Moselle Wine Route from Koblenz

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 is where the day begins. 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 about 57 km into the recorded legs. Next is Beilstein.

3. 3. Beilstein

   Beilstein has fewer than two hundred residents and looks like it has been waiting several centuries for visitors. The village clings to a steep bank of the Moselle, with narrow stepped lanes, half-timbered houses, a tiny market square and the ruins of Burg Metternich above it, and the whole thing is so compact you can walk it in twenty minutes without trying. Locals sometimes call it the Sleeping Beauty of the Moselle, and it does feel as though it escaped modernisation by being too awkward to reach.

   Read the complete Beilstein write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   about 68 km into the recorded legs you reach Beilstein. Next is Bernkastel Kues.

4. 4. 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

   Bernkastel Kues, late in the day. Next is Trier.

5. 5. Trier

   Trier calls itself Germany's oldest city, and nobody in a position to argue has managed to win. The Romans founded Augusta Treverorum around 16 BC, and by the fourth century it was one of the largest cities in the western empire, an imperial residence with palaces, baths and a great amphitheatre. The Porta Nigra, a massive black stone city gate from the second century, still stands on the northern edge of the old centre, grim and perfectly preserved because a hermit and later a church used it in the Middle Ages. A short walk away the Basilica of Constantine, a vast brick hall that was once a throne room, has a ceiling over thirty metres above the floor.

   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

   Finish at Trier. That is the ride.