A week on the Moselle

Saturday 15 June

Today we cycle from Koblenz to Cochem - approx. 50 kms. After a slow start with laden bikes, we settled in after 10 kms or so and had a nice ride along the Moselle which is a noticeably narrower valley than the Rhine; there was little evidence of any recent flooding.

We started on the left side and had to deal with traffic to Niederfell where we enjoyed a coffee and CAKE (a pastry really, with lovely fresh strawberries), then onward (now on the right side) to Treis-Karden, a gorgeous little town where we visited the lovely St. Kastor Stiftskirche (this church has a beautiful 15th century terracotta high altar of the Adoration of the Magi) and we had lunch in the quiet square outside.

We cycled up and down little hills at the foot of vineyards which rise up and up above us on the steep slopes. The Moselle River is with us all the way and on the other side we see cyclists, villages, castles & the river itself is busy with barges (both commercial and tourist), speedboats, paddlers, ducks, geese.

It has been overcast but warmish but now the clouds come in and the wind springs up so we endeavour to make steady progress to get to Cochem in case it rains - which it doesn't. It is quite hard going into a head wind which gets stronger but it is nice riding along the good sealed bike path which parallels the road.

We reach our B&B on the other side of the river at Cochem via an extensive bridge. Coming into town we get good views of the colourful houses and hotels lining the main promenade along the river and the huge castle dominating the skyline above; and a market is in full swing.

On the side of the river where our hotel is, it is much quieter and therefore more appealing. Ah! And wonder of wonders, we have a lovely hot shower. I wash my hair. And we luxuriate in having a room with lots of space. And there is a BIG bed. What bliss after the barge!

We go out for a walk and don't get far - stopping for a drink at a cafe with lovely views over the river and looking out to  the main town on the other side. Then we proceed over the bridge - it is very busy, lots of tourists; after a while we head back again and  are now relaxing in our room having a rest before dinner.

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We meet up with Paul & Mel who have independently come to spend a few nights here on a trip "down memory lane" (they spent 2 nights here 33 years ago). We have a very nice meal together and a short walk after.

Sunday 16 June

Had a sleep-in - well, until 8 a.m. anyway! What luxury!!

Lovely day's riding from Cochem to Zell where we are to stay for a week. The riding was easy on flat, sealed bike path. You could ride on either the left or right hand side of the river and  cross periodically either by bridge or ferry. Nearly impossible to get lost (and we generally try pretty hard - but this trail was pretty fool-proof, even for us).

It was extremely pretty. Delightfully-colourful towns at frequent intervals: all with a nice church, cafe, weingut.

We stopped at Beilstein with the ruins of Burg Metternich on the hill overlooking the town. We pushed the bikes up to the church with the Black Madonna and had coffee and CAKE at the cafe overlooking the river.

Further on, we stopped at Ediger-Eller: just a gorgeously pretty town, with half-timbered houses and a pretty church high up amongst the narrow, curving cobble-stoned streets. We wandered around taking lots of photos.

Definitely a geranium day today - geraniums everywhere in all sorts of pots, even old wine presses - brightly coloured in the warm sunshine.

We cycled on, fairly quickly now as we knew the others had by now already arrived in Zell, a lively little market town, made famous by its special brand of Mosel wine: Zeller Schwartz Katz, Black Cat Wine. The story behind the name originates in 1863 when three wine merchants from Aachen were negotiating to purchase the town’s best wine at Mayntzer’s Winery. The winery’s black cat, without prompting, leaped atop a wine cask, spitting and hissing at all who approached. The wine merchants had found their wine, and it made them immensely wealthy. 

The slopes where the wines are cultivated are so steep that the use of machines is hardly ever possible and the wine growers do the work laboriously by hand.

So here we are for a week. The other couples (bar one lot who are coming tomorrow) have arrived. The apartment is great with 5 bedrooms distributed over 5 floors - so there are lots of stairs. But there is a big kitchen/eating area, a well-equipped laundry (yay!) and a nice living area. We are located right in the centre of town.

Zell is super pretty and  we have views over the Moselle.

