Bike Tour along the Mosel River - October 2 - 8

The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man. Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish. Only the bicycle remains pure in heart.

Iris Murdoch, writer (1919-1999)

The author may be exaggerating a bit, but we do like biking, not competitively but certainly a bit sportly.  Last year, we biked the Danube from Passau, Germany to Vienna, Austria and it was such a treat, we thought we'd do another river trip.  The Mosel is a popular area for holidays in Germany - it's pretty flat right there next to the river, there are lots of picturesque villages and - of course - lots of vineyards.  I'm game!

Werner did all the planning - he found a company to rent the bikes from, book the hotels, take our bags from place to place.  All we had to do was bike and enjoy.  But first, we had to get to Trier, naturally on the train.  Read, gaze out the window, stitch, arrive relaxed.

Our train tickets included public transportation in Trier, so we found our bus and then found our hotel!  Check in, get bikes, organize our packs for the ride, and then check out the surroundings for dinner. We found an Italian place - a really yummy pasta with Gorgonzola and walnuts, and pizza we could only finish the half of; we packed the rest for our next day's lunch.

During the night we were awakened by thunder! storms!  noise!!  But the morning came up sunny.  After an amazing breakfast, off we went.

Day 1 - Trier to Leiwen

We did a quick look at some of the major sights/sites in Trier - the Romans "settled" the area in the 1st century under Augustus and the place was occupied for centuries thereafter, so there are lots and lots of leftovers from these early settlers.  And of course we remember earlier visits - with Michelle and Joey, then Julia and Larry!

We tried to leave town in an orderly way but it seemed we kept going the wrong direction and missing our turns!!!  Don't tell me again we need a navigator App. We still want to exercise our brains - it just takes a while to warm up sometimes.  We finally found our way and headed north toward Leiwen, about 35k away, where we would spend the night.

It's a beautiful river, the Mosel (Moselle in French - and English).  Most of the trail had vineyards on both sides, but sometimes there were forested areas.  There were the ruins of former castles punctuating the landscape and so many small towns along the way.

The first day was mostly scenery, but we did see the oldest, still occupied, brick house in Germany (in Pfalzel), old stone town walls and fortifications.  

We took a break to have our left over pizza and some grapes and enjoyed the scenery.

and then bike some more - we're just getting started!  Along the way, blackberries, still ripening.  It's been a long cool summer here. It's a wonder the grapes have ripened.

We got to the site of an old ferry house, the kind that used to pull the ferry from one side of the river to the other.  So our afternoon snack was a regional specialty - Zwiebelkuchen und Federweisser - onion tart and new wine. The wine is still fermenting, so it's kinda bubbly and fresh, a perfect foil to the onion. 

We arrived in Leiwen about 4pm, sat in the sun on the balcony and had a complimentary glass of - what else? - wine, from the local vintner and then a little walk around the town.  It's not outstanding, but there were a couple of interesting buildings including this half-timbered beauty.  It's now an upscale restaurant.

Later I took a long soak in the avocado green tub.  Easy to date that bathroom!!

Dinner was a splurge - steak and salad.  It was so good but it was tooooooo much!  Sadly, we couldn't pack up those leftovers to take with us the next day....

Day 2 - Leiwen to Zeltingen

Cloudy and 8°C (46°F) when we head out after breakfast.  A new use for duct tape:  close the sleeves of my pullover to keep the cold air out!

First stop is Neumagen-Dhron, a village that really promotes its Roman roots.  There are replicas of reliefs and carvings found in the area that celebrate the Romans and the vine.  Wine has such a history! We bought some home-made grape jelly from the local baker.  For some reason, you don't find grape jelly here much - wine jelly, yes, grape jelly, no. 

The panel shows how the Romans grew the vines on a single stake, making a figure 8 with the vines.  The other sculpture is a wine boat - yes! - taking casks of wine down the river.  Love the dragons.

 At Piesport (famous for its Piesporter Riesling) we paid homage to Johannes Hau, credited with spreading the gospel of the Riesling grape, planting and sharing thousands of Riesling grapevines up and down the Mosel. His statue stands outside a lovely little church.  Since we're in a Catholic region, the churches are usually open.  It's never a surprise but always amazing how the interiors of these small village churches are decorated and ornamented.

