I’ve mentioned before that, as we travel, my favorite day is departure day. I am happiest when we’re on the move. When I roughly planned a timeline for our Mosel mosey, I figured we would do it in a week and then buzz over to the Romantic Road. Two weeks in I planned for us to be near Austria. I did not realize how hard it would be to tear ourselves away from lazy days on the river.
We ended up staying in Trittenheim for five days, taking advantage of the beautiful weather and the abundant bike trails. When we did actually move on, we continued our journey along the river, oooohing and ahhhhing over the cute towns with steeples and castles on the hills overlooking the town.
Considering we are now in high season, there are relatively few people. The places that are the busiest are the aires and stellplatz, filled with campers from Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany and us: the lone French van. We haven’t seen any other countries represented. Folks are sticking closer to home, it seems, but they are traveling nonetheless. I have a feeling it won’t be long before hoards of Brits join the ranks as I believe they will soon be able to travel without quarantine issues. One thing we have not seen since we have been back on the road is a tour bus. Not a single one. Town squares are so much more enjoyable without the crowds and there is no wait for an outside table at any restaurant. No crowds to avoid. It’s kind of perfect, frankly.
For our next stop along the Mosel we settled in at the stellplatz in Zell, a beautiful, picturesque town. We walked into the center the day we arrived and for the first time in 108 days (but who’s counting, right?) we ate at a restaurant! It was glorious to sit down, order a beer, brats and schnitzel and just enjoy the slow pace of a delicious meal in quaint village surroundings. I will never again take for granted the pure enjoyment of a meal out.
One thing we have enjoyed beyond measure is the endless bike trails along the river. I believe it is possible to travel the entire length of the Mosel and probably the Rhine, too, on bikes. Miles and miles of paved path that snakes alongside the twists and turns of the river, dipping through the lush vineyards and verdant fields. It’s just a beautiful ride. If we didn’t have Bijou I would absolutely consider a biking tour of Germany There are not only plenty of paths, but also many wonderful places to stay along the way. Food and lodging would be no problem on such a trip. But we do have Bijou so we ride when we can.
Another thing we’ve really enjoyed is the waterfowl along the rivers. Most abundant are Mute Swans and Egyptian geese, many with their babies born in the spring. We saw one Egyptian goose family with 14 babies! So cute! My friend Kris, who is an avid birder, tells me that they are not native to this area but rather escapees who have long since established a presence here. In any case, they are fun to watch!
From Zell we made our way to Koblenz, where the Mosel meets the Rhine. We stayed about four kilometers south of town and rode our bikes along the Rhine and into town. Koblenz is a nice city with a fairly compact center which is great if you are visiting on foot or bikes. We had lunch in the park where the Mosel river flows into the Rhine.
Of course, what do we see right at the corner of the two rivers? A campground! There seems to be hundreds of places to park a motorhome along the rivers. It’s not unusual to find a couple of spots in a farmer’s yard near his vineyards. Folks are pretty enterprising around here! The campground at the confluence of the rivers cost nearly four times as much as our stellplatz just outside town where we paid 11 euros for our site which included a beautiful view of the Stolzenfels castle. What’s not to love?
We intended to stay only one night near Koblenz but ended up staying for three. It was one of those comfortable places where it’s easy to be. One of us will say, “do you want to move on tomorrow?” and the other just shrugs, “I dunno, do you?” This is why we don’t make definitive plans and why we don’t make reservations. It’s such a lovely way to travel.
When we eventually left, we immediately missed a crucial turn and ended up driving down dinky residential streets in Koblenz with no obvious way out. Of course there is always a way out, even if it means driving backwards, but fortunately we joined up with a street that took us back the way we came. We were trying to get across the Rhine to take Highway 9 south along the river, but no. A construction detour sent us high into the hills where we negotiated 12% and 17% grades. Seriously. We wanted to visit the little town of Bacharach, but we did not expect to be funneled onto the cobblestoned Ye Olde Main Street which took us right through town. It was a skinny road that we desperately tried to turn off of, but at all turns we found low bridges. So we just kept creeping through town until we finally made it out the other side and onto Highway 9! If this had been a regular tourist season I guarantee you we would have had a much more difficult time getting through town. Bacharach was cute, though.
We finally made our way south toward the start of the Romantic Road, but first we stayed in a small aire along the Main river in Wertheim an Main, our first stop in Bavaria. Once again our view included a castle. This is such a popular stellplatz that by noon folks were driving through and leaving because it was already full. When we arrived there were only two spaces left, one was level and had a beautiful view, the other, not so much. We snagged the nice one and stayed put for two days. We planned to visit the castle, but never did find a way to get to it on our bikes, so we ate lunch in the square instead. Since our last two meals out consisted of brats and schnitzel, this time we chose Asian Wok, which was delicious. After, we decided to ride 22 kms round-trip to the Wertheim Village, which is an outlet mall, to find Steven some new summer clothes.
