The river Moselle infos and river cruising experiences

[jpalbny]

@notamermaid, that mention of choucroute brings back great memories! I had a plate a few years ago at an Alsatian restaurant, with a nice half-bottle of Gewürztraminer. I did not share very much at all with Chris, but not to worry, she had a nice dish with duck breast and a half-bottle of Pinot Noir for herself...

 

Alsace is a delightful part of France for me because of the German influence on the food. Tarte Flambée (Flammkuchen, Flammeküche) is to die for.

 

@Ritabob, you seem to have posted a picture similar to my first visit to the Grand Canyon! It was a Grand Fog...

Edited December 10, 2020 by jpalbny

[Host Jazzbeau]

25 minutes ago, jpalbny said:

@Ritabob, you seem to have posted a picture similar to my first visit to the Grand Canyon! It was a Grand Fog...

 

I have been to Big Sur at least three times, and have never seen it.  [I believe it is a myth invented by California's Tourism Board, just like the Loch Ness monster...]

[gnome12]

10 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

 

I have been to Big Sur at least three times, and have never seen it.  [I believe it is a myth invented by California's Tourism Board, just like the Loch Ness monster...]

It was the end of my second trip to Vancouver, British Columbia - a total of 2 weeks - before I saw Grouse Mountain which is just north of the city. I also didn't believe that it existed.

Edited December 10, 2020 by gnome12

[Ritabob]

You win some, and you lose some, but that has never stopped us from wanting to travel, does it?   

 

[ural guy]

Notamermaid, as always, thanks for the notes.  Certainly is a pretty region, with tons to see.  Fun to just wander and see where the day takes you.

 

As far as what a difference a day can make, this pic is from our November 2018 visit to Trier.  The day of the group tour was rainy and the city was crowded.

 

 

On the Vantage cruise, they build in a 'free' day, the boat docks in Schweich and most people chose to take the optional (extra $) tour to Luxembourg.  I used one of the e-bikes to revisit Trier on my own.  Beautiful weather and fewer people.

 

 

A fun city to visit, with quite a bit to see.  Retirement is in 3 years.  Would love just to meander through this region and traipse along the Mosel, hop on a river cruise to be pampered when my feet and knees start to hurt, then start the cycle over.  My spouse is a great traveler as long as I don't walk to fast and she has enough yarn to knit socks. 

[jpalbny]

The second view is definitely better!

 

Unfortunately our pics of Porta Nigra look like your first one. It must rain a lot in Trier! 

[gnome12]

7 minutes ago, jpalbny said:

The second view is definitely better!

Especially with the beer in the foreground.

[ural guy]

2 hours ago, gnome12 said:

Especially with the beer in the foreground.

Before I left the states, a buddy had told me that Trier was his favorite place when he was stationed in Germany.  So for this pic, I was really trying to dial it up a notch.

 

Plus, we had been on the cruise for 9-10 days at this point, so getting a day to do whatever I wanted, at my pace, was huge.

[notamermaid]

Luxembourg - state bordering on France, Belgium and Germany. In the South, the Moselle river is the major attraction for river cruisers. Luxembourg city, which is an excursion on most river cruises, lies a little further North. The usual embarkation port is Remich. Fancy exploring the small town? Here is an article from Luxembourg Times on Remich and the area: https://luxtimes.lu/travel/42628-remich-ancient-alleyways-wetlands-and-vineyards

 

notamermaid

 

[gnome12]

Can anyone suggest a hotel in Cochem for 2 nights in September? Ideally, I'm looking to spend less than €100 per night (excluding breakfast) for a twin room (which seems to be very difficult to find - German hotels seem to believe in double beds). I'd love to be on the river. (I was looking at Hotel Traumblick which looks lovely but insists on a 4 night booking at that time.)

 

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[notamermaid]

@gnome12

I am currently a tourism employee with no actual work so I did some research. First, the twin room is often a problem, definitely. What you are looking for in German is "Doppelzimmer mit getrennten Betten" and that is what I looked for. Here are two places in Cochem and its suburbs: https://alteswinzerhaus-cochem.de/

https://www.hotel-vintage.de/gaestezimmer/

 

They may have English in their language portfolio as Cochem is so international (the British love the place).

