anyone, only heard a few tourist walking by going "Aw, crap! Gross!" (Yeah, I'm pretty sure they were American. Other people probaly said stuff, too, but I couldn't understand it, so that was nice) So we pretty much buzzed out of there as quickly as possible, after cleaning it up as much as we could.

On the way home, we decided to follow the "Moselstrasse" instead of the autobahn for a while, just because the weather was so nice and Stella was calmed down and watching a movie (Thank you, Schulte's, for that wonderful DVD player! It should come in handy on the airplane and subsequent car trips, as well!). It is a beautiful drive. We passed many, quite full, campgrounds on the way and hope to stay at one of them sometime soon. Anyone who comes to visit, we have extra sleeping bags! The only problem with driving this road is that it takes about 3-4 times as long to get home. We didn't go the whole way home that way, but stopped for some dinner at a very nice, though rather expensive for how much food you ("don't" as Nick would say) get. It was very tasty, though, and Stella had the worst diaper blowout I have ever seen while we were there, so I think it made up for it a little bit. We ended up home at about 9, gave Stella a dip in the tub, and got her to bed. We crashed very soon thereafter, especially Nick, who had started the day with a 6 am bike ride with a good friend of ours.

After a lovely day, even given Stella's incidents, we were quite tired. I am very thankful for the circumstances of her incidents as well, especially since we weren't at home with a cabinet full of cleaning products and laundry. Advice for parents: having your kid get sick outside is much better than inside a restaurant, or even in your car for that matter. All in all, it wasn't that bad, and the weather and beautiful scenery more than made up for it. I hope we didn't gross you all out too much, but hey, wait till you have kids. I feel like we just got initiated into a club!