The Moselle River is one of our favorite, gorgeous, wine river valley road trips. The Moselle River is wedged between very steep hills covered with thick green vineyards. We would start the trip at Koblenz either traveling down Route 49 or 416 which both line the banks of the river.
Niederfell is a nice early place to stop and stroll, then make your way to the famous castle of Burg Eltz which is a very short distance from the Valley. I remember my friend Mansell who ordered lunch at Burg Eltz for himself and his wife and was asked in German if that was all. He said two orders please, so he got four lunches, twice what he ordered. Ha, be careful ordering in foreign languages.
(Burg Eltz)
Making our way down the river, there are many beautiful buildings made of rocks/stones from the valley. A favorite stop is the famous town of Cochem and its castle which I will leave for a future story.
(Moselle Stone Building)
Next stop is Zell. If you are a wine lover, you probably know this place from the famous Black Cat wine. We were required to spend the night here since the next morning it was to be closed off to traffic for a day of walking, hiking, bike riding and roller blading. We chose to stayover and the next morning took a short boat trip.
(Zell vineyards)
We cruised down and back to the twin town of Trauben-Trarbachand visited a few towns along the river. Trauben-Trarbach was once home to a U.S. Air Force weather station. What a great deployment that must have been. In keeping with the closed roads, there were files of bikers and hikers all along the river road.
Proceeding from Zell the following evening, we drove down to Neumagen, which is the oldest wine town in Germany. A nice stop, and all along these vineyard towns are producers who have their doors open for you to taste their wines at no cost, but you can’t resist to take a few favo7rite purchased bottles home at very reasonable prices.
There are many wine festivals and parades during the year. Most towns crown a Wine Queen or Wine Princess during the season. We stayed in one of the B&B’s on the river where the daughter of the owner was crowned the Wine Queen. We had a great time talking to the newly crowned queen and tasting the family’s favorite wines.
Sometimes we only went partially down the Moselle and a couple times we went all the way down to tour the famous ancient Roman city of Trier.7
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