I haven't spent more than 5 days in any one city and didn't think Paris should any different (mistake); plus the hotels in Paris were crazy expensive. Then when Cedric offered to let me use his futon, it seemed like 5 nights was really too long to stay at a stranger's house, but he knew my plans before he offered. Anyway, all these things meant that I had one day/night in between leaving Paris and meeting my dad in Frankfurt. Time for more medieval shit!
That's what led me to Moselkern, because of its proximity to Burg Eltz, the greatest medieval castle, according to RS. Moselkern sits on the Mosel river and is served by the train. But it was a real pain finding any lodging in Moselkern because it's such a tiny town (Burg Eltz is the only tourist draw but that doesn't seem to be too strong a magnet). I found the website of a hotel near the train station (I always try to stay to near the train station), but they only had room at the sister hotel, closer to the castle. I spent a long time considering what to do with this one day and then searching for lodging so I was just happy to have place to go. However, I neglected to write down the address or directions to the hotel when I made the reservations (a side bar on why this is not as stupid as it sounds -- I have found lodging one of three ways: RS book recommendations, hostelworld.com, and internet searches. RS has the hotel's details and a map to it in the guide book. Hostelworld.com sends me a text message with the hotel/hostel's details when I book. But with internet searches I have to actively remember to write down the info and that's tough). Anyway, I had the hotel's name and thought, Moselkern is small, I'll ask when I get there. Okay, the train station was tiny and there was no one working there and no town map (at least the station in Hall, Austria had a map). I walked for a few minutes down the vacant streets and finally asked a woman working in a bar who didn't speak English and couldn't explain the directions, of course. But then I saw a sign to the hotel name (I'd past several little gasthofs by this point) and "2 km." I thought, kilometers in less than miles, right? How bad can it be? Uh, with a full backpack and messenger bag it's endless.
I finally found the place where a large, air-conditioned bus that had passed me walking on the road was unloading a flotilla of old ladies. I walked in and said, "Hello, I'm checking in." She said, "Freiermuth?" It was just me and the old ladies, I guess.
While I was wandering around looking for my hotel after arriving in Moselkern, I called my dad to confirm our meeting plans for the next day. This was a good idea for obvious reasons but I also learned that I'd some how written down the wrong arrival time; I was off by 4 hours.
The only bummer was that the change meant I couldn't go on the Burg Eltz tour in the morning (it was closed by the time I got to Moselkern). So I walked the 2.5km from my hotel to Burg Eltz, which fortunately still had the gates open so I could walk around the courtyards.
When I got back from walking to Burg Eltz, the only options for dinner were eat at the hotel or walk another 2km to town where there are just a few restaurants probably serving the same food. I walked in and the woman who checked me in was also the maitre'd and waitress. She sat me at a table with a plate that had Freiernuth [sic] written on it. I love that they got all the vowels but missed the m. That's a new mispelling to me and I've seen many.
If you really got a good look at my buffet dinner, you'd say, "Was this meal prepared in the 50s?" No, it's Germany.
