Day Hike to an Iconic German Castle - Burg Eltz

This was one of our most anticipated hikes, a 10 km round-trip past an idyllic small town and a shadowy ancient forest to one of Germany's most iconic castles. Burg Eltz is famous among travelers -- the Germans recognize it on their old 500-Deutsche-mark banknote, and the American travel writer Rick Steves calls it his favorite castle in Europe. To us, it's simply the most beautiful castle we've ever visited.



Prior to our visit we considered three different approaches to the castle: a long and winding path from Treis-Karden, a shorter but very steep route from Müden, but we picked the most gradual hike starting from Moselkern. Starting the day from our winery/guesthouse in Cochem, we rode the local train to Moselkern and began our hike from its quaint 100-year-old station.



To reach the trailhead we first had to pass through the sleepy town of Moselkern, a 900-year-old wine-growing community set among the steep vineyards of the Mosel Valley. Getting lost was near impossible with these informal signs popping up at least once every few hundred metres.



We knew we're on the right track when we got off the train with a whole class of elementary school students on their annual excursion. The trailhead was actually more than 2 km away at the very end of the Elztal road, and we walked along with the class until they took a break closer to the trailhead.



Walking through the old town we stopped by the timber-framed Rathaus, the oldest working townhall in the Mosel Valley dating from Year 1535. Note the metal ring on the exterior wall ... that's where lawbreakers were shackled for public humiliation back in the day.



The Elztal road, by definition, follows the valley of the Elz river upstream until it was no longer paved. The road winded through a rural neighborhood with exactly one general store, one Gästehaus (advertising a cheap 40 Euros per night!), one stately manor (pictured above) and terminated after the Landhotel Ringelsteiner Mühle where the road turned into a little dirt trail. That's the trailhead towards Burg Eltz.



It was almost a 2.5 km walk from Moselkern Station to the start of the trail, which followed this pristine little valley up towards the castle. Burg Eltz itself is built around a little loop of the Elz river further upstream, so again it's difficult to get lost unless you do it on purpose.



It was early autumn and much of the ravine was still carpeted with these beautiful wild orchids. Also in season were all the exotic wild fungi (including some that looked just like Boletus mushrooms) we were afraid to touch, let alone collecting for consumption.



The trail was marked with ample signage the whole way, with the more formal ones taking this form ...



... and the informal ones spray-painted on tree trunks in this form. The orange mark is the logo of the Traumpfade trail system, a well-maintained network of 30 or so trails in the Mosel and the Rhine Valley. This particular trail is known as the Eltzer Burgpanorama, and can be stretched into a day-long hike if one prefers.



Just like magic, our fairytale castle emerged suddenly out of the dark woods at the 75 minute mark of our hike. Protected by tall timber-frame walls and crowned with a claustrophobic cluster of Gothic turrets, spectacular Burg Eltz rose a hundred metres above the valley floor with its skyscraping medieval towers. In its 900 year history the castle was attacked only once, and never conquered.



This was easily the most complete and best preserved medieval castle we've ever visited. Even to this date the castle is still owned and occupied by descendants of the original family of nobility, after 33 generations. One-third of the castle currently serves as private residence of the Eltz-Kempenichs, and only a dozen of the 100 plus rooms is open to public visits as part of the official tour.



While the exterior was impressive enough, even more amazing was the immaculate living quarters and knights' halls with their tapestries and frescoes, many preserved in the same condition as 500 year ago. The 40 minute tour was given in English, though no photos were allowed.



There's also an exhibition of the family's treasure vault of gold and ivory artifacts since the Middle Ages. We finished just in time before a mass invasion by the same elementary school students whom we overtook in Moselkern. So it's confirmed -- our route from Moselkern must have been the easiest hike to Burg Eltz.



Our self-serve lunch at the castle's cafeteria consisted of the modern peasant's fare of pea soup, currywurst and bottles of Radler. Prices were actually much more reasonable than I expected of a tourist attraction. After lunch we hiked beyond the castle for a better vista of its exterior, then started our return trip back towards Moselkern.



We arrived back at Moselkern around 16:00, 5 hours after starting our hike from the station. According to the timestamps on our pictures it took about 80 minutes uphill and 70 minutes down, quite a bit quicker than we expected of a 10 km round-trip. Soon after we boarded the next train for Cochem, where we spent the rest of our afternoon at the weekly open-air market.

Picturesque Small Towns on the Mosel - Berkastel-Kues and Traben-Trarbach

Basing ourselves at a winery/guesthouse in Cochem, we took a couple of day-trips to explore other small towns along the lovely Mosel Valley. On this day we visited two of the most picturesque towns south of Cochem, the wine-producing communities of Bernkastel-Kues and Traben-Trarbach.



