The Moselle Valley: Germany's Gentlest River Landscape

Some landscapes ask you to climb. The Moselle Valley, in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, simply asks you to sit down and look. The river arrives from France and Luxembourg, slips past Roman Trier, and then spends some 190 kilometres winding north-east to Koblenz, where it joins the Rhine. On the way it loops back on itself again and again, and on every sunny slope the vines are planted in neat vertical lines, as if the hills had been combed.

What makes this valley so kind to older travellers is the shape of it. The villages sit on the flat ground at the water's edge, with level promenades, benches, cafés and a boat landing stage. The drama — the terraces, the slate cliffs, the hairpin bends — is all above you, and you can let a boat, a chairlift, a train or a car do the work of showing it to you.

We have written this guide around Cochem, the valley's most convenient base, and around the short, comfortable journeys you can make from it. Nothing here requires a long climb, although we will tell you honestly which places do.

A little history

Wine has been made here for a very long time. The Romans, who founded Trier as Augusta Treverorum and made it one of the great cities of the empire, planted vines on these south-facing slopes, including the fiercely steep Calmont above Bremm. The slate soil holds the day's heat and gives Moselle Riesling its particular lightness and mineral edge.

In the Middle Ages the valley became a corridor of toll castles, monasteries and small wine towns, each with its own church tower and its own stretch of terraces. War came through more than once: Cochem's hilltop fortress was taken and blown up by French troops at the end of the 1680s and lay in ruins for almost two centuries, until a Berlin businessman, Louis Ravené, bought the hill in 1868 and rebuilt the castle in a romantic neo-Gothic style. The town of Cochem bought it in 1978, and it remains the valley's most photographed silhouette.

Cochem, in the Moselle Valley, Rhineland-Palatinate.

What to see

Cochem and the Reichsburg

Cochem is a small town of half-timbered houses, a market square, a riverside promenade and a castle balanced on a cone of rock above it. The old town itself is flat and easy. The castle is not: from the Endertplatz bus area it is roughly a fifteen-minute climb on a steep, fairly relentless lane. In the warmer half of the year a shuttle bus runs up, but be aware that it stops a couple of hundred metres below the gate, so a short uphill finish remains. If that sounds like too much, the castle is just as lovely seen from the promenade or the bridge.

Beilstein

A few kilometres upstream, Beilstein is the valley in miniature: a cluster of old houses, a Carmelite church, a ruined castle on the rock and almost no traffic. The pleasure is in arriving by boat, sitting at a table by the water and walking the handful of level lanes. The climb to the castle ruin and the long stairway are optional.

The Moselle loop at Bremm

Between Cochem and Zell, the wine village of Bremm sits at the foot of the Calmont, a slope of around 378 metres whose gradient reaches some 65 degrees — commonly described as the steepest vineyard in Europe. There is a via ferrata up it; please ignore it entirely. Instead, enjoy the Calmont from Bremm's riverbank, with the ruins of a former monastery on the opposite shore, or drive up to the marked car park on the heights for the famous view of the river bend. Even there, expect a short, uneven and sloping path to the best spot.

Zell, Traben-Trarbach and Bernkastel-Kues

Upstream the valley keeps giving. Zell curls around another great bend, the Zeller Hamm, and is known for its Schwarze Katz wines. Traben-Trarbach is a surprise of Belle Époque villas. Bernkastel-Kues has the valley's prettiest market square of leaning timbered houses. All three are flat at river level.

The castle above Cochem, seen across the Moselle Valley.

The easiest ways to enjoy the scenery

By boat

This is the great Moselle pleasure, and the most comfortable. Several operators run excursions from Cochem's landing stage; the classic is the round trip up to Beilstein and back, which takes in the Fankel lock, where the boat is lifted several metres. Allow something in the region of two and a half hours for the return trip. Boats have seated saloons, sun decks, toilets and a simple menu with local wine. Longer runs go on towards Traben-Trarbach, and some combine a sailing with a walk.

By chairlift

From the edge of Cochem, an open chairlift rises over the vineyards to the Pinnerkreuz, a cross on the Pinnerberg with one of the finest panoramas in the valley: the town, the castle and the wide sweep of the river below. The ride takes under twenty minutes each way and there is a short, mostly easy walk from the top station to the viewpoint and the terrace café. It is an open seat lift, so you must be able to sit down onto a moving chair; it runs in the warmer months only.

