Europe 2012- Day 50: Nurburgring & Cochem

Friday evening we were sitting in the centrum at one of the many restaurants with Nathan’s friend and co-worker Luc. I’m not sure how the Nürburgring came up but as Nathan likes racing I guess it’s no surprise really. Luc who also likes cars had never been there before. This was hard for Nate to believe . . .  how do you live only a couple hours away from one of the most famous race tracks in the world, like cars, and have never been there? They decided they must go the next day.

Saturday we got up around 8 AM with the plan to leave at 9AM. But as Nate was helping a co-worker finish up something important we got going a little later than planned. The drive went by pretty fast as we had good conversations and the drive was very pretty as the fall colors were out in force.

Not sure what this hunting party was hunting for out in the open field

This is the Nurburg Castle that we went up to a few weeks back.

When we first arrived at the Nürburgring we got a little worried. There was a ton of people everywhere, hardly any place to park, and it didn’t look like they were letting people out on track and it was supposed to be open for “Touristen fahrten.”

Side note: The Nürburgring is considered a toll road when not being used for a race. It’s 26 euros per lap, or a little cheaper if you buy 5 at a time, these laps are referred to as “Touristen fahrten” or tourist trips.

This car is street legal!

This is a TopGear Poland car waiting to go on track

We found out that a car had crashed or somehow spilled oil on track and they were cleaning it up. I wondered if it was the corvette I saw on the back of a tow truck as we were driving up. They told us it should only be around a 15 minute wait, and it really wasn’t much more than that till they opened up the road again. Once open we waited a few minutes for the line to die down before heading to the car.

Nate was excited to drive the Nürburgring in the dry, since the only other time he had driven it, it was pouring rain. Today though was a beautiful warm day, probably in the low 70’s. I wasn’t sure if I was going to ride along or not as I get car sick with lots of sharp corners, but as the Nordschleife ("Northern Loop") is just over 14 miles long I was hoping it wouldn’t be quite so bad.

I did ride along, and I ended up with a slight headache but other than that it was okay. I decided since it was such a famous track I should check out all the fuss, plus I would have just been standing around outside for 15 min by myself otherwise.

Getting passed by a Ferrari. We got passed.. a lot.

I loved the fall colors in this picture

This corner is known as the carousel.

When we were done we ate lunch at The Devils Diner which is at the entrance to the track, that way we could admire all the sports cars that entered and exited the track.

Once finished we got back on the road. We decided to go check out the Cochem Castle that I had planned on a few weeks back. The Cochem Castle sits above the city of Cochem and lies along the Moselle River and makes for a very lovely view.

Coming around a corner we get a lovely view of the Cochem Castle

Parking was a little bit of an issue as everyplace seemed full, but we finally found a parking lot at the far end of town with some open spaces. We took a shuttle up to the castle as it was only 4 euros for a round trip. After riding on the bus up to the top I’m glad we didn’t walk either. The road winds through the old stone buildings with just inches to spare on either side of the bus, and people having to tuck into little notches to avoid getting hit. There’s not really a sidewalk and it’s a very windy and steep road.

On the ride up in the bus

There was a castle ruin you could see on a far off hill.

We found out that the next tour was going to start in 5 minutes when we arrived, so we hurried and bought our tickets. As we waited outside the gate some people told us to stand to the side as a car was going to be going through the gates. It turned out to be a bride and groom, they were having their wedding or maybe just the reception at the castle. 

The bride and groom making their way through

They have falconry you can check out at the castle, we didn't want to pay the extra to see it, but through a castle window I spotted this guy.

Our tour guide spoke fluent French, German, Dutch, and English and possibly even more. His main tour was all in German but Luc who was with us also speaks German and so he would give us an overview of the rooms. Plus we got a handout with information on each room in English.

Pictures of the castle through the years

The courtyard. The little covered area is a well.

Wouldn't want to be at the end of any of these crazy horns.

The Cochem Castle was originally built back in 1000 AD by a group of Franconian Palatine Counts. The castle was seized and pawned several times, but then in 1689 the castle was totally destroyed by King Louis XIV of France. The castle sat in ruin for almost 200 years until a wealthy merchant from Berlin had it rebuilt according to old plans. It is now owned by the City of Cochem.

The first room we entered was the Dining Hall. There were tons of wooden carvings on the walls and doors throughout the castle as the guy who rebuilt the castle (Mr. Ravene) really liked wood carvings. In the Dining Hall the scenes are taken from the Bible. The ceilings were decorated in something called pokerwork, which means they burnt the pattern into the wood and then painted it. There was even a fake door on the right side of the room just to add symmetry.

You can just see the doorway on the right that has a door to nowhere.

This sculpture of a lion was cool.

The next room is called a Caminata, which is basically a sitting room for women.

This is the fireplace in the Caminata.

The next room has 2 secret doors; they are hidden by the intricate woodwork. The first used to go down some stairs and into a monastery and the second goes to the bedroom.

The room above the last gate to the Castle. You can see the Mossel River and the city beyond.

This lamp is supposed to chase away evil, and people touch the belly of it for luck. We'll see if it worked when we get home if we have any speeding tickets from that day..

 

The stairway that leads down to the hunters room winds the wrong way. By having it go the wrong way, invaders coming up the stairs would not be able to wield their sword properly.

The circular stairway.

In the hunting room is a huge boar head. When it was living it would have weighed around 400 pounds. The big tankards on the table in the room were the amount of wine one monk was allowed to drink per day, which was 5 liters!

huge boar head

The Knights’ Hall is the largest room in the castle and probably the most grand. The ceilings are carved and so heavy that the weight is held up by some beautiful wooden pillers.

The Weapons Room has a suit of armor for a man who would have been more than 7 ft tall. The room also opens up to a balcony that gives an amazing view up and down the river. 

Cochem

A steep drop down from the castle

The wedding reception ready for guests.

There is one part of the castle the survived the destruction in 1689, and they call it the Witches Tower. In the picture below you can see some red paint that has survived leading to believe the castle was more colorful.

I saturated this picture to make the red stand out a little more.

The Witches Tower

Once our tour was done and we had got some postcards from the gift shop we headed back down to the shuttle. We discovered we would have to wait for around a half hour for the next shuttle, so we walked down a path along the grape vines a little ways, before returning to sit on a bench.

No this is not a frog, it's a lion with a knights helmet that is closed. I still think it looks more like a frog though.

Nate's coworker Luc that went with us

Cochem

Luc looking up at the gate.

We decided to get off the shuttle when they stopped in a little city square. There were lots of shops to look at while walking around. We saw one guy walking around town wearing lederhosen and a Bavarian style hat. After walking in and out of shops we decided we better eat dinner before heading to the car.

This little mustached mer-man was out front of a shop called.. Emily's (also seen below)

We let Luc pick the restaurant, and we ended up eating on a balcony overlooking the river. The food was good, but as with all European restaurants it took a long time. I ended up taking my camera to snap a few sunset pictures while the guys were still at the restaurant waiting for the check.

I was being the paparazzi, you can see Nate and Luc in the balcony of the building on the left.

After dinner I wanted to try taking a night shot of the castle with the city from the bridge, and then we headed towards the car. 

The view from the bridge.

We really enjoyed one of the last beautiful and warm days of the year. When we got home we talked on Skype with Jana and Kristie before turning in for the night.