Monday 17 June

We had a sleep-in and after a visit to the metzgerei (deli/butcher) and a grocer and  the backerei (bakery) - all close by within 100 m or so - we (MF, Harry and me) set off on our bikes to explore and we did a nice circuit through vineyards to Reil where we had a coffee (My Friend had a beer!), onto Traben-Trarbach where we crossed the river and then cycled back via Enkirch with its pretty half-timbered houses (where we had our picnic lunch in a park by the river) and past the pretty town of Pünderich.

From here were good views of the 786 m- long Pünderich Hangviadukt (the longest viaduct in Germany) and its 92 arches. Photo by Harry Harper.

Yes, we finally have the chance to relax. The weather is great - hot even! And the Moselle is gorgeous. Pretty villages every 10 mins or so by bike. Lots of places to stop and have a coffee (or a beer if you are My Friend!). Plenty to do. But also the place we have rented is great. Two living areas so you can get away like I have now and we are overlooking the river - amazing! So we are able to relax.

This is the Black Cat wine town - and I had a lovely glass of riesling at the little wine cellar across the cobble-stoned street from our apartment - just delicious and only €2.50 a glass!!

Tuesday 18 June

We got up early as the forecast was for another hot day and we planned a longer ride. We left before 8 a.m. and rode to Bullay to catch a train to Traben-Trarbach - over the viaduct we had seen yesterday.

We spent some time in Traben-Trarbach as it is quite stately with its Belle Epoch style villas. There was also a glockenspiel here.

We saw this sign on the bridge as we crossed over the river. It quite amused us.

Following the river, we had a lovely ride to Bernkastel-Kues which was busy with tourists. We had a coffee here and then continued to Neumagen-Dhron.

This really is a fascinating town. 

The village was first established as a Celtic settlement; then Constantine I had a huge fort built here to protect the shipping traffic on the Moselle and the Ausonius Way, a major trade route. Archeologists discovered the gravestone of a Roman wine trader dating back to 220 AD in Neumagen-Dhron, and the village has therefore been named the oldest wine-growing centre in Germany. It is also the place where the Neumagen Wine Ship (Neumagener Weinschiff), a ship carved out of stone and now in the Rhenish State Museum in Trier, was unearthed.

It was by now incredibly hot. I think we had ridden about 50 kms. We ate our picnic lunch and bought water from a supermarket we were lucky to find.

The plan was to take the RegioRadler bike-bus service back to Zell. This is a bus that tows a trailer for the bikes and picks up all along the Moselle at the various towns. We were certainly grateful for it today as it was soooo hot.

Wednesday 19 June

Today we had a sleep-in and set off about 10 a.m. to explore a route to Bad Bertrich, a spa town.

Again it was hot.

We crossed the bridge, taking note this time of the "Radfahrer absteigen" sign ("Cyclists dismount"). It can be helpful to know these things!

We rode to Alf, a town opposite Bullay which is where the bahnhof ("station") is. At Alf, we were rather amused by the 'spitting statue'. I was admiring the statue of a man on the bridge looking into a stream when suddenly there was a plop in the water. I thought a bird had flown overhead but then it happened again and I knew there was no bird. Couldn't work out what it was until I realised the statue was spitting into the water!

The route to Bad Bertrich went along a cycle path to start and  then became an unsealed walking track which was rough in places but followed an attractive stream. We came upon a sign to Burg Arras and, as we hadn't yet "done" a burg ("castle"), decided to go up the 1.3 kms to check it out. Mind you, it was pretty hot by this stage but the road up was shaded by trees.

It was quickly apparent that it was pretty steep so we ended up pushing the bikes and walking. My Friend wasn't happy but this burg turned out to be the only burg along the Moselle with a hotel so he was satisfied by a LARGE beer when we reached the top. I enjoyed a coffee sitting in the small garden while he amused himself with a tour that included a dungeon - "pretty corny" he said but he seemed to enjoy it.

We had a steep descent with the brakes at full stretch and ran out of bike path soon after reaching the bottom so had to go the remainder of the way on the road until just before Bad Bertrich where there was a pretty trail along the stream.

Bad Bertrich is a pretty smart-looking town. We cycled through the cobble-stoned main street and saw the building of the Vulkaneifel thermal spa ahead. On a whim, we decided to go in. We didn't have swimmers but were inventive with our undies. We had a lovely 2 hours of swimming around, cooling off, lying on deck chairs, and letting jets of water pound our muscles.