By train and by car

The Moselle railway between Koblenz and Trier runs along the water for much of its length, and an ordinary regional train becomes a scenic one for the price of a normal ticket. By car, the valley roads hug both banks almost all the way, with lay-bys, ferries at several villages and viewpoints signposted from the heights.

On foot

The long-distance Moselsteig trail climbs; the riverside path does not. The Moselle cycle path and the village promenades are flat, paved and shaded in places, so you can walk as far as you like and turn back whenever you wish — Bruttig-Fankel to Beilstein, for example, is a level stretch of around an hour.

The Pinner Cross on the Pinnerberg, high above the valley.

A day trip nearby

Two outings are worth a day each.

Eltz Castle, hidden in a side valley a short drive or train-and-bus journey from Cochem, is the fairy-tale one: a tall huddle of towers in the trees, never destroyed, still owned by the same family. From the car park at the chapel it is a downhill walk of roughly fifteen to twenty minutes, and a shuttle bus usually runs during the open season, from spring to late autumn. The interior is seen on a guided tour and involves stairs and narrow passages; the approach and the outside views are reward enough if you would rather not.

Trier, under an hour away by train, is Germany's oldest city and holds a remarkable set of Roman monuments — the Porta Nigra gateway, the imperial baths, the amphitheatre and the cathedral — within a compact, largely level centre. In the other direction, Koblenz offers a modern cable car gliding over the Rhine to the Ehrenbreitstein fortress, which is as effortless a viewpoint as Germany provides.

Honest advice for comfortable travel

• Stay at river level. In Cochem, Beilstein, Zell or Bernkastel-Kues, choose a hotel on or just behind the promenade. The valley floor is flat; everything above it is steep.
• Hills are the valley's one real difficulty. Castles, crosses and loop viewpoints all sit high up. Use the boats, the chairlift and the shuttle buses without guilt, and decide at the bottom rather than halfway up.
• Old towns have cobbles. Lanes in Cochem and Beilstein are uneven, with a few steps and sloping thresholds. Firm shoes with ankle support help more than anything.
• Summer heat collects here. The slopes that ripen the grapes also trap the warmth; midsummer afternoons can be genuinely hot with little shade on the water. Plan boats and walks for the morning or late afternoon.
• Check the season for everything that moves. Boats, the chairlift, the castle shuttle and many river ferries run broadly from spring to autumn and are reduced or closed in winter. Confirm locally the day before.
• Trains are easy, platforms less so. The Moselle line is frequent and scenic, but village stations are small; ask about lifts or ramps if you have a case to lift.
• Two or three bases, not six. Distances are short but the roads are winding and slow. Unpacking once and travelling out by boat or train is far less tiring.

A view over the Mosel valley and its vine-covered slopes.

What to eat

Riesling is the reason the landscape looks the way it does, and tasting it where it grows — in a village Weinstube, or at a grower's own small bar — is the cheapest luxury in the valley. Ask for a Riesling by vineyard rather than by label and the conversation will take care of itself.

The cooking is honest Rhineland fare: Sauerbraten with dumplings, river trout, soups, and plenty of potatoes. In early autumn the season turns to Zwiebelkuchen, a warm onion tart, served with Federweißer, the cloudy, barely fermented new wine — a combination you will see on every blackboard in September and October. Winemakers' platters of cheese, cured ham and dark bread make a good light lunch, and Moselle bakeries are generous with plum and apple cakes.

Getting there

The Mosel river on its way through the valley.

Our verdict

The Moselle is not a grand landscape in the alpine sense. It is a comfortable one, and that is rarer. In few places in Europe can you see so much beauty while seated: a boat sliding through a lock, a chairlift drifting over the vines, a train window full of terraces, a bench on the promenade with the castle lit above you.

If you can manage a flat hour's stroll and the odd cobbled lane, this valley will give you a week of real pleasure with very little effort. Come in June for the green, or in late September for the Federweißer and the first gold on the slopes, stay down by the water, and let the river set the pace.

“A valley that bends like a ribbon, and asks nothing of you but a seat and a glass.”

Photo credits

• Moseltal bei Cochem - panoramio: © CANONIER, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Cochem, Moselle Valley Moseltal, Rhineland-Palatinate, Western Germany May 14, 2018 01: Sharon Hahn Darlin, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Cochem Castle View, Moselle Valley - panoramio: Adrian Farwell, CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Picture of the Pinner Cross 02: Sten van Houwelingen, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Mosel valley - panoramio 2: Anders Johnson, CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Mosel river 4935768380: Michal Osmenda from Brussels, Belgium, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons