On the tracks of Germany’s Castle and Wine Fields – The Mosel River

Total Duration: 4,5 days, 4 nights

As you probably know from my Instagram, I’m a big fan of castles and waterfalls. Somehow, these two kept fascinating me. As a kid, I grew this fascination from my history classes. I came to hear of that place in Germany where you simply “walk” from castle to castle. A place that because of it’s strategic location along a river and surrounded by mountains saw a tremendous number of castles being build during the time of the big conquests and wars in Europe (put age casle mosel). The history involved in that place rose my curiosity and I always wanted to visit it, a dream I fulfilled over the last years.

We did this road trip over 4 intensive days and could have used way more time to fully enjoy that place. This is definitely a destination that I will revisit. But because of time constrains, we had these 4 days.

We left Switzerland a Wednesday evening and drove all the way up to Luxembourg.

Day 1)

Starting relatively early, we first visited the city center and walked around during the morning.

The city is beautiful. The architecture, authentic and homogeneous throughout the town, brings you back in time. There is an upper and lower part. We walked pretty much around the upper part and went down to walk along the cliff area.

After an intensive morning in the city, we took the car and left for Larochette Castle. That castle stands high above the town of Larochette. Dating from the 11th century, that castle was almost entirely destroyed at the end of the 16^th century. There is only one main edifice standing which gives you an idea of the size of that place.

The next stop was the castle of Beaufort. Dating as well from the 11^th century, the castle is now flanked by a beautiful renaissance edifice. The ruins are pretty impressive and definitely worth a visit!

We spent the end of day in Trier, Germany, where we visited the city and the famous Porta Negra.

The Porta Negra is a vast city door vestige from the Roman aera. It is an impressive edifice which holds its name from the dark colored stones.

After dinner, we drove the remaining stretch to Cochem. Cochem is a bit strange. It is a very nice city, yet it is a place where a lot of people party and it is quite noisy. Somehow the atmosphere there does not fit to the style of the city ^^’

Day 2)

Early morning we started with the castle of Cochem, an impressive edifice towering the city since the 11^th century. A view that is breathtaking.

While you walk up towards the castle, make sure to make a hook to the viewpoint that gives you a different perspective over the city and the castle.

After our visit, we took the road to Eltz Castle. A beautiful castle just like out of a fairytale!

If you did read the fantasy book “The Sword of Truth”, that castle reminds me the one of Shota the witch. You can either hike to the castle or take a bus – depends on your mood =)

We finished our day at the Mosel Schleiffe where we took a late afternoon cold glass of wine. We stopped on the road back in Beilstein for dinner and drove all the way up to Koblenz.

Day 3)

The day started with an early breakfast and our first stop at Castle Stolzenfels. While it does seem quite modern from outside, that castle still is from the 13^th century and was a former medieval fortress, turned now into a palace. After that visit, we drove the small remaining stretch to reach Castle Marksburg.

That castle is one of the principal site of the Rhine Gorge UNESCO World Heritage. It is completely preserved and among the few castles that has not been destroyed and renovated. That castle was also mostly used for combat then as a residence and you can clearly see that from the thick walls and the heavy artillery that it hosts.

After that main visit, we hit the road direction Mainz. On our way we stopped at multiple places for a short look around.

We had a quick look at Loreley, the castle of Pfalzgrafenstein and had dinner in Rüdesheim am Rhein.

We had dinner at Rüdesheim which is a really nice city, very touristy but with a lot of things happening.

We ended our day in Mainz, a more modern city and spent the night there.

Day 4)

We took a look at Mainz’s old city and the beautiful cathedral that was there. Late in the morning, we hit the road back to Switzerland with an intermediate stop in Spire, a city hosting another very impressive cathedral. These two places are worth stopping and visiting as the architecture is quite extraordinary.

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