Zell (Mosel)

Hello from Treis Karden, Germany. Today Mike and I finished our planned 18 days of biking over about 900 kms. Since Saturday we have been enjoying the beautiful Mosel River valley between Koblenz and Trier. We know lots of people who have visited this region - including 2 Victoria friends who cycled here only a few weeks ago - but this area is a first for both of us. The Mosel is a favorite spot for Germans and other travellers because of the quaint old towns that are strung along the river like beads on a chain. The climate is milder than other areas of Germany and the main industry is wine-making, so what’s not to like! The Mosel river is a major transportation link to the Rhine but unlike the Rhine, this river is full of cruise boats and day-trip boats. Biking is a major activity and we have been cycling on busy trails alongside mostly ebikes. Every few kms there is another huge camp ground with white camper vans lined up facing the river with people sitting in lawn chairs gazing out to Mosel, usually sipping wine.
As you do when you’re biking, we’ve noticed a lot of things along the way. In one town there was a large group of people wandering around a field looking like they’d all lost their car keys. We finally figured out - after wandering a bit with them - that they were collecting walnuts in green husks that had been falling from the surrounding trees. It wasn’t immediately obvious what the green husks were so we cracked one open - aha!

The Mosel is fairly narrow and it flows in a series of tight turns. The river banks are steep and every inch is covered in vines. Viticulture was brought to this area by the Romans for a source of wine for their troops. [Wow, I don’t remember anybody worrying about my source of wine when I was in uniform.] We’ve seen some interesting adaptations for harvesting the grapes including a cog railway system going up to the vines carrying bins up and grapes back down. The grapes around here are almost all harvested already but we saw workers high up the slopes by 9 every morning working away on the remaining crop.

The signs in town all advertise “federweisser” which is the new wine that hasn’t fully fermented. Although we have a no drinking and biking policy, generally, we did stop once at a wine stand along the bike route to taste the federweisser which is very cloudy, sweet and tastes more like grape juice than wine really. It has a low alcohol content because it hasn’t aged.

Our normal routine has been to, first, power through a German breakfasts - not for small appetites - hitting the trails by 9 and enjoying the mist coming off of the river. The weather has cooled considerably since the start of our journey and we are now full-on sweaters and jackets each morning. The rides have not been backbreaking given our ebikes and the flat terrain. There are lots of places for morning coffee and bakeries to pick up lunch. We’ve stayed in a number of lovely small villages with friendly and efficient proprietors. My only regret as we finish this part of the trip is not having given the city of Trier more time. It is considered the oldest city in Germany and it was one of the 4 capitals of the Roman empire. There are many great things to see and we only scratched the surface. Although the city was heavily bombed during the war, it has been carefully rebuilt. My favorite site was the Basilica of Constantine which was built around 300 AD and contains the largest hall from ancient times.
Mike’s favourite thing about Trier was Restaurant Kartoffel - meaning potato restaurant. Given that Mike thinks beer and potatoes are two of the main food groups, he was in his glory at this spot and it made up for me dragging him around to all of the historical sites earlier in the day.

Tomorrow we return our rental bikes which have mostly remained intact with the exception of a light I managed to break off in a spill. We’ll take a few “ admin days” in Koblenz before heading to Italy to RV with Tara. It’s been a great adventure so far and Mike is so pleased wth my navigation skills that he says I am still his favorite “schnuckiputzi”. ( I think I’ve just been called a potato dumpling). Time to hang up the bike shorts. My bike gloves are ready for the burn pile.
I’ll sign off now from Germany and perhaps pick up again next week when we get to Sicily.
Love Mom/ HeatherEn savoir plus