Cochem

This Easter season, we made the 2 hour trek with our friends The Harms Family to Cochem Germany.  Cochem is a gorgeous little town on the Moselle River that dates back to Celtic and Roman times.  

Traveling with 8 children can be daunting, however we seemed to have really hit our stride when traveling together.  After finding parking, we made the mile or so hike down into the village center where the Easter market was set up.  The kids enjoyed time in the bouncy castle while us adults enjoyed a local wine and/or coffee.  A German market is not a German market without a bratwurst and a pretzel!

After walking the quaint streets of Cochem we hiked to the top of the hill in town where Reichsburg Cochem (the largest hill castle on the Moselle) overlooks the river.  The castle dating back to the 11th century offers tours of this well preserved castle complete with furnishings.  

During our tour, the guide would take us room to room closing each of the doors after leaving the previous room.  After leaving the dining room we were lead into a sitting room.  I started looking around making a head count, and realized Liam never made it out of the dining. room.  So in the middle of the guide's explanation, Daniel took liberty to open the doors and go back into the dining room and find our missing 5 year old.  I am sure at this time Matt and Kathy Harms were thinking we need to do a better job keeping track of our children.  However at this time Kathy also realized her 4 year old Jonathan was also missing.  Daniel found them playing together in the corner of the dining room, never having noticed the group had left the room.  

After the tour, we enjoyed a coffee, beer and ice cream in the castle's restaurant before making the hike through the rain back to the car.