Steeeeep Vineyards and Castles with a Splash of Milk Along the Way

It was another beautiful start to the day. So to this former dry land farmer, that includes the dreary, cloudy, foggy weather we awoke to. Despite the weather, the McCloys were off to an early start again in the Rhineland-Palatinate area. This time to visit a milk processing plant in the area, but, before we could do that, we just had to take a look at some of the vineyards we saw from the boat and discussed the night before.

We were in luck as our guide for the day, Julia, took us up to the top of the valley so we could overlook the area, as well as get our up close look at the vines. These vines are on steep, nay, extremely steep slopes. So steep in fact that all of the work must be done by hand and after almost ending up at the bottom of the hill, I wouldn't be surprised if you had to use a rope and rappel down! Due to all of this being hand labor, most of the vineyards are only around 2-3 hectares. We also learned a random tidbit of information about planting vines and that you must own a "planting right" to plant grape vines and the right is tied to a specific parcel of land. It is just all sorts of crazy.

After snapping a few pictures and taking in the beauty of the valley we had to be off to our main item of the day, touring Hochwald Foods, a milk cooperative and processing facility. The company collects around 1.6 billion liters (422 million gallons for those to our west right now) of milk a year in multiple facilities located in 8 of the 16 German states. They create a variety of products from liquid milk, chocolate milk, powdered milk, condensed milk and yogurt. I actually was able to try some of their yogurt and it could have possibly been the best I have every had. Chobani, you have some work to do...lots of work to do. If there was any other reason for TTIP, which our host supports so his products can access our markets, I can't think of it. After a long tour, we were full of not just milk, but more knowledge about the German milk industry than we ever thought we would know.

Unfortunately, it was time to go so we could get to the next stop of our journey. A simple drive turned into a sightseeing tour, which was an amazing overlook of the Moselle River, and a frantic search for a non-existent McDonald's, which is simply just referred to as "The American Embassy." 

This little detour chewed up some time we didn't have so when we arrived at our next destination, Herbert was chomping at the bit for use to get moving as to not miss the last tour of the castle in English. This lead to a very, very fast drive to the Marksburg Castle. The driving was a little on the scary side, as a former McCloy has already tested to. But he got us there on time to see the only castle in Germany that was never destroyed before, during and after WWII. The castle was amazing and I was extremely glad that we were able to make it in to see it.

Did Meghan find her knight in shining armour?

All in all, it was another great day and we are looking forward to our tour of the city Koblenz in the morning. Until then, Cheers!

Nick