NL - 3rd, Oct, 2009 Saturday (Sunny 10 ~ 20C) Eindhoven airport & Bernkasteler-Kues: Eileen and Wine Festival of the Middle Mosel

Eileen is leaving at 9:30am after nearly 3 months stayed in Netherlands with us. She will takes the flight from Eindhoven Airport to the London Standed Airport that will fly to Kuala Lumpur of Malaysia. Later, she will takes the other flight to Kuching, Sarawak-- our home town.

After we sent her to the airport, we packed and started our trip to Bernkasteler Ring ( 伯恩卡斯特勒圈) at Mosel (莫塞)-Saar(薩爾)-Ruwer(盧文) rivers, Munich's Oktoberfest (慕尼黑十月慶典--啤酒節) & Italy for a 9 days holiday.

It was around 3:30pm, when we arrived near the Moselle River Valley, we have some french fries and strolled around the flick market (跳蚤市場) , enjoyed to see all the Europe's antiques like sword, Christmas decorations, etc and some new things they sell in the market. I bought some socks that made by the Llama wool (駱馬), which I never saw before.

Today is the Mid-Autumn Festival 中秋節 (Moon Cake Festival) in Chinese Lunar Calendar, it is also the National day of Germany (3rd, October), thus we could find a lot of National flags and coutries flags all along the river.

This car is working very well on the road.

Do you find the castle on the top of the hill?

The BERNKASTELER RING ( Reference from http://www.bernkasteler-ring.de/images/mediainformation_bernkasteler_ring_eng.doc) consists of 34 Estates at Mosel, Saar and Ruwer rivers from Wiltingen at the Saar until Winningen to the terrace Mosel, over 250 km river length in the European valley of the Mosel. (Reference : http://www.bernkasteler-ring.de/mosel_saar_ruwer.htm)

The "Grosses Gewächs Bernkasteler Ring" (Grand Cru Bernkasteler Ring) is a new premium wine classification for dry Riesling wines (麗絲玲) vinified according to the new stringent wine classification guidelines adopted by the Bernkasteler Ring since the vintage 2005.We bought some Riesling wine from the winery shop

The "Großes Gewächs" (Grand Cru) are a selective hand-picking of the grapes, a grape harvest limited to 50 hl/ha (hectoliters per hectare) and a strict test of sensory quality, at the meandering Mosel lined up the steepest vineyards in Europe. Riesling is the queen of the vines which planted on the slate and optimal conditions in the steep slope : nearly 400 feet high and tilted over 60 degrees perfect radiation angle, the temperatures and the distribution of rainfall are ideal.

This year, the Wine Festival of the Middle Mosel, Bernkastel-Kues was held near the St. Michaels-Kirmes from 2nd to 5th of October. A musical team is performancing at the back of the St. Michael church.

Despite German, we met many Dutch and Belgium who came to enjoy the Riesling. They greeted us and generously provided free try of their wines.

There are some fresh grapes hanging on the plants.

Some of the buildings have been over 110 years

This mail box is still on duty.

Thank you Kelly for providing the address of the Bernkasteler festival for us.