The Mosel River

The Mosel River feeds into the Rhine north of Bacharach. While the Rhine is a bustle of tourism, barges, paddleboats and castles, the Mosel is relatively quiet and laid back. It holds a secret, however – a lovely gem of a castle made all the more special by it’s unusually secluded setting.

I read about Burg Eltz in the Rick Steves travel guide. He suggested approaching the castle using a well-worn 2.5-kilometer path through the woods, starting in the village of Moselkern. So that is what we did, and it was wonderful. We found the place to park by a secluded hotel with clear markings for the Burg Eltz trail, hoisted our water-filled backpack, and set off. The weather was perfect and the setting was serene. We did come across a few others on the trail, but it was quiet for the most part. We saw a snake, several mice, wildflowers, tall pines and a babbling brook along the 35-minute walk.

The best part, however, was approaching the castle as a vision through the trees, just as it might have looked to a knight on horseback centuries ago. The castle is actually a group of three wealthy homes around a central courtyard. The castle is in mostly original condition, still owned by the same family for 33 generations. We were able to tour about a dozen of the 100 rooms. It was refreshing to see a castle both in tact, and of a “human” scale. The rooms were not the sorts of over overly large and ornate rooms you see in royal palaces. This was simply the fortified home of a wealthy, but otherwise ordinary family line. I even got to sneak a Vermeer-painting-like photo of a toilet (we were not supposed to take photos, but I was very discreet).

The castle’s setting was unique, too. It was on a hill, as all castles are, but the hill was in a larger valley; so that out every window, you saw woods in the distance, as if you were secluded in a fantasy land all your own, separate from the outside world. No other village or sign of life was visible. Although not really much of a secret (it is well known by guide book readers), it still gives the tourist looking for something special the sense that they have stumbled upon a true and increasingly rare hidden gem.

After walking back through the woods the way we came, we drove to the nearby riverside town of Cochem, strolled the pretty streets and had some much-deserved fries and ice cream. While there, a carillon with bells built into the peak of a lovely building sounded the hour (see bottom photo). Tomorrow we have to leave our castle on the Rhine and move on to Rothenburg in our search to find the cutest town in Germany…