Two Quintessential German River Cruises - Rhine Gorge vs. Mosel Valley

We had an enviable dilemma prior to our trip ... should we take a short cruise on the Middle Rhine, or the Mosel Valley? Fellow travelers offered varying opinions, often contradictory and typically passionate for one or the other. So I made the tough choice easy ... we'd do both and form our own opinions!

Without further ado, here is a photo essay comparing two iconic German river cruises -- the legendary Rhine Gorge vs. the charming Mosel Valley.



The Rhine Gorge needs no introduction -- this is arguably the most famous landscape of Germany, on par with the Tuscan hills of Italy or the mountains crowned with the Great Wall in China. We started from the small town of Kamp-Bornhofen on the right shore of the Rhine, boarding a steam powered paddle-wheeler and embarking on what may be the most scenic 25km cruise anywhere in the world.



From our boat we said goodbye to the castle-hotel of Burg Liebenstein where we stayed the previous night, and its arch-rival Burg Sterrenberg on the opposite hill. We spent much of the morning in our room gazing at the white tower of Sterrenberg, originally split from the Liebenstein when two brother fought for the same woman. That's just one of the numerous legends associated with this storied river.



What sets the Rhine Gorge apart in terms of aesthetic quality is a long array of romantic castles along the entire Upper Middle Rhine. Not far from Burg Liebenstein we spotted the round turret of the 14th Century Burg Maus peeking from the hill above the village of Wellmich on the right bank, just a little north of the its arch-rival ...



... Burg Katz above Sankt Goarhausen with its neo-gothic turrets shaped conically like a cat's ears. Lurking atop a steep cliff it has been glancing in the direction of Burg Maus from a distance for the past 600 years. At this point our boat was about to dock at Sankt Goarhausen, our third stop since Kamp-Bornhofen.



This is the narrowest stretch of the Rhine between Switzerland and the North Sea, marked by the Lorelei Rock made legendary by countless composers and authors. Almost directly across the river was the next stop of Sankt Goar, one of the most popular landings along this section of the Rhine.



Sankt Goar looked intriguing enough that we returned by train the next day for a day-trip, a decision made easy by the ginormous ruins of Burg Rheinfels looming almost on top of the sleepy little town. This 13th Century castle was probably the most popular among visitors to the Rhine Gorge, and we certainly weren't disappoint upon our visit.



Meanwhile across the river, privately held Burg Katz continued its dominance above the town of Sankt Goarhausen. Originally built in the 14th Century, the current castle is mostly a 19th Century reconstruction after its destruction at the hands of Napoleon. This would be another intriguing castle to visit, except it's not open to tourists.



The next stop was Oberwesel, another attractive town with some remarkably preserved fortifications and towers, most dating from the 14th Century. This is the famous medieval landscape of the Rhine at its best -- castles atop treacherous cliffs where the nobles ruled, and fortified towns along the waters where peasants defended their territory against raids launched from the boats.



Surviving to this date are 16 defensive towers along with the oldest and longest medieval town wall along the Middle Rhine. Standing on guard right beside the Rhine is the imposing Ochsenturm, serving as effective defense against invaders in the Middle Ages and functioning as a lighthouse in modern times.



Sitting right above the town was the former imperial castle of Schönburg, one of several castles along the Middle Rhine serving as hotels. I originally considered booking a night in this castle, but changed my mind after seeing that I could book one night at Burg Arras on the Mosel plus one night at Burg Liebenstein on the Rhine for only a little more.



Yet another castle loomed above our heads as our boat pulled into its 6th stop at the little town of Kaub. Burg Gutenfels may seem a little small and nondescript as far as castles go, but for centuries it formed a near impenetrable barrier to vessels on Rhine in conjunction with its famous neighbor ...



... Burg Pfalzgrafenstein, a medieval toll station built strategically on a sandbar at the centre of the river. From the 14th Century up until the mid 1800's a giant chain was erected across the river to Burg Gutenfels, forcing all passing vessels to stop and contribute to the coffers of the local Count. Today the castle can be visited, but only thru a dedicated ferry from the town of Kaub on the right shore.