 Late lunchtime, we hit Bernkastle-Kues, a real tourist magnet along the Mosel, lorded over by the castle ruins of Burg Landshut.

We had a passable Zwiebelkuchen there, but after so many villages, it seemed too crowded and too loud.  In fact, we sat at our table long enough that we could tell when the huge tour buses disgorged their passengers just by watching the pedestrians go by....

Our goal for the night, Zeltingen, really charming!  I  know I use that word too much...

 As with all the towns and villages along the rivers here, they have floods.  Here are the high water marks in Zeltingen from the last century.

Our hotel was the best by far of the trip for service, food and ambience.  They recommended reservations for dinner.  Really?  It's Wednesday in the middle of nowhere!  But it was a good idea - the place was full.  We ordered Rösti with smoked salmon and a sampler appetizer plate.  Simply yummy. And plenty enough.

Day 3 - Zeltingen to Zell an der Mosel

Breakfast is more amazing than dinner with organic eggs from Frau So-and-So and wild boar sausage from Hunter So-and-So, cured pork from organic farmer Herr So-and-So and don't forget all the different jams and jellies from Frau Jelly Maker!  It's hard to be hungry again, but I try.

It's cloudy again and threatening.  We forge on.  Really, there's no choice as this is the most wiggly route there is and train tracks tend to go straight.

But they are building an Autobahn bridge so the traffic can have a straight shot through/over the valley.  That is a strange sight - kinda gives my tummy a jolt just looking at it.

We pass the terraced vineyard area called Kröver Nacktarsch, the Kröver Barebutt, if you will, or naked butt or other words somewhat less PG.  These folks have a sense of humor. Apparently there's some disagreement on whether the name is a point of pride or embarrassment for the community, but it's way too well known to change.  It was about there we put on our rain pants the first time.

There are ruins all along the river, on hills or bluffs overlooking the Mosel. I imagine the view from the top is nice.

 This was also the day for Pünderich, the village we visited with Michelle and Joey for a little wine tasting with Alex Burger the winemaker when we were escorting them on their honeymoon trip (and also the vintner that Joey's parents had visited earlier).

The place is a little different - they have a nice enclosed and modern tasting area (the old cellar is now full of stainless steel tanks for the wine!), but otherwise the same. Elder Herr Burger is now 89 but still does some work with the wine making but son and grandson have taken over the heavy chores and day-to-day management.  It was a really fun visit!

Zell was only a bit further down the road.  That region has more vineyards than all the others along the Mosel, so it's a rather larger town and certainly busy!  And dinner was a bit gourmet - ish.  We found a small restaurant with few tables and had an outstanding meal. To tell the truth, it was getting hard to go out to eat.  I was never hungry!!

A walk along the river at night.  It was lovely.

Day 4 - Zell to Treis-Karden

Today we cheated.  It's not one whit warmer and it is raining. And we're on a river.  So there are riverboats (actually, you could call them river taxis) that go up and down the river all day long.  To the boat!!

How relaxing, and interesting, too.  The couple across from us are drinking beer (at 9am?).  We have to go through a lock which takes some time and is fascinating, too.  The first picture is entering the lock, the second leaving it. I'd say it took a good 30 minutes.

A recording that plays on the boat tells us that there are more camping places along the Mosel than any other river in Germany.  Even in this weather there are lots and lots of campers out there.  Maybe that's were all the folks were who came to dinner the other night.

 When we arrive at Beilstein, the weather has cleared a bit so we disembark and take a look around this sweet village.

Here's the entrance to the hotel where we stayed twice before, once with Michelle and Joey and again with Julia and Larry.

There's a walk up to the church

 and its lovely interior with an imposing altar piece.

There was a guest book and the most recent comment, by Mats, was sweet.  Thank you, God, he says, that there is no war in Germany and thank you too that the Mosel is so beautiful.    

 And it is. 

Back on the bikes and the next "big" town is Cochem, dominated by the Reichsburg, begun in about 1000.  Oh, I remember that year!

At this point, we'd had our rain gear on for a bit, so looked for a place to rest and eat out of the weather.  It was a tourist spot we found, right on the river bank, the service was friendly and we had yet another Zwiebelkuchen.  I think we placed this one at #2.  We waited out the rain, then took a short walk/push the bikes around the Altstadt.

