Germany

DHTB Rides the Mosel

(& Southern Germany Pre-Trip)

25 April - 14 May 2013

Leaving Erlangen, we took the train to Trier - via an ICE from Nürnberg to Koblenz, and then a Regio Bahn from Koblenz to Trier.  (Lisa joked that the Regio Bahn stopped at every cow - she wasn't far off, as we seemed to hit the "school bus" route - but as a bonus, we stopped at many of the small towns we would later cycle through, and got an advance look at some of the bike paths from the train).  We met up with John and Bob at the hotel in Trier, who were picked up at the Luxembourg City airport by fellow DHTB'er Ron Pflipsen's daughter Chrissie (stationed at nearby Spangdahlem AFB and living in Hetzerath).

We spent a couple of days in Trier, picking up our rental bikes the next morning (Saturday 5/4) at the Trier Hauptbahnhof (main train station)...big, heavy touring bikes that looked like they could roll over just about anything!  We explored Trier, Rick Steves' Germany book in hand, including the cathedral (1500 years of architectural style - in one building! - from the 4th through 18th centuries); the nearly 2000-year-old Roman Porta Nigra (with an amusing exhibit outdoors of Karl Marx statues, in various shades of red); and the fun Hauptmarkt with its shops and outdoor restaurants.   The next day, Sunday, we took the Radlerbus (bike bus) from the Trier Hbf to Hermeskeil, then cycled back on the lovely Ruwer-Hochwald Cycle Track in just gorgeous weather, stopping in the vicinity of Waldrach for a late lunch before going on into Trier.  That same night we were treated to dinner at Chrissie Pflipsen's home in Hetzerath - a welcome and relaxing evening.  Chrissie's driving us to her house also gave us a little taste of the autobahn in a really nice BMW.  :-)

Monday was our toughest day - we said goodbye to Trier and our hotel near the Römerbrücke (Roman bridge), and set off for Molitor's Mühle, a spa some 40+ miles away near Kloster Himmerod.  Our route took us through Schweich, Hetzerath, Salmtal, Dreis, Bergweiler, Minderlittgen, and Großlittgen, mostly on excellent bike paths, until nearer the end when the bike paths were "on the road" (mostly with plenty of room).  We had a couple of unintentional detours :-) which added a few miles to the day's total; and the climb up to Bergweiler was tough with the heavy bikes and bags we were now carrying.  But we made it in the late afternoon, albeit too late to want to visit the Kloster; instead we checked into our gorgeous rooms, relaxed with a beer on the terrace, and enjoyed a really fine dinner in the spa restaurant.

Only one night at Molitor's, and we headed back to the Mosel, to Bernkastel-Kues, via Wittlich.  Bit of a rainy day, and the party was geographically distributed for awhile in Wittlich (but nobody was lost! :-)  We sat out some of the rain, once we had regrouped, at a handy Konditorei (pastry shop), then finished up the ride along the Maare-Mosel-Radweg to Bernkastel-Kues.  Our destination was actually in Kues (Bernkastel is the other side of the river), at Ferienweingut Port - basically a wine producer who also runs a b&b.  We thought we'd be in the main house, but instead were whisked several kilometers away to the luxury vacation apartments - so much room, this totally spoiled us!   We walked over to the Bernkastel old town center the first afternoon, enjoyed a wine tasting where we definitely improved our knowledge of Rieslings and the different Prädikats (designations) ranging from Kabinett to Trockenbeerenauslese.  We then decided to simply buy bread and cold cuts from local markets to enjoy dinner back at our apartments with some local wine.  (Our apartments also had a selection of Weingut Port wines - fairly inexpensive - was a nice comparison with what we bought in town.  I think we all basically decided we liked the Trocken and Halbtrocken Spätleses, nice aromas without too much sweetness.)

We had two nights in Bernkastel-Kues, so the next full free day (without bags!) was spent on a short ride back upriver to Piesport - not much going on there - then returning to Bernkastel for a little more exploration and shopping, before eating in again at our apartments.