We reached our final destination of Bacharach at exactly two hours after boarding the paddle-wheeler at Kamp-Bornhofen. Burg Stahleck on the local hilltop was the 9th castle I've counted along this short 25 km cruise along the Rhine Gorge, certainly the most photogenic river scenery I've seen so far. Now the question is ... how does this compare to our other cruise along the Mosel Valley?



Our cruise along the Mosel was a shorter one, a 1.5 hour cruise from the charming village of Beilstein to our destination of Alf where we're booked into the castle-hotel of Burg Arras for the night. We could have started our cruise from the much more popular town of Cochem if we wanted yet another castle on our cruise, but I thought we're seeing enough on the Rhine.



In our opinion the landscape of the Mosel Valley was very different from that of the Rhine Gorge ... the Mosel was a slow and meandering river on a serpentine course, carving through some frighteningly steep slopes covered with cascading vineyards. The scenery here was much more pastoral and serene, and most importantly, we're seeing about a quarter of the visitors compared to the Rhine.



A couple kilometres downstream we passed the town of Briedern with its 13th Century church tower. Part of the village was destroyed in the final stages of WWII and much of the medieval core was gone forever, though the timeless vineyards on its local foothills has remained to fuel the community's main economic production.



On the terraced vineyards further downstream we recognized the name of Senheim, which we first heard of two hours ago as we sipped some excellent Federweisser coming from this tiny village. The wide availability of these light and refreshing half-fermented wines is just one of the joys of visiting the Mosel in the autumn.



We glided by the 900-year-old ruins of the Stuben Augustinian Convent before arriving at Bremm, another little medieval village of half-timber houses surrounded by some impossibly steep vineyards. This was the prototypical landscape of the Mosel -- not as many spectacular castles compared to the Rhine, but equally romantic with its idyllic small wine-growing villages.



Closer to Alf our boat had to pass through the St. Aldegund lock, one of many on this stretch of the Mosel between Trier and Koblenz. A major rainstorm engulfed the entire Western Europe about a week ago when we were in the Black Forest, and on this day the water level still measured more than 4 metres between the two sides of the lock.



Somewhere on the way to Alf we spotted this graceful heron waiting patiently for its dinner to swim by. This is yet another feature of the Mosel that wouldn't be typically seen on the Rhine, a fast flowing river with heavy boat traffic coming through every few minutes. Our cruise on the Mosel was much more leisurely in comparison with the crowded paddlewheeler on the Rhine, and I think the Kolb Brothers line is doing a great job of conveniently linking so many of the charming small towns along the Mosel.



Soon after passing the medieval half-timber houses of St. Aldegund, we disembarked at Alf and said goodbye to a Dutch couple we met on the boat as they continued downstream in the direction of Traben-Trarbach. We would get the local taxi phone number from a friendly Italian café owner, and take the short taxi ride to our final destination of Burg Arras for the night.



So what's our final verdict? The photographer in me preferred the visual impact of majestic castles and dramatic rock cliffs offered by the Middle Rhine, while my wife absolutely loved the romance and tranquility of the small towns along the Mosel Valley. The Rhine has more convenient transportation with railway lines on both sides of the river, but the quieter Mosel sees less visitors and many villages remain largely unperturbed by 21st Century mass tourism. Frankly we wouldn't have gone wrong with either one, and should we ever revisit this beautiful corner of Germany, I wouldn't mind sailing down both rivers all over again, from Trier down to Koblenz and back up to Bingen.

Lovely Beilstein on the Mosel

After 3 nights in a winery at Cochem, we stashed our large luggage with our gracious hosts and went off to stay in an authentic German castle for one of our most anticipated stays. But between leaving Cochem and arriving at Burg Arras, we spent a leisurely day in the little town of Beilstein.



This is yet another charming village on the Mosel, hugging a sharp turn of the river and surrounded on three sides by the classic steep vineyards for which this wine-growing region is famously known. There's no train station, no bridge crossing the Mosel, and the main connection to its neighbor across the river is a miniscule car ferry with no roof.



The lack of a train station also works great in deterring most visitors without cars. Our options coming from Cochem were the hour-long ferry trip, or a 15 minute bus under the VRM network. And that's what we boarded with our VRM 3-day ticket, arriving on Bus #716 in the mid morning.