 

Have you tried the tourist information centre? The website: https://www.ferienland-cochem.de/en/home

 

I do not know any hotels from personal experience and have no contacts that may give recent reviews.

 

Hope this helps. Hopefully, someone who has been on a land trip can help you further.

 

notamermaid

 

[gnome12]

6 hours ago, notamermaid said:

@gnome12

I am currently a tourism employee with no actual work so I did some research. First, the twin room is often a problem, definitely. What you are looking for in German is "Doppelzimmer mit getrennten Betten" and that is what I looked for. Here are two places in Cochem and its suburbs: https://alteswinzerhaus-cochem.de/

https://www.hotel-vintage.de/gaestezimmer/

 

They may have English in their language portfolio as Cochem is so international (the British love the place).

 

Have you tried the tourist information centre? The website: https://www.ferienland-cochem.de/en/home

 

I do not know any hotels from personal experience and have no contacts that may give recent reviews.

 

Hope this helps. Hopefully, someone who has been on a land trip can help you further.

 

notamermaid

 

Thanks @notamermaid. I will look into these. 

[notamermaid]

At the end of October 2020 I had a trip out to Brodenbach on the Moselle. It is a village like many others you find along the Moselle. The trip was not to take me specifically to Brodenbach, but I wanted to see Autumn landscape and the Moselle combined with a place I had not been to before. On this rather grey and rainy day, Brodenbach fitted as I did not want to go much further up the valley and there is an interesting item in the hills above the village that i wanted to see. A castle (all together now: "no surprise!") called Ehrenburg. First, here is an impression of the river at Brodenbach:

 

The village has both a small marina and landing stages for excursion boats. River cruise ships of up to 110m length are allowed to dock at the KD company's dock.

 

As you may expect, the village focusses on wine and tourism with a few pleasant buildings from various centuries and a couple of hotels. Brodenbach has a rather steep hill that you need to climb in order to get to the Ehrenburg. Several hairpin bends in the car later, we parked in the car park and I took a moment to catch my breath. The road is an experience! Narrow and certainly not suitable for either lorries or coaches. If one wanted to include that castle in an excursion, logistics would be awkward. The car park is also 500m from the castle, so a long slightly steep walk back up coming from the castle back to the car. If you are a hotel guest you can park closer in a tiny car park.

 

It was a rainy day but the castle was surprisingly full. I waited till there were no people coming in or out. This is the entrance to the castle which leads over a bridge. Left and right of it, it is a long way down to the ground:

 

Ehrenburg castle is an "Erlebnisburg", i.e. they stage reenactments, medieval dinners, it is a wedding venue and a hotel. With so many people inside, we did not want to spend much time and did not pay the entrance fee, just accessed the outer courtyard. But I would be happy to visit it again proper. The views on this grey day through the trees slowly loosing their leaves was great and I expect them to be even greater from inside the castle. This is the castle website: https://www.ehrenburg.de/en/

 

Here is a photo taken of the trees to the left of the bridge - it is not steam, but fog rising:

 

It was time to head back home, on the way back to the main road, I took this shot from one of the bridges between Brodenbach and Koblenz:

 

Yes, on that hilltop to the left of the Moselle there is another castle! The contrast between the rock face, brown trees and the yellow vine was really nice to see.

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

 

[notamermaid]

Flooding on the Moselle

 

The annual winter flooding has set in. As the temperature has risen, snow in the Voges mountains is melting. Rain has also made the tributaries rise so the flooding has reached Trier. 6m this morning meant that the section of the German Moselle is on flood alert. A halting of shipping at 6.95m is imminent. That level is expected for tonight.

 

This is not really dramatic it happens almost every year but the continued rain has people worried. The level could rise quite a bit more.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

Shipping is halted and Trier level is at 777cm, having peaked at 793cm. It will stay high for days to come as we expect more rain and snow. The Rhine is also very high so at the confluence in Koblenz you can see the impact. This is a webcam shot from 29 January:

 

This is from a few minutes ago:

 

Neither Rhine nor Moselle have reached the peak yet near Koblenz, so the situation will get worse during the next 12 hours.