On the way there, however, Steven took a tumble off his bike! Our first accident!! The bike path was across the street from where we were and so to get to it we needed to find a crossing. I figured we should get off the road and onto a wide sidewalk until we got to the crossing, but Steven wasn’t expecting the quick maneuver and he misjudged the slim sidewalk entrance. Instead, he hit the curb and went right off his bike and fell onto the handlebars. He’s got a scraped up knee, elbow and palm, but by far the worst injury is his bruised ribs. It hurts him to cough, sneeze, laugh, hiccup and generally move around. Not to be outdone, of course, my body decided it didn’t like the Asian Wok lunch I had ingested, so needless to say we weren’t much in the mood to shop once we got to the village and so didn’t buy a single thing.
After two days on the Main, we left our river travels behind and headed to Bad Mergentheim, our first stop on the Romantic Road. We have a few stops planned along the route, where we will visit medieval villages, pilgrimage sites, fairytale castles and probably enjoy more schnitzel. We’re looking forward to it!
NEXT UP: Germany’s Romantic Road.
P.S. If you haven’t already signed up to be notified when we publish a blog post, please consider doing so. Why? Well, if you’re signed up, you won’t miss a post. And, when I get notified of a new follower I squeal and clap my hands, then Steven rolls his eyes at me and shakes his head. So c’mon! Make sure you don’t miss any of our travels and let’s get those Irish eyes a rollin’!
Love your posting! We love and miss Germany. You’re making it real hard for us to deal with canceling (postpone?) our Europe RV’ing plans for next year! 🙁
Nooooo! Last time I chatted with Connie she said you were still planning on coming over in Sept. to look for a motorhome! Did you cancel/postpone for sure, or just thinking about it??
Sadly it all got canceled. The airlines started canceling portions of the trip and the fact that EU hasn’t opened back up to the US, we figured it just wasn’t the time to go. We’ll see what next year holds.
I’m sorry to hear that. Fingers crossed that things get better and this is just a small delay in your plans. I can see why y’all miss Germany, it is beautiful!
Hiya, last year we followed the Mosel, some of the Rhine – then all of The Romantic Road. You’ll love it. If you want to see where we stayed, and what we enjoyed, please check out our blog on http://www.therumrunners.co.uk – page 11 – from about 9 May 2019 onwards. Making us feel envious, we live in Guernsey, Channel Islands – and whilst we haven’t had a new Covid case here for over 60 days, our borders are closed – so we can’t easily get to France ☹️ Enjoy!
Thanks for the link to your blog! I see you were at the Hymer center in Wertheim! We went there too looking for a part, but no joy. We didn’t go inside to look at new motorhomes, but we did look in Stuttgart! Still like ours the best. Sorry you are still behind closed borders, surely it won’t be for much longer. Love to meet up on the road when you are out and about again! Thanks for commenting!
Hello, great posts and lovely photos too. We too were caught by lockdown returning to France from Spain, where we’d overwintered. Luckily we have a holiday home here in France, so we were able to park the van.
The German Romantic Road really appeals to us and, having made a number of German friends since motorhoming, we aim to meet up with some of them, possibly.
One question regarding your photos; are these from a smart phone or a camera? I ask because I like taking photos using my Sony camera but the photographs are so large using them on our blog is impractical as they take ages to upload.
Anyway, stay safe and enjoy your travels.
Hi Neil, this is Steven. Thanks for your comment. The photographs are a combination of DSLR and iPhone shots. I use an app called Batch Resize on my iPad to make them smaller and more efficient for the blog.
I don’t know what platform you’re on but I’m sure there is similar software out there. You can do the same thing using Lightroom.
So happy to have found your blog via The New York Times Cooking Community.
Hi Marlene, so glad to have you along on our travels! Thanks for taking time to comment and letting us know you’re here!
Love your travel blog, beautiful pictures, sights and scenery.
We are now going back to faze two lockdown, since all the rioting, opening up parks and beaches and too many not complying the Covid19 has returned, 61 in Washington with 1death. East in the thousands again.
Most all travel groups are closed u till the new year, the two companies I use are, mostly the uncertainty of sites and shops open. So I will continue to live vicariously through you thank you so much for sharing!
Nooooo, Jeanne! I thought things were getting better in Seattle! I hope you are safe and healthy, and still working! One of these days you will be able to travel again. Thanks for commenting!
Great that the crowds are reduced.😃…not great for the local businesses 🙁. Enjoy your pics and posts. Sorry that SD took the spill but glad his teeth and bones are intact. Have safe journeys and look forward to your updates on Romantic Road.
Thanks, Dave. We think of you often and were so looking forward to following your Camino journey. The place we are staying tonight is apparently on a Camino path, there are signs everywhere! It’s like being in a secret club, one which I hope you get to join soon! Take care, love to you both!
Love your blog and look forward to reading it. We don’t know what our winter will hold for us. We had a trip booked to northern Spain, cancelled.😪 Your travels look amazing. Wish we could do the Rving. Health issues doesn’t make it possible to ride bikes and explore. So renting a car and vacation rentals more in the horizons. Hope Steven is healing well. Safe travels.
Aww, so sorry to hear that your trip to Spain has been cancelled. Perhaps you’ll be able to reschedule soon, northern Spain is gorgeous. We fell in love with the area when we walked the Camino de Santiago last year. Steven is getting better every day! Thanks for commenting!
Oh, I can appreciate the lack of tour buses! Germany is charming! Any trouble with the language? I am conversing with my sister, as their last name is Tritten. Did you see Trittenheimer wine while you were there?
No real issues with the language since most people speak at least a bit of English. The Trittenheimer vineyard was right behind us on the hill overlooking the town! We never did try any, though. Pretty nice about the lack of tour buses, right?
Funny that you should mention the little Beethoven busts you got from playing in recitals. When I took lessons in elementary and junior high school my piano teacher gave me one each year for awhile, but I just remember Mozart and Haydn. I have no idea what ever happened to them….
My sister and I earned a few, as I recall we had Beethoven, Chopin and Mozart. I wouldn’t be surprised if ours are in a box somewhere in my Mom’s house, but who knows, maybe she tossed them. I would have. 🙂
What an amazing time to be in Germany. I am jealous of the trails. Those injuries seem to take a while to totally go away.
There are so many bike trails around here it is amazing! Steven is doing much better, though he still feels the injury every now and again. (BTW, I just now saw this comment. It was in my spam folder! WordPress is so weird!!)
2nd time i have read this. It comes 1st to the phone, alerts on a NEW one… but that is small, so had the comp out doing bank reconcile and went to your blog again to see the pics in a larger format… it is SO very pretty there!!! And so very old… it just boggles the mind… Am so excited you are on the move again and i get to see Europe thru your ‘eyes’
Take Care and Stay Safe
Twice? You’re a trouper! I’m glad you are enjoying Steven’s photos. I do love having access to his talents for the blog! Hope you are staying safe, too! Thanks for commenting!
Oh, it’s SO beautiful!! We would love those bike trails along the river. And your campgrounds look positively idyllic. With views of castles, yet. How fun that you’re getting out and about, and best of all, that there are no tour buses.
I discovered a couple of Mozart and Beethoven busts from my piano recitals in our archeological dig at my folks’ house in January. They were spray painted gold, LOL.
LOL, gold Mozart and Beethoven? Somebody was being creative! You would love it along the rivers, it’s so peaceful and a lovely way to travel. We haven’t gone inside any castles or museums, so still doing our social distancing (and saving our Entrance Fee budget for Salzburg and Vienna!)
Hi – started reading your blog after reading “Our Tour” and their travels. Always looking for ideas on where to travel and you guys are an inspiration – and what photographs!! We spent last autumn in Norway and can recommend it thoroughly, but stock up well on food and drink before you get there!
Just an aside when filling up with LPG or autogaz – it only weighs half the Equivalent weight of water, so 1 litre of LPG weighs 0.5kg whereas 1 litre of water weighs 1.0kg.
Hi, Tim! Thanks for your kind words! We get a lot of our inspiration from Jay and Julie, their blog is our go-to for destinations. Our travel styles are similar after so many years on the road. We have had Norway in our sights for a while now, but it’s still on hold. Hopefully we will make it up there next year and we are really looking forward to it! We stocked up with stuff we brought from the states thinking we would be there this year and it served us well during lockdown! Thanks for the LPG info, I’m always surprised at how little we actually use. Of course, we rarely fire up the heater, so that’s a big saver right there! Thanks for commenting and letting us know you’re along for the ride!
I absolutely love your posts. You live such a magical life! And through your posts so do I..
So sweet of you to say, Donna! We do feel very blessed and we’re so happy to share our travels and have the company of folks like you who enjoy them. Thanks for your kind comment!