Beilstein is one of those complete medieval village with an intact core of attractive half-timber houses and its own estates of timeless vineyards, crowned with the romantic ruin of an ancient castle on the hilltop above. Along with Cochem and Bernkastel this was one of my favorite towns on the Mosel in terms of aesthetic quality.



The only reasons for not basing ourselves here was the inconvenience of public transportation, and the fact that it didn't offer as many shops and restaurants as Cochem for a longer stay. This tiny wine-growing community had one castle at the top, one church on a small knoll, and two streets full of drinking establishments and shops focusing on the world-famous vintage from the nearby slopes.



One logistical problem though ... there's no storage facility for our daypack! The village had no coin lockers, no formal Tourist Info centre (the "i" was actually a souvenir shop), and of course no luggage deposit rooms for its size. I actually shouldered our daypack around town, all the way up to the viewing platform at the church, before deciding to try my luck with the local shopkeepers. We're lucky to come across the friendly Hilde Hardy of Hardy's Bistro, who was gracious enough to keep our daypack inside her café. More on that later.



With lightened shoulders we started exploring more of the village and its picturesque and strikingly steep alleys, flanked by the village's lively Weinstuben and timber-framed homes. Further uphill was the castle ruin dating from 11th Century. Sights were few aside from the village, the church and the castle, and since we weren't intending on lounging at a Weinstube, we started to run out of things to see after two hours. In retrospect we should have stayed longer in Cochem, and plan to arrive at Beilstein at lunchtime.



We had lunch at the Gute Quelle, one of the venerable half-timber houses on the historic and cozy Markplatz. Prices were very reasonable for such a prime location -- we're looking at 13.5 Euros for a 3-course lunch.



Autumn was the season for all kinds of wild mushrooms as signified by the restaurant signage for "frische pfifferlinge," or freshly harvested local Chanterelles. My wife's 3-course meal came with this cream of champignon, though I saved my anticipation for the next dish.



The wide availability of Chanterelles, and of course the delightful and sweet Federweisser, were among my favorite reasons for visiting Germany in the autumn. While these weren't the best of Chanterelles, they still tasted much more flavorous compared to the domesticated varieties. That's why I never pass up any chances to have fresh Chanterelles on our journey ... in Canada I typically only find the desiccated ones.



The main dish in the 3-course lunch turned out to be an overly charred trout, likely a farmed fish judging from the noticeable "muddy" taste in the flesh. While my wife thankfully didn't mind it at all, I couldn't quite stand it without washing it down with the local version of the sweet Federweisser. Perhaps we should have simply stuck with all things Chanterelle.

Bill for Two Persons

Pan-Fried Trout	13.5 Euros
Bandnudeln with Chanterelle Mushrooms	13.5 Euros
Glass Federweisser x 2	5.0 Euros
TOTAL before tips	32.0 Euros (CAD$44.8)

With more time to kill while waiting for our 16:00 ferry, we returned to Hardy's Bistro to thank Hilde for keeping our daypack, and to try out her desserts while sipping more of the terrific Federweisser from the local hills. That seemed to be exactly what everyone else had in mind, as Hilde's patio was entirely packed with day-trippers and their waffles.



I would have had to shoulder our daypack for 6 hours without Hilde's kind offer to stash it inside her shop. Meeting friendly locals like Hilde often becomes a very memorable part of our journeys, and I really can't think her enough. Besides, I'd much rather spend money on dessert than dropping coins into a locker.



Hilde's waffles were good, but her Federweisser was excellent with fruity flavors and a higher than usual alcohol content than what we've tasted elsewhere along the valley. This batch of the half-fermented wine apparently came from the wine-producing village of Senheim, just a few kilometers to the south. Unbeknownst to us at the time, we would pass through this village on a boat later that afternoon.



At 16:00 our long awaited ferry arrived from Cochem, carrying us along this serpentine river upstream in the direction of Alf-Bullay. There we would sleep inside the spectacular castle of Burg Arras, the oldest in the Mosel Valley, for one of the true highlights of our journey.

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)