Bernkastel, Germany

The Bernkastel/Kues region features two towns across the Moselle River from each other. Bernkastel inspired someone in our traveling party to say about its downtown, "It's exactly what you'd expect a cute German village to look like." No argument here.

The view from the river says a lot about the place. You can see the Castle of Landshut up the hill. That was built in 1277, and was destroyed by a fire in 1692. However, you can still visit the place, as a restaurant and a cafe have opened up among the ruins. Just prepared for a tough if not too long walk from the parking lot to visit it. The tower offers some good views; it's the only part of the castle that's open these days. 

Downtown is compact; it doesn't take long to see everything. Naturally, there are a couple of old churches in town. As you can see in the photo, there's a nice Ferris wheel located right along the waterfront. I couldn't remember our last such trip, but this one offered a relaxing spin with nice views of the area.

Kues is the flip side - plenty of land, but not much activity. Well, the workers in Bernkastel have to live somewhere. Most of Kues' points of interest are along the water.