Ahrweiler Altstadt and Roman Ruins

Friday 3/29/13

So today Katia and I went to Ahrweiler Altstadt (small town) south of Bonn. The weather was supposed to be in the upper 30s low 40s, but I woke up to a surprise.

Luckily for us, the snow didn't hit right away in Ahrweiler. Most stores are closed the Friday and Monday after Easter, so we had the town mostly to ourselves. We walked along the city's walls, which remain from the Middle Ages.

I was convinced by Katia and her mother to stop and get some bottles of wine, as this particular store had the best ones. So here it is, 10:30am, and we proceeded to try about 5 or 6 different types of wine. This equated to about 1.5-2 glasses of wine. What a lush I was being. I finally found a red wine that I liked. If you can find these in the US, you should try them. They are from Maibach Farm (http://www.maibachfarm.de/) which is a biological winery, where they are ecologically aware in their farming practices. Wine #1 Ahr 2012 Spätburgunder Weißherbst halbtrocken; Wine #2 Ahr 2011 Riesling feinherbl Wine #3 Ahr 2011 Frühburgunder feinherb.

After walking the town, we sent to see the Roman ruins at Roemervilla (http://www.bad-neuenahr-ahrweiler.de/sv_bad_neuenahr_ahrweiler/Bildung%20&%20Kultur/Museen/Museum%20Roemervilla/). These buildings/houses were built ~2000 years ago. They had the original house and it was expanded over the years, until several homes had been uncovered. Now you might be wondering, how did they find said ruins? They were several meters underground, and we uncovered as the government was trying to build a new roadway. Needless to say they were unhappy that they had to change the course of the road to allow for the excavation of this amazing find. The houses had many murals, and apparently the archaeologists were irritated because the over the many years the inhabitants lived there, they had painted over the murals several times. They redecorated as much as we do. The hills surrounding the ruins are all vineyards, something this region is well known for.

After the ruins and visiting the town, we had lunch at Sanct Peter, which has 5 restaurants in 1 building. The building itself is from the middle ages ~1300, which makes it one of the oldest, if not the oldest restaurants still standing in Germany. http://www.sanct-peter.de/. I tried the gnocchi with vegetables, (it was only ok tasting) and I tried a bite of Katia's schnitzel, which is traditionally Austrian. I can now say that I tried schnitzel, and I'm ok with not having it ever again. Keeping with the lush mode, we went with a traditional European meal, and enjoyed a glass of wine with our lunch. This would end up biting me later....

Next stop, we went to a large hill/ small mountain that a castle used to reside on, and hiked for about a half hour to the top, and a half hour down. Now this may seem like an easy enough hike, until you take into account this sign and what it meant:

 Yes, I was huffing and puffing going up this hill. Mostly because it was cold as ever, which made it hard to breathe. My layers were as follows- long underwear, a long sleeve sweater, a thin jacket, a fleece jacket, a wind breaker, a scarf, and beanie. The surrounding hills were gorgeous with the vineyards, so at least while I was dying, I had a pretty view. The view from the top would have been fabulous were it not for the fog. 

 




I slept like a baby after this fun day.