Yet another charming medieval town along the Mosel Valley, Bernkastel is an enclave of half-timber houses, cobblestone alleys and medieval market squares. Most visitors to Germany probably have never heard of this place, and it would have much more popular except for its inconvenience in public transport.



Getting here without a car wasn't straightforward. Bernkastel-Kues has no train station, and the ferry from Bernkastel only goes as far north as Traben-Trarbach. From Cochem we had to take a train to the local transport hub of Wittlich, then transfer to Bus #300 to arrive at Kues, just a short walk across the bridge from Bernkastel's medieval quarters.



Heading straight to the Market Square we immediately spotted Bernkastel's famous landmark, and certainly one of the most photographed sights in the entire Mosel Valley. This impossibly slanted house has already survived 6 centuries of warfare and fires, and today still guards the narrow path to its left leading up to the town's castle.



While most tourists access the castle by the hourly shuttle bus, we chose the old fashioned approach of a steep hiking trail through these timeless vineyards that were once owned by the castle. And here is the reward -- a gorgeous view of Bernkastel's medieval skyline, as well as that of its sister town across the Mosel.



As we hiked further we came face to face with these incredibly steep vineyards. One can imagine the perils of harvesting the triangular plot at the picture's top left corner -- this is the famous cultural landscape of the Mosel at its best.



After a brisk 20 minutes we reached the 1000-year-old ruins of Burg Landshut. The short but strenuous hike was well worth it -- just look at this stunning panorama of the curving Mosel, and its endless rows of vineyards as far as the eye could see.



We hiked back to Bernkastel with some time left for an ice-cream and a stroll amongst the town's numerous Weinstuben. Personally I'd rank this little gem among my three favorite towns in the Mosel Valley, probably in a tie with Beilstein and only behind the spectacular and more much conveniently located Cochem.



Our next destination of Traben-Trarbach was a 40 minute ride away on Bus #333, one of the local bus lines crisscrossing the winding shorelines of the Mosel. Our journey from Cochem to Bernkastel-Kues to Traben-Trarbach and back to Cochem would have been much more expensive without the convenient Rheinland-Pfalz-Ticket, which capped our cost at a reasonable 26 Euros for two.



Before our eyes was yet another pair of pleasant small towns surrounded by miles of lush vineyards on either side of the river, and linked together only in the past hundred years by the modern roadbridge.



While Traben wasn't quite as medieval-looking on a whole compared to Bernkastel or Cochem, there were still quite a few unique and photogenic buildings from the past couple of centuries including this old post-office. This century-old building was actually on sale during our visit, though it was sadly above our affordability at only four million Euros!



The town's most recognizable symbol was the unmissable Brückentor on the Trarbach side, dating from 1899 when one of the first bridges across this stretch of the Mosel was constructed. We took a brief walk in Trarbach, then headed back to Traben in search for a traditional place for dinner.



Here we made our favorite restaurant discovery in the Mosel Valley. Our original choice of Alte Zunftscheune was fully booked for the evening, and we were lucky to stumble upon Restaurant Moselstübchen just a couple blocks away on a little alley off Bahnstraße. What attracted us wasn't the promise of local wine on its store sign, but a little blackboard advertising "Frische Pfifferlinge," the seasonal local favorite of freshly harvested Chanterelle mushrooms.



This little eatery was as authentically local as could be -- exposed timberframes at least a couple centuries old, no English menus or English-speaking staff, and a clientele of reserved but polite neighbors naturally curious about these two foreigners with unspeakably bad German pronunciation. It was surprisingly busy even on a Tuesday evening, and we had the amusing experience of sharing a table with an older German couple.



The food didn't disappoint. My rumpsteak was already quite decent in itself, but it was the generous heap of wild Chanterelle that propelled this dish to a whole new level. I think I even felt a quiet nod of approval from the German couple as they saw my appreciation for their local food.



Just as enjoyable was my wife's zander fillet. We had somehow never seen zander before, and the flesh was so perfectly seasoned and the skin so crispily fried that I honestly thought it was a salt water fish. There was absolutely no hint of the repulsive "muddy flavor" typically found in most freshwater fish, and that's probably a testimony to the freshness of ingredients and expert preparation by the chef.

The local Federweisser wine was good, though service was a little slow as everyone was served by the one owner/server. We hurried off to the Traben train station after saying auf Wiedersehen to the German couple and paying for the meal at the cashier ... I think the owner perfectly understood as I pointed to my watch saying "Bahnhof" with a smile. We would ride the Mosel Wine train line to Bullay, then transfer to the next local train back to Cochem. This was a good day-trip.

Bill for Two Persons

Pfifferlingen mit Rumpsteak	18.5 Euros
Zanderfilet	12.5 Euros
Glass Federweisser x 2	5.2 Euros
Bottled Water	3.2 Euros
TOTAL before tips	39.4 Euros (CAD$55.2)