We returned to our bikes "locked up" outside fearful that they might have been knocked off but our trusty steeds were still there - a possible miracle given My Friend had carefully left the keys to the lock hanging by the lanyard on the handlebars!

And then zinnnnged back along the road afterwards to return to Zell.

Thursday 20 June

We awoke to a huge thunderstorm with drains gushing water into the river and sirens sounding as service vehicles bustled about dealing with the deluge.

Some of the shops were flooded and after the morning rain, carpets were laid out in the street to dry in the sun and big hoses pumped water out of the basements and street-level rooms of buildings.

We had a relaxing morning catching up on this and  that; then went out in the sunshine to wander around. We walked the length of the town: first towards Bullay then the other way towards Trier. At this end is an enormous statue of a black cat on a wine barrel.

We then went to the Bremm wine outlet and did some wine tasting ably assisted by a young man who has worked in a winery in NZ. He was most informative. The rieslings in this area are excellent.

Friday 21 June

We went to Trier today. We caught the train early after taking a bus into Bullay to the station. It was about a half hour train trip.

Trier is the oldest town in Germany. It was founded in 16 B.C. by the Roman emperor Augustus. It was the main centre of Christianity north of the Alps. And at various times it was caught in a tug-of-war between French and German forces, sometimes being French and sometimes being German. Also Karl Marx was born here in 1818.

Eight of us had come to Trier and were standing at the Porta Nigra (Trier’s landmark “black gate” is the only one of the original four city gates still standing) bemused that this could once have been a church when we were approached by a man who went onto explain how this was so. 

Once he had our undivided attention, he explained that he was a city guide (obviously freelancing!) so we negotiated a rate and took him on for a couple of hours to show us the sights. Turned out his main job is as an historian at the university and he proved to be most informative and entertaining.

He pointed out the Dreikönigenhaus: The House of the Three Magi with its unusual Moorish design. We walked through the colourful and the busy Hauptmarkt. And we visited the fascinating UNESCO World Heritage Sites of the Dom and the Constantine Basilica.

All in all, a great tour! And still we had not seen it all!

We split up into smaller groups to do whatever we pleased and  met back at the station just after 4 p.m. to return to Zell.

Saturday 22 June

This is our last day in Zell - and  in Germany! - as tomorrow we leave: some of us go to Nancy (in France); Anne and Peter to Prague.

It was a strange day. My Friend and I decided to walk up to the Collis Tower (built in 1906) which is high up on the hill overlooking the town. We thought we might go for a final bike ride later on.

The walk took us up past the Square Tower, a former town fortification, and then we climbed very steeply a trail to the Collis Tower where we had amazing views over the town, down the valley along the river, over to Burg Arras and we could even see the Pünderich viaduct in the distance.

When we arrived back for a late breakfast, we discussed departure plans for tomorrow and  a check of the train timetable on the internet revealed that the timetable was different from our tickets.

It appears that the storm of Thursday has caused damage to the track which now requires attention so the train has been replaced by a bus to Wittlich (thence train to Trier). A newspaper we find on our train later has photos of floods in Koblenz. Not only does this turn of events play havoc with our plan to return the bikes to Trier in the morning but it also jeopardizes nearly everyone's connections for ongoing travel.

Frantic re-planning ensues and My Friend and I decided to take the bikes back today and share a taxi in the morning to Wittlich so that we can make the train to Trier and thence to Nancy. Lucky for us, the tourist office is literally just across the road from our apartment as we make many visits there to book taxis and check information.

In fact this plan has two advantages for us. It takes the pressure off returning the bikes in the morning when our transfer time at Trier was tight anyway AND we get the chance to finish off touring Trier.

So at about 12.30 we head to Bullay by bike, catch the train to Trier where the guys at the bike rental shop at the bahnhof efficiently remove the pedals and bike seats that belong to us, return our deposit and it is all done in an amazing 5 minutes.

We head off to sight-see and visit the Imperial Roman baths (Kaiserthermen), the Amphitheater built in the 2nd century A.D., stroll through the Palace Gardens and have a late lunch outside at the cafe there, then a short visit to the absolutely amazing Rheinisches Landesmuseum with its huge number of exhibits of Roman artefacts.

We raced back to the station and were 'home' back in Zell by about 6.30 p.m.

Time to pack. Ugh!!!