Moselle Valley

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Koblenz

   Two rivers meet at the tip of Koblenz, and a gigantic bronze-and-stone monument marks the spot. The German Corner, the Deutsches Eck, is a green point of land where the Moselle slides into the Rhine, with a copy of an equestrian statue of Emperor Wilhelm I standing on a high plinth at the end. The Romans called the place Confluentes, the confluence, and the name has worn down over two thousand years into Koblenz. Across the Rhine, the fortress of Ehrenbreitstein sits on a rocky ridge above the water, reached by cable car, and the view from the walls takes in both rivers and the whole old town.

   Read the complete Koblenz write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Koblenz sits at 0 km, early in the day. Next is Cochem.

2. 2. Cochem

   Cochem has a castle that is younger than it looks. The Reichsburg, perched on a hill above the town, was built in the eleventh century, destroyed by French troops in 1689, and left a ruin for nearly two hundred years, until a Berlin businessman bought it and rebuilt it in neo-Gothic style in the 1870s. The result is a storybook castle, with turrets and pointed roofs, and a view over the Moselle that is among the finest in the valley.

   Read the complete Cochem write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Cochem comes up 33 km in. Next is Bernkastel-Kues.

3. 3. Bernkastel-Kues

   Bernkastel-Kues is two towns glued together by a bridge across the Moselle. Bernkastel, on the right bank, is the one that appears on postcards, with a market square of leaning half-timbered houses, including one narrow gabled building from the early fifteenth century that looks like it was drawn by a child with a wicked sense of humour. Kues, on the other bank, is where the philosopher and cardinal Nikolaus von Kues, better known as Cusanus, was born in the early fifteenth century, and his old hospital foundation still stands, with a library of manuscripts that he collected.

   Read the complete Bernkastel-Kues write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   67 km in you reach Bernkastel-Kues. Next is Trier.

4. 4. Trier

   Trier claims to be the oldest city in Germany, and it can make a respectable case. The Romans founded it as Augusta Treverorum around the end of the first century before Christ, and by the fourth century it was one of the capitals of the empire, a city of emperors, with palaces, baths and a circus. Constantine the Great lived here for years before he moved east, and the city's buildings from this period are so impressive that UNESCO lists a group of them together with the cathedral and the Church of Our Lady.

   Read the complete Trier write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Trier, late in the day.

Recorded source links

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