Biking Through Vineyards

Although we had a path and a river to guide us in the right direction the Mosel River Valley was like a sea of vineyards. In a way it reminded me of Holland, but in a more extreme way. There you can't look in any direction without seeing a windmill, while here you can't even open your eyes without seeing more rows of grapevines than old people on bikes (and believe me, there are countless old people on bikes in this valley). It seems that since school has started, and the summer is ended, the retired people have decided it is the perfect time to vacation in wine country. The wretched children off in school, the busy workers are back at their jobs, saving their vacation time for warmer weather, and they are free to be their retired selves. This has proved to be a bit bothersome as there seems to be only one way for the retired Germans to vacation: by motor home. For the entire trip along the Mosel we found ourselves setting up (and tearing down) camp in the midst of a sea of campers, trailers, and motorhomes. Our tent lifestyle must have been amusing as we got a number of onlookers. It was a strange feeling.

But let me explain how the Mosel was one of the most pleasant biking experiences I've had.

We set out from Wasserbillig, and town just barely in Luxembourg. We left came and immediately hit the bridge over the Sauer River to cross into Germany, and follow the Mosel. Wasserbillig is the last town on the Sauer before the two rivers merge. Immediately the first thing we noticed was the vineyards. (Unfortunately we haven't had access to a computer that will allow us to upload pictures, so you'll have to use your imagination for now... we'll update with pictures as soon as we can). The Mosel River Valley is in general quite steep. There are stretches of shallower valley walls, but for the most part it's quite steep, even almost vertical in places. The river also winds its way about. At one point it seems as if it's on a collision course with itself as it bends completely around leaving a narrow stretch of land jutting between two stretches of the river. This geography has led to a quite interesting mix of grapes and forest and amazing patches of vineyards. As the river bends, the vineyards always occupy the walls of the valley which get the most sun. The shadier areas are not useful for growing grapes, so the forests are left to grow at will. As the sunny valley walls get steeper, the vineyards become more interesting. Terraces are built to provide more growing surface, the grapevines are planted on land that seems to steep to even stand on without sliding down. So how do the farmers get to these grapes? The vines climb hundreds of feet up the hills and cliffs. There are small roads for the less steep areas, but other places are too steep to build roads on. For these they have specially designed monorail tracks with what look like roller coaster carts on them. The farmer can then ride one of these carts up the hill with his containers for the harvested grapes. It's really quite incredible.

Ok... enough of the grapes. Back to the ride.

The first day we rode to Wintrich. The ride took us through Trier, where we hopped into the city center to see what was up. It was packed! On a sunny Saturday afternoon everyone was out shopping in town. There was even a farmers market in the town square. We stopped at the market and bought some fresh dates and dried apples. Sara got a bowl of mussels. We sat and ate, then headed off to the Porta Nigra. Trier is the oldest city in Germany (founded about 16 BC) and was once the center of all of Western Europe when it belonged to the Romans. The Porta Nigra was built in the 2nd century, and still stands today in surprisingly good shape.

After leaving Trier we continued downstream along more and more vineyards, passing more and more retired couples on thier liesurely walks and rides along the river. A glance at Sara's odometer told us we'd hit 500 miles! We stopped to take a picture of where we were despite the fact that the scenery wasn't so great there.

We were tired that day, but we also wanted to get a little further than we were we pushed ourselves to Wintrich and found a campground. It was later than we wanted it to be, and we didn't have much to eat with us. We asked about dinner options at the campground reception, and they pointed us to the next house down. A winemaker lived there, and he and his wife had a small little place where we could get something to eat. We walked over not knowing what to expect. We came to the house, but most of the lights were off. As we approached the front door we saw a woman watering her plants. "Kann ich ihnen helfen?" she asked. Practicing our German we told her (as best we could) that we were looking for something to eat. She told us to wait a minute while she got the key to the restaurant room. It turned out that we were the only guests that evening. She came back with a set of keys, trying each one. She soon realised she'd grabbed the wrong keys, so she walked through the whole house to open the door from the inside.

We decided we had to try the local wine, since we were not only in Mosel wine country, but also in the house of a winemaker. The wine was incredible. Unlike any wine I have ever had. I could have drunken a whole bottle (I didn't). After dinner we walked back to camp and hopped in our sleeping bags.

The next day we felt much better. We rode off, further down the Mosel, only to find even more vineyards (and even more retired vacationers).

Each little town seemed to be having a little street festival. We came across the first one right off the bat, still hungry as our breakfast was no more than a pathetic sampling of bread slices and a couple of apples. We stocked up for the day here: a couple cheese-pretzels, a quarter of a cherry cake, toast with lachs, potato salad, and walnut scone things.

Today we rode. There weren't many significant sights, just the neverending beauty of the valley itself. So we rode, and rode, and rode. We stopped in a little town to buy some apples and pears at another street fair, and rode on. It was hard to keep our eyes on the bike path as they would consantly wander off to look at the hills littered with vineyards, farmhouses, and little towns. Even ruined castles were beignning to spring up. We camped in Ellenz-Poltersdorf, just a few kilometers upstream from Cochem. We were instructed to set up our tent in the middle of the long narrow field that was completey stuffed with motorhomes and trailers. We were surrounded. On the plus side we could look right up the hill on the opposite side of the river to see an impressive castle ruin.

Since we didn't ride past any grocery stores we still had little to eat. So we went out again. A short stroll up the river brought us in to town where we found a nice restaurant and got more delicious wine with our meals. Though the wine the day before was far better. We splurged and got ice cream for dessert, then we were off to bed.

After breakfast we rode just a few miles until we hit Müden. From there we took the road up the hill a bit to a parking lot, then a quick hike to see Burg Eltz (Rick Steves' favorite castle). What we didn't know was that the road went ALL the way up the hill, and the parking lot was at the very top. It was intense. With 40 lbs on the backs of our bikes and a long, steep, windy road we were switch-backing the switchbacks! We made it up, parked our bikes, and hike in a mile to see the castle.

Burg Eltz has been in the family for 33 generations, ever since it was built. It was never taken in a siege due to location, clever marriages, and avoiding confrontation. It's in great shape and houses countless priceless artifacts. The tour led us through 10 or 15 rooms of I don't know how many. The castle was incredible, and was definitely worth biking up that hill. Though the hill made us so hungry we were forced to buy 3 dishes at the castle restaurant.

We headed back down the hill and made our way to Koblenz. We were tired now and just wanted to get to a hostel and lie down on a bed. We kept on cycling trying to enjoy the little towns as best we could despite our desires to lay around and do nothing for the rest of the day. We got in to town only to find that the hostel was all the way at the top of a giant annoying hill. We suffered our way up, pushing the bikes the last bit. We were just too exhausted. We walked into the reception and asked, exhausted and looking like we almost died biking up the hill, if they had a room. The man said no in a way that we interpreted as a joke given our present state. We waited for the chuckle, but it never came. He said "It's not a joke, we have several large groups and are completely booked." We were pissed. He showed us where there was a hotel just down the hill. Demoralized we rode down and come to the next place.

This hotel was also an Indian and Italian Specialty Restaurant. Luckily they had a room, but it was up three floors and they didn't have an elevator. We dragged our things up, threw them down and collapsed on the bed. We showered, ate, and fell right to sleep.

Now we're up and about in town. A bit sore, we hopped on the bus and stumbled across this Internet cafe. After this we'll be off to a laundromat for some much needed laundering. From here we'll follow the Rhein south to Strasbourg. Hopefully we'll find a plece to get some pictures uploaded soon. Sorry about that.

-Paul and Sara

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