Rivers and Castles – The Rhine and Mosul River Valleys

Our big destination for the 10 day France and Germany trip was the Rhine and Mosul rivers, jammed packed with imposing castles and shoreline villages.

After our two-day TDY at Ramstein to check into the Personnel Exchange Program (PEP) office, we transitioned up to Spangdahlem to be a little closer to the action.  Spang was the final F-16 base that we had visited at one time or another, and it had a really nice country atmosphere. 

Our first foray was an hour long drive to Bacharach which was about half way along the most romantic stretch of the river.  Almost the entire river valley had rows and terraces of vineyards stretching hundreds of feet up the steep cliffs with postcard perfect villages sprinkled in as well.

Bacharach had a medieval wall and towers on the upper slope that we drove through before finding the parking lot along the water for the boat tour.  We hopped on a large, double-decker boat heading northbound (downstream) and found a table and chairs on the top deck to have the best view.  Just a few minutes after we sat down in a rather crowded deck, there was a faint sprinkle and most everyone cleared out leaving us with a great pick of seats. 

Right away we passed by a castle in the middle of the river. Long ago, the barons and petty princes who owned these castles would tax any merchants who passed by on the river.  These “robber barons” would sometimes stretch a chain across the river from the castle to another smaller tower on the other side of the river.

The weather was sunny and bright the rest of the trip as we rode a short 45 minutes to St. Goar.  We knew we wanted to spend some more time in this village to see its impressive castle ruins high above on the ridgeline and we immediately grabbed an outdoor table with a view of the castle and river for lunch. 

We decided to catch a boat back right after lunch in order to make a decent time for Claire to nap in the car as we drove around the valley.  The trip back was more enjoyable as we were traveling upstream and the journey took 1+45 to reach Bacharach again. 

After disembarking the boat, we drove further south along the west bank to see the entire stretch of the river seeing several more impressive ruins and still functioning castles as hotels.  As we drove south, we figured out there was a sommerodelbahn track back north across the river next to the Loreley rock formation.  We barely had enough time before they were supposed to close at 5, so we went for it. 

We sniffed out the river ferry since there were no bridges for miles on the river.  Right as we found the ferry boat, we drove straight on and the boat departed about 30 seconds later.  2 minutes later we were on the east side and sped north.  It was fun to see the opposite side of the bank where we had passed several castles unawares. 

We climbed up the hill side to reach the sommerodelbahn just 3 minutes before closing time.  Claire was still asleep so Laura and Callum jumped out and ran up to get a ticket.  Just as they were finishing their ride, Claire woke up so everyone met up at the track and convinced the ticket lady to let us all ride again.  All told, Cal and Laura rode three times and Tyler and Claire twice. 

The course was essentially an aluminum half-pipe tube that followed a serpentine course while we rode in a sled with only a brake and no steering control.  Laura was clocked with the highest speed at the camera station at 31 kph. 

After shutting down the track, we wandered past the Loreley visitor’s center to try and catch a panoramic view down into the valley.  The Loreley was a large rock formation at the most narrow point in the Rhine where many ships were wrecked in antiquity.  We found our way to a small bar with a terrace with the best view of the Rhine we could imagine.  We all split a pizza and a radler as we enjoyed the sunset.

At that point, we crossed another ferry back to the west side and drove all the way up north along the river to Koblenz before hopping back on the Autobahn. 

The next day, after we finished seeing Trier, we drove along the Mosul.  It was a nice change of pace from the Rhine in that it was more like a lake as there were a series of lochs along the river and thus very tranquil. 

There was not nearly the pace of cargo ships moving up and down either.  We passed through several sleepy towns and a few popular with Europeans.  We also saw cyclists everywhere.  We stopped at an Italian place along the river and ate a fabulous meal under a canopy of

grapevines.

The next day we put the castle Burg Eltz at the top of our list. 

After reading for 9 years that it was Rick Steves’ favorite castle in all of Europe, we were primed and ready to see it.  From the parking lot, we had a 15-minute downhill hike to reach the castle which was hidden in a small forest valley off the Mosul.  We immediately hopped on an English tour and bribed the kids to be well behaved.

As Rick puts describes it, Burg Eltz remained unscathed by dozens of wars over the centuries by sly political maneuvering and a great, secluded location. 

The interior was well preserved with original tapestries, windows, furniture and decorations from the 1500's.  We learned about the three branches of the family that built separate apartments within the castle walls and peacefully cohabited for hundreds of years.  Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures from inside the castle rooms.

After the intriguing 45-minute tour, we walked down to the outdoor café for a lunch of gulash soup, bratwurst and fries.  After moseying through the treasury collection, we hiked the 20 minutes back up the forest path to our car. 

We were now just in time for Claire's nap, so we began the hour long drive back to the Rhine river to see the Rheinfels castle we didn't get to see two days prior. 

When we arrived, Claire was still asleep and it was drizzling.  Callum and Tyler ventured out with their rain jackets and started touring the expansive castle. 

The ruins were incredibly intriguing as there were towers, battlements, at least 6 different levels and terraces extending out from the central keep and even pitch-black tunnels. 

They made it on a complete tour before Laura and Claire showed up just prior to them stepping out the door.  So, Callum proceeded to show the girls around while the weather improved to a sunny, warm day.

After finishing the tour around 6, we started looking for somewhere to eat.  We wanted to find somewhere with a view of the river, but also wanted to explore the gorgeous towers of Oberwesel just a few minutes south down the river.

We had passed Oberwesel on the river cruise and were stunned out how beautiful the town was set in the valley.  There were a dozen or so towers, large sections of the medieval wall, vibrant green vineyards stretching up the steep hillside, as well as a large castle on the mountain top looking down.

We parked the car and started wandering around reading from Rick's guidebook.  We found the ancient wall in between the city and the river and found that it had  stairs leading up about 15 feet so that you could walk on top of wall. 

We found a tower about 30 - 40 feet tall with 3 steep ladders taking you to the top.  We emerged with gorgeous, late-afternoon views of the town and river. 

We also had a nice close up view to what Claire termed " Rapunzel's tower."  Sure enough, it looked a lot like the tower in the Disney movie. 

We found a couple of restaurants along the main street in town, but they didn't have a good view.  So, we drove back north until we found nice outdoor seating directly across from the Loreley rock bluff.  We had a delicious dinner of pork, pancakes and sauerkraut. Our German holiday was over, but we had no regrets about seeing as much as we could.  We knew we would try to make it back again to this beautiful and romantic stretch of river.