Leaving Bernkastel-Kues the next day, we were off to Bruttig-Fankel, our longest day - about 47 miles as it turned out.  Why Bruttig-Fankel?  Well, originally Liza (tour organizer :-) wanted to stay in Beilstein, extolled in the Rick Steves' Germany book and on his tv show.  But when she tried to reserve rooms there at the Gute Quelle or any other b&b, no availability.   (In fact, she had some difficulty with finding a room in Cochem, too.  Hmm.)  Via Booking.com she found what turned out to be a very nice place, Hotel Rebstock, in Bruttig-Fankel, little over a mile downriver from Beilstein...so there we headed.  Either the day prior or on this travel day, we finally figured out what the problem was making reservations - it was a holiday!  Christi Himmelfahrt, aka Ascension Day - a public holiday.  So lots of people were making a full week of it (with the holiday on Thursday 5/9) or minimally a four-day weekend.  Certainly explains why the bike paths were busy and kids didn't seem to be in school! 

Anyway, our cycling to Bruttig-Fankel took us through Traben-Trarbach and then to Zell, famous for the Zeller Schwarze Katz wines and the legend of the black cat protecting the wine barrel.   We had lunch in Zell, with most excellent timing - within five minutes of sitting down at an outdoor cafe under cover, it started to rain, heavily.  It mostly stopped by the time we finished our soup.  We continued on, eventually past busy busy Beilstein (overrun by people getting off river cruise boats and buses), to the Hotel Rebstock in Bruttig-Fankel.  In retrospect, it was a great place to stay.   Bruttig-Fankel was quieter than Beilstein, the restaurant at the hotel was quite good (a set menu, but really good beef rouladen one night, at reasonable prices).  The locks at Fankel on the Mosel were a very short walk away, and we amused ourselves watching a couple of barges go through (and thinking, it's like Panama, and it isn't).  Fankel also had a street with some buildings dating back to the 14th century - an enjoyable walk.  We would definitely stay there again.

We stayed two nights in Bruttig-Fankel, with the free day being a day trip downriver to Cochem.  The day started with a quick checkout of Beilstein before the tourists hit, to see what we missed.   We hiked up to and toured the Burg Metternich ruins, which afforded us a postcard view of the Mosel; we then retraced our steps down, crossed the Mosel by a small ferry and cycled to Cochem.  There we found where we would return the bikes in a few days time, checked out the cafes and restaurants, and bought train tickets for the end of the trip return to Frankfurt.  We rode the Sesselbahn up to the Pinnerkreuz overlooking the town, walked back down when it was obvious we would not get timely service at the cafe up top (too many people, one waitress?) and had a very late lunch.   We cycled back to Bruttig-Fankel, where Liza then discovered she'd lost her bike lock key.  :-(  She and Robert rode back to Cochem - it had to be where she unlocked the bike for the ride back to the hotel, right? - but there was no sign of it.  Rats.

From Bruttig-Fankel, once again with bikes fully loaded, we cycled downriver to tiny Moselkern.  The hotel (yes, it is in the Rick Steves book, and downplayed a bit too much in my mind - was very nice) was closed when we arrived and we had hours to kill, so we rode a little further downriver to Hatzenport, and found a little restaurant in time to not get rained on...much.   Eventually checked into the hotel in the late afternoon, and enjoyed a really nice dinner in the hotel restaurant - now there's something Rick Steves should give more mention of - the food in the restaurant was quite good.  Except for a foray to a nearby Kleines Kaffeehaus (an aptly named little coffee shop), we ate all of our meals there.  Anyway, we had one full day in Moselkern, and that day was spent going up to Burg Eltz, a medieval castle that has been in the same family - and never destroyed! - for 850 years.  It seemed to be threatening rain too much to want to take the 70 minute hike up, so we took a convenient bus in the morning, and the weather was decent enough following our visit to walk back to Moselkern.

Our last day together, 5/13, we cycled back to Cochem, dropped off the bikes, visited one of our now-favorite cafes (Cafe Flair), and generally strolled around a bit before heading to the train station.  Bob and John headed back to Trier, while we went the other direction to Koblenz on the school-bus-train and on to Frankfurt, from where we flew out the next morning (after an overnight at the NH Hoteles Frankfurt Airport Kelsterbach, future reference).