Germany - Rhine & Mosel Valley

---

Monday 2^ndSept Cologne to Pommern, Mosel Valley 96 miles

RHINE & MOSELLE VALLEY

Left the campsite at 9.15am and drove via Bruhl, Wesseling and Bonn (all very built up and quite horrible drive with a congloberation of motorways!!) and eventually got to Konigswinter, which in comparison was surprisingly quite pretty! Found the cog train comparatively easily, considering the lack of signs and paid the 10 euros for the return journey to the ruins of Kongswinter castle. Fantastic views of the Upper Rhine although still a little hazy in the distance. Not much of the old ruined castle left but still good to see!

Drove through Linz and had our lunch stop at Bad Honnigen which also proved to be a pretty little village that went right down to the waters edge. Lots of old half timbered houses dating from about 1650 so quite interesting.

Got completely lost then trying to find our way through Neuwied and ended up at a place called Engers! This happened to be the best case of getting lost – ever! Spotted a garage, stopped, found a German mechanic who could speak some English, who fixed the windows, AND the central locking AND the front car seat in about 15 minutes and all for 10 Euros! A huge relief to have a complete working Van again! Had a chat with him (he wanted to practice his English as he has an aunt in Bournemouth!) and he printed out a large scale map to help us find the Moselle Valley and also told us that the ‘Pearl’of the Moselle Valley is Beilstein!

Just about managed to negotiate the traffic and motorway junctions ( ! have no idea how Chris does it!) and ended up on Road 49 going down the left hand side of the river! It doesn’t really matter which side of the river you drive down as its easy to see across to the other side and both sides are pretty with little villages, flowers, a few castles and grapevines crawling up the hills! Had a couple stops for photos and an ice cream and as it was so hot camped at Pommern on the side of the Moselle River to enjoy the late afternoon sun! (ACSI Camping Pommern)

Tues 3^rd Sept Pommern to St Goar, Rhine Valley 57 miles

Woke up to another sunny day with clear blue sky! Left the campsite about 9.30am and made the short drive to Cochem. Walked up to the castle for some fine views of the Mosel River and then wandered around the pretty back streets of Cochem with its touristy shops and timbered buildings before driving on to Beilstein! It certainly didn’t disappoint and was a charming half timbered village, smothered in flowers and with the obligatory church and castle! Walked up to the ruined 12thC castle – some more fine views of the Mosel River that I needed to admire (!!) whilst Chris climbed the tower! Retraced our steps back to Pommern to cross the river, then taking the road at Brodenbach to climb quite steeply out of the Mosel Valley and on to a plateau before descending into St Goar in the Rhine Valley.

Fantastic spot on the Rhine with views of Burg Rheinfels Castle, and a couple of castles on the other side of the river. Such a lovely day so we had a walk along the busy Rhine River to view the Loreley Rock (apparently a ‘must see’ for the Rhine) but failed to impress us! But we walked past a campsite and spotted a lovely pitch right on the bank of the river, which was luckily still there when we booked in an hour later so that’s where we are now! We wiled away the rest of the afternoon watching the constant traffic of cruise ships and barges battling the currents on the river. (Camping Loreleyblick)

Wed 4^th Sept St Goar to Rothenburg 189 miles

At 8.00am it was thick fog on the Rhine and by the time we had got to Oberwesel it was blue sky and hot sun! We were hoping to do a 3km walk around the City walls but it looks like they are still being renovated so had to content ourselves with about 1km and a wander through the town! Chris then decided to drive back to the campsite as the camping receipt for last night was missing and it had all his details on. He was worried it may have got thrown away with the rubbish, someone might find it and then use all the details to create a new identity! However he couldn’t find it in the rubbish either so it has been mislaid somewhere!

Back on track down the Rhine, (or up it?! I’m not sure!) and a coffee stop at Bacharach, a fine old town with castle walls and gates some dating back to the 12^thC. Many timbered buildings in the centre– the oldest one we found was 1327 so pretty old!

It was now about 12.00ish so we had to leave the Rhine Valley and ‘crack on’ ! The quickest way to get past Mainz and Frankfurt was on the motorway so we didn’t stop for lunch until we had got past Frankfurt and then got off the E42 at Jnct 57 and headed towards Miltenberg.

Decided, as we had enjoyed the Rhine and Mosel valleys, we may as well do the Main Valley and the Tauber Valley. The Main Valley was a smaller version of the Rhine with cruise ships and barges, although not so busy and I don’t think the towns looked so pretty, although we didn’t stop at any of them to explore! The Tauber River is just a small tributary where the road runs right through the middle of some old villages.

At Tauberbischofshelm we joined the ‘Romantic Road’ and followed it to Bad Mergentheim and Detwang, just outside Rothenburg where we camped for the evening.

---

Comments

[Laura]

Glad you got the camper van sorted - bargain price also! The chap sounds very friendly. Scenery looks beautiful - enjoy!

[Sue]

So far so good!
Looks like you're having a great time despite the roads etc. Hope the weather stays good for you - keep on blogging! xxx