We spent today driving in the Mosel valley. I have never seen so many vineyards as I did today. Around 95% of the grapes are for Riesling wines. I can’t imagine how busy it is in this region the first week of September which is when it is harvest time. I still don’t understand how they pick all of the grapes and one of the wineries has the steepest vineyard in the world. Most of the work they are doing now is just cutting the grass down.

We stopped in a couple of cute towns. One of my favorite sights was in a town called Trier. There is a lot of history in this town including that it used to be the head of the Roman Empire. They have a gate there called the Porta Nigra which is the largest gate remaining north of the alps.

At the very end, we drove to a castle that was pretty far off of the river and the highway. The castle is still privately owned and the family currently lives near Frankfurt. The Eltz Castle is in great condition and is still open for tours. You can’t take pictures inside but we did enjoy a tour in German. We got there at the end of the day so there were hardly any people at the castle which made it very pleasant.