 

The river right now resembles nothing that you see in tourism brochures, the weather is grey, rainy and both the Moselle and Rhine look more like "braune Brühe" - brown sludge. Or in British terms resembling something like Oxo cube gravy thickened with corn meal.

 

Currently we see branches and trees floating down the rivers, if it gets worse we might see a fridge or even a caravan (the towed variety popular along many embankments) that have been swept away from caravan sites.

 

notamermaid

 

 

[notamermaid]

The paths on Deutsches Eck at Koblenz have been under water for a few days now, here is the view:

 

This is a view from better days - 2017:

 

Fortunately, the level did not rise to 9 metres at Trier, something the experts had feared. Shipping is still halted though.

 

The next few days will see colder and drier weather, so the levels of both Moselle and Rhine will slowly go down. We may see another rise when proper snow melt sets in, but that is too far into the future to predict.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

The Moselle has well returned to normal levels and we can hopefully look towards the Spring with ease, not much rain is forecast so we will perhaps not see another combination of snow melt and rain this late Winter and early Spring. Note for those new to the subject: I will not report on low water issues during the year as the Moselle hardly ever has any. For the entire length of the river navigable by river cruise ships, it is a waterway controlled by a dam and lock system with a guaranteed maintained depth of the navigation channel.

 

So, on the Moselle we can focus on tips and info. One thing to note: the worst bit of the Moselle in drought is actually the one kilometre at its confluence with the Rhine. On rare days it can mean that you cannot enter the Moselle or leave it. The first lock on the Moselle coming from the Rhine is shortly after the dock and the Balduin Bridge in Koblenz. After that it is plain sailing all the way to Metz in France.

 

notamermaid

 

Edited February 24, 2021 by notamermaid
grammar

[notamermaid]

A short trip to the lower Moselle region

 

Very recently I have had a drive out to the Moselle again. Large areas of the lower Moselle region are easily accessible on both sides of the river as there are bridges in relative proximity to one another - driving on one side and then crossing over is easy in a car. This is what we did coming from direction Koblenz (not Koblenz itself). We went upstream with the river on our right and I was able to take a photo of the hills with the two castles of Kobern-Gondorf on the other bank:

 

There was some building work going on at the embankment, hence the crane.

 

Kobern-Gondorf is unusual in that it has two castles and two "palaces", Schloß in our widest sense in German, i.e. they are not huge Baroque edifices. The two municipalities used to be separate and were only fused in 1969 that is why you find four important buildings in the town. The most wondrous, perhaps painful to the architecturally conscious eye, thing in this place is the Schloss you can drive through. This is what the Schloß von der Leyen looks like from across the river:

 

We hit Alken, a well-known wine village. Alken has a lovely setting and an impressive castle with a distinctive silhouette towering over the hill with its vineyards. Alken itself has a remarkable old church, St. Michael, dating from 1015! I will definitely have to come back and see the interior: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Michael_(Alken)

The castle high on the hill is called Burg Thurant and is open to visitors, has a snack bar and holiday apartment for rent (German website only): http://thurant.de/

 

Just beyond Alken is the bridge over the other side, the village of Löf, but we did not stop, time to look over to where we had just come from:

 

 

Not wanting to spend much more time in the area, we headed back in the direction of Koblenz and followed the road along the embankment where we of course then got to Kobern-Gondorf with the Schloß. This shot I took just before driving through:

 

While many places along the Moselle are more alluring and popular, I must say I enjoyed exploring those few kilometres and I look forward to seeing more of those small places of the lower Moselle on warm Spring days.

 

By the way, if you wanted to see that part of the Moselle using public transport you could well do that from Koblenz. The standard regional train needs 11 minutes from Koblenz to Kobern-Gondorf.

 

If you are interested in short trips by boat, you can also inquire in Koblenz which company does the trip to Alken. Or do a round trip up the Moselle from Alken with the MS Goldstück (they also start in Alken and go to Koblenz on some days in the year): https://www.ms-goldstueck.de/index.php/en/

 

notamermaid

 

[Renmar]

Never knew that treads like this existed on Cruise Critic, what a wealth of information about the Moselle river area.