There were the charming buildings and the occasional interesting shops, but once again it was geared to the tourist trade and didn't really pull us in.  I have to admit I am getting picky about where I want to spend my time and these days it is seldom the places that attract the most tourists. Then again, if we were actually staying in the area and not anticipating more rain while biking, I might have found it more attractive!

So, OFF we go.  The guide book says that a bit beyond Cochem the way is "challenging" but we're interested in staying on the less-populated and less-traveled side.  That decision lasted about two minutes!!  When the asphalt gave way to mud, I immediately had visions of slipping on the trail and landing in the muck!  I was done!  We did a quick U-turn and took the ferry to the other side.  The operators teased us a bit, but I wasn't the least embarrassed about taking the paved road!

From Cochem to Treis-Karden is just a hop-skip-and-a-jump, and there was no more rain, but we were happy to get to the hotel and get warm.  I was also happy to see a big bathtub again!  Rooms in these small village hotels are noticeably bigger; I think this bathroom was bigger than the whole room we had the night before.

There's not much here - an old monastery, several vintners, couple of churches, of course.  The church we went into had been decorated for Erntedank - thanks for the harvest - with all kinds of newly harvested grains and vegetables, and of course flowers, placed before the altar.

And there's the way-marker for Burg Eltz where we went with Hunter and Hannah a few years back.  It would be quite a hike from here!

We are not up for the dinner offerings at the hotel - too much food -  so we find a little corner pub (one of two in the village, the one that did not allow smoking!) and have a light dinner.  Then a good soak!

  Day 5  Treis-Karden to Koblenz

Between Treis  and Koblenz were several impressive places. First, the Schloss von der Leyen which belongs to the family of Germany's current Secretary of Defense.  Interestingly, the street goes right through part of the castle.

A selfie from the other side of the underpass.  I'm really not good at this.  And it looks like my helmet is not sitting right on my head.  I'll have to check that out.

Then we came to Winningen.  It looked like a bit of nothing from the bike path, but it was time for a bit of lunch so we went into the village center.  There were all the painted facades of buildings, the lovely cobblestone streets, the grape vines wandering across the lanes and on the buildings.  How charming (again)!  We had lunch in a small restaurant run by a young couple - pumpkin ginger soup and, once again, onion tart and Federweisser.  What a treat.

Finally, the short ride into Koblenz.  We took an alternate route through the vineyards and had to bike UP a bit, but it was nice to get away from the automobile traffic.  We saw the workers picking the grapes, using the "elevators" to take them up the terraces, the barrels of grapes to be taken to the presses- certainly one of the highlights of our tour.

Arrrggg - but then shortly before we reached Koblenz the rain began again and we were in the city and it was confusing and we almost got run over by a bus because the bike lanes were so confusing and we were so happy to get to the hotel safely and just S T O P.  We had thought we'd be able to bike around Koblenz a bit, but forget it!  We found a bus to take us to the Deutsches Eck - the "German Corner" where the the Mosel meets the Rhine - and where there are memorials and parks.

We looked around, had a final picture taken by other bikers, then wandered back toward our hotel, found a cute Thai restaurant along the way and did a bit of reminiscing of these days along the river.  What was funny/weird, was that there were two women at a table near us who looked familiar.  And yes! we had spoken briefly to them earlier in the day in the vineyards.  It was a nice coda to speak to them and say hello and compare our trips.

Going home the next day was supposed to be easy - Koblenz to Bremen main station and there to Vegesack.  But on Thursday there had been a major monster storm in north Germany with hurricane-force winds.  Trees had been  downed, all kinds of wind damage, and the rails and wires for the trains were damaged.  So. We sat in Koblenz for about two hours and then went to Dortmund and then had to change to another train to Osnabrück and then another to Twistringen and then in Twistringen change to a BUS to Bremen and then in Bremen to Burg by train and then by BUS from Burg to Vegesack.  Somewhere along the way, Werner said, Aren't you glad we didn't bring our own bikes?  Yow!!!  Ain't that the truth?!

We got home about 4 hours late, so we picked up Gyros from the local Turkish stand for an easy dinner.

It sounds like trouble, and sometimes it was, but it was great! We love the biking, seeing towns and paths and landscape in slow motion, the small towns and interesting people, the food, the wine.  We're already thinking about the next trip...


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