I’m 32! It was my birthday last week and I got THE BEST present from bf; a weekend in the Moselle Valley, one of the, in my opinion, prettiest areas in Europe. It has everything I personally like; fairy-tale villages, great wines, beautiful castles and lots of hiking trails. I could easily spent a couple weeks there. The only downside is the driving. I absolutely hate driving a manual car in an area with lots of hills. I’m super glad my boyfriend doesn’t mind it, so he did the driving 😉 I’ll try and share our itinerary here so that maybe if you decide to go, you have some tips. Our itinerary is not super packed since we’re NOT early risers on vacation. We like our slow mornings and slow brunches.
Day 1 / Hike and Eltz Castle
We only had 2 full days in the area so we had to carefully choose what we wanted to do. The first day we did the Traumpfpad hike (about 12,5km) from Wierschem to the Eltz Castle, which was great. Parking next to the Town House in Wierschem was pretty cheap (I believe 1,5 euro per hour) and there is a public toilet (yay!). I would say the hike is an intermediate one, since it did involve lots of climbing on steep forrest hills. Hiking shoes are a must! I wore Nike shoes, which was a mistake, I almost slipped a couple of times. The hike was great, I especially enjoyed the yellow blooming rapeseed fields (we went near the end of May).
About halfway through the hike we saw the castle, Burg Eltz, which looked like they pulled it straight from a fairytale. While the hike was super quiet, the castle was super busy! We stood in line for tickets for about an hour, and the another half hour for the guided tour. But, I have to say, it was worth it. The castle is just as beautiful on the inside as it is on the outside.
We had another 6km of the hike left after our castle visit (which took way longer than expected), so when we finally arrived back at Wierschem, we decided to grab a bite to eat there. The view from the outdoor terrace of Landhaus vor Burg Eltz was beautiful and the food was just fine 🙂
Day 2 / Geierlay Bridge and Cochem
The next day we decided to go to the Geierlay bridge, which is supposedly the longest hanging bridge of Germany. Again, huuuge crowds, which was a bit of a disappointment. The entrance to the bridge is free, so that’s reasonable. If you go, I recommend parking your car in Sosberg, since it is quieter than Mörsdorf. Parked is paid there, about 2 euros per hour. It was a nice 2km walk to the bridge, and the bridge was also fun to walk, but I do consider this activity dispensable if you have little time.
In the late afternoon we finally went to Cochem (my fave little town). I really wanted to do a wine tasting at Weinhaus Hieronimi. The weather was great and they have a really cosy ‘weingarten’ where you can sit and taste some of their wines while you enjoy the garden and the Moselle view. I have only one word; lovely! I highly recommend.
After tasting 8 different white wines, we definitely had a go for a walk to kind of ‘sweat off’ the alcohol a bit, so we did some exploring. We just walked around the town centre and walked to wherever it looked cutest. This explorative walk led us to a high up little pathway which had an awesome view of the Cochem Castle. A hidden gem if you ask me. I’m not sure of we were even allowed to walk over there so I’m not going the share the location. Just do as we did, walk around and let your eyes guide you! Turn Google Maps off for a bit 😉
After the walk we went to have dinner at a place called Dazert, which was like being transported back to the seventies or eighties. Don’t expect anything fancy on your plate, but if you want to have a good and filling German meal, this might just be the place for you. We had some whitefish with cooked potatoes and a creamy mustard sauce (yum!).
Day 3 / Koblenz
The next day was going home day. On our way back we stopped for a couple of hours in Koblenz, which I also highly recommend! We parked near the Electoral Palace (Tiefgarage Schloss), explored it’s gardens and walked the boulevard up to the Deutches Eck, which is where the Rhine river splits into the Moselle river. After this, we strolled around the old centre looking for a souvenir store (I have this thing where I buy a little snow globe of the places that I go on vacation), but weren’t able to find any (how strange!?).
So that sums up my lovely birthday trip to the Moselle Valley. By the way, we stayed in a bungalow at Landal Sonnenberg, which was nice, but a little far away from the places we wanted to see.