This wants us to revise our plan for a river cruise. I don't know what to do 🤔 would we be spoiled if we go on the Danube cruise first and will any other be less interesting or go on a Moselle one first and then while we are in Europe anyway go on a Danube cruise. I know, live is tough 😉

 

Thanks to all who gave info on this tread, mostly & especially @notamermaid👍👍

 

Theo

[Coral]

1 hour ago, Renmar said:

Never knew that treads like this existed on Cruise Critic, what a wealth of information about the Moselle river area.

This wants us to revise our plan for a river cruise. I don't know what to do 🤔 would we be spoiled if we go on the Danube cruise first and will any other be less interesting or go on a Moselle one first and then while we are in Europe anyway go on a Danube cruise. I know, live is tough 😉

 

Thanks to all who gave info on this tread, mostly & especially @notamermaid👍👍

 

Theo

I think you answered your own question - there are no wrong answers! I think you will be pleased whichever one you choose first.

[notamermaid]

Tough choice indeed @Renmar   There are many options to get to the Moselle and if you wanted to combine a Moselle and a Danube cruise that would work as well. I really like the idea of flying into Paris and starting a cruise in Metz or Remich (Luxembourg state). If you wanted to do the Moselle as a land trip and then get to a Danube cruise that is also possible with the very good train system we have in Europe. You can get from Paris to Metz in 90 minutes with a high speed train (TGV) and you are right at the Moselle. Trains run to Luxembourg and Trier and then to Koblenz along the embankment most of the way (a couple of tunnels cut out meanders of the river).

 

There are more choices this year than in previous ones, with more lines adding Moselle options and one line coming onto the market: TUI. If you do not go for a standard itinerary on one cruise for the whole way, you could even do a back to back Remich to the Danube. If the dates work out you could do this with two companies with the change-over port Frankfurt. From Frankfurt you can go to Nuremberg (which is only Main and Canal) or even as far as Budapest - and versions in between that length. Especially looking at the UK companies in combination with North-American companies gives you a wider choice of traversing Europe if you want to spend a lot of time on the river.

 

The "new" river cruise company TUI has an itinerary which I really like. TUI River Cruises is a UK operator and has a slightly different focus on cruise ports on the Moselle. The differences to other itineraries I have read about for the Moselle make it so appealing. This one unusually for UK operators does not start in Cologne, but in Frankfurt. Frankfurt really is an up and coming embarkation port - it has been used for some years but not to that extent.

 

A Frankfurt return cruise on the Moselle with Piesport and Traben-Trarbach! It is called "The Moselle Valley: Vines and Views": https://www.tui.co.uk/river-cruises/moselle-cruises/

 

And vines and views is exactly what you will get, especially with the chair lift ride in Boppard on the Rhine thrown in.

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

[dogs4fun]

The TUI itinerary is appealing. I can’t wait until international travel is again possible.

[Renmar]

I thought TUI is a German company!

 

Thanks for the info on the Moselle, looks interesting.

 

Theo

[notamermaid]

9 hours ago, Renmar said:

I thought TUI is a German company!

 

Thanks for the info on the Moselle, looks interesting.

 

Theo

Yes, that is a confusing one. TUI is German and did run river cruises on the German market a few years ago. A new kind of branch(?)  in the UK was founded as a separate company to operate river cruises for the UK market. Not sure, perhaps in the end this river cruise business is still somehow connected to the German mother company, but for us travellers it is definitely a separate entity.

 

The Moselle has been a much liked river with the British especially but also the Dutch for quite a few years and for land trips for a very long time.

 

Riviera Travel is the big British company that operates cruises from Cologne which is of course a very convenient airport for UK travellers but is also convenient for train travel, having a fast connection from London via Brussels. You could get to the Moselle via that route for a land trip, but in my mind as a traveller I find exploring the Moselle coming from Paris and following the river downstream more appealing. Of course, if you wanted Paris as your highlight at the end of your cruise (extension) then upstream is the way to go.

 

notamermaid

 

[dogs4fun]

I notice that TUI offers Moselle, Main, Rhine & Danube cruises but no Elbe. I wonder why?