Can a Ship get a Parking Ticket?

As we departed for our walking tour of Bernkastel this morning, within 5-min it started to rain. Good news Karen had a small umbrella and Bill had time to run back on ship and grab one for himself. Once back Bill saw the German Police talking with our Captain and the neighboring ships Captain. When we docked last night we parked parallel to his ship, which is often done here, and just walked thru our lobby, then his and we were on shore. Well, it seems the owner of the dock double booked the spot and only one ship can park there, so our ship got a double parking ticket/fine. Once we were all ashore for our tour, our ship had to move down river approx 1/8 mile to be legal.  So, yes a ship can get a parking ticket!

After our walk started in the light rain, the sun soon appeared. We walked through the small cobble streets as our guide provided info on his town.  Bernkastle has one of the most ideal medieval small town German market squares along the Moselle River. Filled with tall half-timbered houses - similar to Solvang - each has intricately-carved facades, some dating to the early 1600s, which ring the town square.  This is truly what we all think a small medieval German town looks like, and it's very charming.


As we have mentioned before, this is wine country and of course our tour included a late morning wine tasting.  We tasted 4 Riesling wines from dry to sweet.  Bill preferred the middle and Karen preferred the sweetest - of course, that was the most expensive! Our host for the tasting was the winery estate of Dr. Pauly-Bergweiler, in the old wine cellar/tasting room.  The ambience was really cool and the wine very tasty. We must tell, we're really getting into having wine daily with dinner and at different wineries.


The town has many shops and we made sure we bought some candy at the Bon-Bon shop and a pastry at one of the pastry shops. We also found a store with cute Christmas items and well, couldn't pass them up. It was very enjoyable walking around such a unique town.


We got back aboard at 1 pm and began to cruise towards the Rhine.  You guessed it, it began to rain again.  But all was good as it was lunch time. After lunch, the sun came out again and we went top side to get in a few walking laps. Being on the upper patio of the River Queen provides great views and walking helps burn a few calories. After several laps, it began to sprinkle so one more lap and we barely made inside before the rain came.

Once inside we played cards - a game called golf - with a couple from Hacienda Heights. Soon the sun reappeared, we finished the game and did a few more laps topside. So, rain, sun, rain, sun which is typical here in the Moselle valley where they have a micro climate. Soon we were going through 2, 3, 4 locks and more as we had our afternoon tea.

It's now going on 10:40 pm now and no rain, but went thru 2 more locks in the last hour. As we sign off tonight, please have a great weekend and Happy Mothers Day to all.

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