Holidays!

We spent two weeks during July in Germany on the banks of the Mosel near the wine making village of Leiwen.

After several holidays in France and the Netherlands we had been meaning to go to Germany for some time but never quite got around to it. When we got there I found myself enjoying it more than I had expected - and not just because of the local produce (although it helped). I think it was because there is something about the 'Central European' way of life which appeals to me and I always find myself after a while relaxing with an ease that I find difficult in the UK. Of course that may be simply because I am on holiday and away from day to day cares, but I think it is more than that and something to do with attitudes and expectations.

The landscape of the Mosel is dominated by the vinyards which cling to every available patch of ground which is not taken up by historical villages. At first I found the relentless lines of vines monotonous and the 'quaint' buildings delightful: over the course of the holiday my view reversed itself and I grew somewhat blase in the towns and villages where even the dog kennels were half-timbered.

We alternated days between trips and staying around our site (although the girls would probably have happily spent all their time in the pool). The two principal tourist traps were Trier and Cochem. Trier (where a number of the shots on this page were taken) is an ancient Roman town known as the birth place of Karl Marx and for its University. Although it catered fairly shamelessly for the tourists, it has not sold its soul to them in the way that Cochem has. Of course I live in Edinburgh - a tourist city - and I confess that as I slunk around Cochem I wondered if Edinburgh would go the same way, if it hasn't already.

At least in Edinburgh we are (usualy) spared two things which dominated our visit to Cochem - teenage English yobs wandering around draped in the Union flag and the USAF roaring overhead every five minutes. Both inspired in me similar feelings of despair.

And yet that shouldn't detract from the pleasures of clearing one's head and relaxing in warm weather with a series of half-decent books. And even now there are some intense pleasures which remain pin-sharp in my mind: the family of four Red Kites tumbling and gamboling out of the trees and over the road as we crossed into Germany from Belgium; the first contact of Trittenheimer Apotheke Spatlese, Halbtrocken on the taste buds; sunrise through the early morning mist on the river.

And away from the tourist traps some of the villages were beautiful - my favourite probably being Neumagen [a bottle of its local product is currently in the cupboard waiting for the moment when the memories start to fade!].