Traben-Trarbach

This weekend we finally got around to using the gift certificate to the Bellevue hotel in Traben-Trarbach, which is almost two hours northwest of Bad Dürkheim. The gift certificate covered a night at the hotel and a 5-course dinner for two (and breakfast the next day, but that's included in the overnight charge). We had to pay for our wine and water we had with dinner but that was it! Oh and the massages we treated ourselves to. :)

Traben-Trarbach straddles the Mosel river, with Traben on one side and Trarbach on the other. When we were there the Mosel was in some sort of flood stage so it was pretty impressive. This is a view taken from the bridge between the two towns, looking toward Trarbach:

And looking toward Traben. Our hotel is the taller white building (with the turret! Our room was at the top of the turret) right on the river in the middle of the picture:

And this is one of the coal barges that travels on the river. The Mosel is pretty windy so it's impressive that something so long can be maneuvered along it:

We found a little Weinstube for lunch and Martin had some käsespätzle. YUM.

And here is our awesome hotel room. It was very large with a nice sitting area overlooking the river but the green shag carpet has got to go:

Aside from the shag carpeting, the hotel was pretty spectacular. Welcome drinks, spa, sauna, candles lit every time you sat at a table for anything, the food for our 5-course dinner was delicious, and there were free newspapers and champagne for breakfast! And here's the size of the wine list we had to navigate for dinner:

It was the size of my master's thesis. We ended up just ordering the recommended wine for the evening!

The roofs of Traben, taken from our hotel room:

Trarbach, also taken from our hotel room. I like the white church that's a little up the hill from the town. It's like wherever you are, the church is looking down at you. We didn't walk over to it (it was cold, windy, and rainy so we made it down the main street in Trarbach then hurried back to the hotel).

In conclusion, this is a great little town to visit for a few days of wine tasting and stay at the Bellevue and get a nice massage while you're there.