Well, another weird night sleep wise for both of us. At some point Lana got out of bed and went to the living room to try and minimize the noise from the trains. I woke up at 02:30 and never fell back asleep. For a few hours in the early morning there were not many trains, but before 05:30 they started coming on a regular basis. As you can see from the picture I took from our bedroom window these trains are just below us. While most of them move very fast they are noisy. Plus, they shine lights when they pass that enter the room given the drapes are pretty flimsy. When I booked this place, there was zero mention of living beside the rails. Yikes. Not sure how the people that live here get used to the noise?
These electric powered trains are really close!
We were trying to figure out where our current Airbnb apartment is in relation to where we stayed six years ago in Trier? I finally obtained the exact address of our first Airbnb apartment. I can see it is about a 25 minute walk north from our new place in the south of Trier. Our old place was located right in the downtown area and close to the Mosel River and downtown amenities. There are about 120,000 people living in this small city situated along the Mosel River. It is the most ancient city in Deutschland, courtesy of the ancient Romans making this their very first settlement in the area now called Germany.
We decided to return a second time to Trier as we are huge fans of Riesling! In our humble opinions the best Riesling in the world is here in the famous Mosel valley. We visited up to 25 wineries (Weingut) during our 2016 visit and have some real favourites. The vast majority of German Weingut you need to make an appointment in advance. Plus, this ensures they have an English speaker on staff although Germans are like the Danes as many speak fluent English. Unlike our first visit when we were visiting between two and three Weingut each day we are limiting ourselves to one Weingut each day. We have most of the day to relax and/or figure out some activities before we do our wine tasting later in the afternoon.
Funny thing when I was talking to our friend Markus (lives in Frankfurt am Main) last night about Riesling and our opinion of the Mosel having the elite Rieslings in the world, he stated the Rheingau had superior Riesling. We do love their Riesling and it is excellent, but on a rating scale we would go with the Mosel. He said Germans describe the difference like this..."the Rheingau is for a Man and the Mosel is for a Woman". I am pretty sure that is an insult of the Mosel and me! ha ha
Lana is a pretty good navigator on foot with her iPhone Google Maps app. We need to walk down this narrow lane to get to the main street.
Pastries we purchased this morning at Brotsube Albertmühle (no website) located on Matthiasstraße (main drag in this neighbourhood). Lana did her research for a great bakery located nearby. Long morning walk, but worth the effort. The clerk was super helpful and spoke decent English. The bread is sourdough style but 1/2 rye and 1/2 wheat flour milled by the owner of the bakery. The crust is a dark brown and when we had some with our dinner tonight it was toothy, inside soft and baked crustier = flavourful, good chew and tasty. This bakery bakes their bread loaves to different "doneness" recognizing that some customers prefer a crunchier crust on their bread. Pretty cool concept for how they sell their bread based on customers tastes. The light coloured pastry on the left was Lana's choice = rhubarb creme Danish style. The chocolate covered looking cookie is a cheesecake style treat. The long white pastry is plum filled goodie. As usual with European pastries they are not super sweet so the taste is superior to our North American style treats.
On our way back from picking up pastries we stopped at Natsuda Thai Massage place fairly close to our apartment. A Thai lady who spoke excellent German, but no English tried to help us. We did figure out she had appointments available for 18:00, but we were not sure about our schedule. The idea is we both could use a massage in my case I have had great success with my jet lag insomnia having my head properly massaged. We need to figure out what time we are back from our Weingut tasting/dinner so we could make a massage at that time.
We determine we can make it work. Also, we want to head out for the long walk in the heat to the Zentrum (central) area of Trier. The high today will be 29 degrees Celsius. While walking along Matthiasstraße we find the shadows from the buildings to avoid as much direct sun as possible. Plus, Lana has brought her trusty umbrella for more shade and protection from the UV rays. Yikes, it is hot but we choose to keep a good fast pace as we are both hungry.
The Zentrum area is comprised of an outdoor pedestrian walking mall that goes on for quite a distance with many side feeder streets. Lots of shops, restaurants, businesses, tattoo joints, hookah shops, grocers, jewelers etc. We decide to get lunch at Kartoffel Kiste and they have an outdoor table that is in the shade! Today there is no way we are eating outdoors unless it is in the shade! Lana says we ate at this restaurant six years ago. She has an excellent memory for restaurants. The restaurant is packed and always newer customers lining up. Its specialty is fried potatoes and they are indeed perfect!
Lana's order of mit Trierer Wurstsalat which is a sausage salad Trier style (sausage, onions, cucumber). This is a different version than the Wurst Salat I make for us. Lana says my version is 10-X better!
Following our yummy and filling lunch we decide to walk around this area although it is very hot. We go into a DM drugstore/market as we are still looking for a third suitcase (for our wine) and Lana needs more Melatonin. She finds a spray Melatonin and will give that a try although she usually does the pills. The sales girl was very helpful. They do not have Viraleze which has been recommended during the pandemic as a nasal spray that destroys viruses.
Time to return to our apartment although walking even in the shadier areas along the main street is extremely hot. Stopping at a couple of more shops so by the time we arrive at the apartment we have time to get changed and into our air conditioned rental vehicle and then the 25 minute trip to Saarburg.
Lana finds this novel place in Saarburg and takes a picture. It looks like an ATM machine which is supposed to make pizza in 3 minutes. It was getting fixed though so she couldn't see it in action. Interesting concept though.
We decide to take three photos in and around Saarburg which is on the banks of the Saar River. Their vines grow on the incredibly steep slate hillsides and that is what gives their Riesling flavours that can't be replicated elsewhere. Seeing these steep hills covered in vines brought back our awesome memories from six years previous. I think the pictures speak for themselves.
We arrive at Weingut Forstmeister Geltz Zilliken a little early for our 15:00 wine tasting appointment with Hanno. They were one of the first Weingut we visited six years ago and at the conclusion of visiting about 25 wineries this was one of our very favourite Weinguts! Normally, they charge 20Euro per person for wine tasting of up to eight Riesling wine. If you purchase a certain value of their wine then they will waive the tasting fee. In our case they have already waived the tasting fee as they know we are sincere about tasting and purchasing Wein.
We spend up to sixty minutes tasting and talking with Hanno. He was our wine guide six years ago and now retired as the former winemaker. Very knowledgeable and proud of his Weingut and rightfully so. He provides each of us with a pamphlet listing each of their wines with details for each bottle inclusive of pricing. Most of the wines we will taste are 2021 vintage, but we taste a 2009 and 2005 vintage! How many wineries pull out these old vintages when you visit? Also, his pours are generous. No problem with potentially getting drunk as the alcohol volume is never more than 8%! Compare that to 95% of other wine varietals as they are always much higher in terms of alcohol volume.
I made the following notes:
- the 2018 and 2019 vintages were pretty decent
- their Weingut has three VDP categories from lower quality to higher quality being Estate, then Village and at the top Grosse Lage which only involve the very best grapes from the very best vineyards.
- they have a Zilliken Butterfly label which represents their style of winemaking identified by Stuart Piggott (finely layered)
- when naming their wines only the peak of the vineyard grapes gets the name of the actual vineyard
- 2021 vintage was more humid weather than the previous two years
- comparing residual sugar levels against other Weingut is misleading as each winemaker's technique varies and the grapes vary so like comparing apples and oranges
- Ontario is the only Canadian province that imports their wine and they are not importing right now
- when we are tasting the 2005 Rausch Auslese Goldkapsel Riesling he describes it as "Meditation Wine" meaning it drops on your palate and while you savour every drop before you know it the bottle is empty!
- holding a Riesling quality wine for many years in the bottle means it will become drier
- the reason the 2009 vintage was a taster is that vintage had great aging potential
We have some tough decisions to make in terms of purchases. Prior to visiting Zilliken we knew we would love all their wines so would limit our buying to four Riesling. Lana chooses the first three wine and I select the last wine. The total price for the four bottles is 183 Euro, but the 2005 1/2 bottle costs 85Euro. We picked one Feinherb (semi-dry), one Kabinett (sweeter with strong mango flavour--Lana's favourite) and two Auslese which have a much higher residual sugar level. We will hold each of these wines for at least a few years before opening. We have enjoyed our time and learned more about Riesling wine. What an awesome start to our Riesling Pilgrimage!
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Lana drives us back to Trier and our apartment. Beautiful countryside and smart villages along the Mosel and Saar rivers. It is super hot and still around 29 degrees Celsius. For certain we appreciate the fact our rental vehicle has a strong air conditioning unit.
We don't have much time before our 18:15 massage appointments so we decide to stay in our apartment and eat the cold cuts and cheese with slices of our bread and some of the pretzels. Very casual and we don't have to rush to find a restaurant and then rush to our massages. Plus, I can get started on the blog by transferring today's photos. It is a good meal and we are both pretty full. It is a five minute walk to Natsuda Traditionelle Thai Massage and the two massage therapists are ready for us. Lana loves massages and a Thai massage is especially valued. I need a massage as well and thinking it will dramatically impact my jet lag insomnia. We enter the massage room which is open for both tables. You take off your clothes except for underwear and lie face down.
Lana falls asleep almost immediately! In fact after a few minutes she is snoring and making some other noises. In my case, much of the Thai lady's massage was through her very strong hands and arms. She found some major tight places in the back of my neck and the back of my shoulders. I really love that type of pain as I know working the deep tissues is beneficial. I do get drowsy towards the end of the sixty minute session, but not close to falling asleep. They use a hot oil on your skin and press over your upper body mostly. Cost for the sixty minute session is 50Euros each.
After updating our blog Lana has found a German DFB Pokal (German Cup) match Leipzig (top Bundesliga team) versus Teutonia 05. Wow, what a way to end the day. I get to watch top caliber German soccer with the fans cheering and chanting. Great atmosphere at German football matches and we hope to be at the Eintracht Frankfurt match September 10th. Lana reading magazines online. It is still around 25 degrees Celsius outside so we have our huge windows open to get as much cool air as possible. No air conditioning in this apartment and tonight no real breeze.
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