Week 53: The Mosel Valley & Ice-cream!
- Sep 4, 2022
- 7 min read
Our original plan was to spend a year travelling and return home this month but as we spent a few months back at home over the summer, we've decided to extend the trip and make the most of what we hope will be the remaining warm weather this year and of course to make the most of this great (hopefully not once in a lifetime) opportunity to travel, explore and relax.
It's already been an incredible year and one that we'll never forget... but having had some time back at home we're starting to think a lot more about what's next, jobs, where we live, what we want to do in the future... so this final part of the trip feels like it's even more special and a last chance to hit the road and explore before we return to... whatever comes next!!
Our stops this week have been:
2 nights at Campcar Remich (in Luxembourg)
1 night at Wohmobilpstellplatz (in Trier - Germany)
2 nights at Wohnmobilstellplatz (inTraben-Trabach - Germany)
1 night at Wohnmobilstellplatz Ernst (in Germany)
1 night at Camping Car Park Soufflenheim (in France)
It probably sounds like we say this every week we spend on the road but we've had another great week. After exploring and really enjoying the busy city of Luxembourg we decided to head back into the countryside to find somewhere more peaceful. We stayed in Remich (still in Luxembourg but not the city) for a few nights, it's right down in the south-east corner of the country, where the border of Luxembourg meets the borders of France and Germany. We camped right by the river Mosel, with a cycle path just across the road (and Germany on the other side of the river), this gave us plenty of chances to head out on the bikes and explore, including a few more training rides for Bear. One evening we left Bear in the van and in less than half an hour, we cycled out of Luxembourg, across the river into Germany and back out of Germany into France, where we found the Eiffel tower... or at least a mini-version of it! On the way we cycled through the rather non-descript town of Schengen... as in the 'Schengen Zone', we didn't bother to do any research but we figure this is where the EU members originally gathered to sign up to the agreement, allowing freedom of movement for EU citizens... I best move on quickly before this becomes another Br***t rant!
The campsite in Remich is just a basic carpark, with some great views and all the essential services needed to keep a MoHo running. It cost £12 a night and that gave us a nice spacious pitch, unlimited electricity (which meant we could run the air-con in the afternoons) and right next door is a great outdoor swimming pool... we popped in one afternoon to cool down and do a few lengths, although we'd forgotten how far 50 meters is!
Our rough plan from Luxembourg was to follow the Mosel valley north and visit a few towns along the way, this took us back across the river into Germany to spend our first night at a vineyard on the outskirts of Trier, an old roman town. It was great stop, very peaceful and interesting to be in the middle of a vineyard... although they did pack the vans in here, luckily our neighbours didn't snore... or if they did, I must have been snoring louder!
The town of Trier has a great buzz about it, clearly a tourist magnet but for good reasons... we only spent a few hours there but it's packed with ancient ruins and some interesting architecture. It was pretty hot so we had a walk around, grabbed an icecream (again!) and then cycled back to the vineyard. The cycle paths here are the best we've seen, not only is there a great path along the river but the paths criss-cross all the towns and main roads, making it possible to get almost anywhere without having to fight for space amongst the traffic.
The city of Trier.
Our next stop was the town of Traben-Trarbach, this was a much smaller town than Trier but just as pretty and interesting. As we drove along the river from Trier we past motorhome aires and campsites every few kilometers, there seem to be more MoHo's on the roads here than cars... it's clearly a popular area for touring, the good weather and abundance of vineyards and cheap wine seem to make it popular for some reason!
Our pitch and some of the feathered locals in Traben-Trarbach.
We pulled up at an aire (or stellplatz in German) just a few minutes walk from town and manged to grab a great pitch facing the river and literally next to the cycle path... our first trip was a walk into town to let Bear check out the area and stretch his legs after the drive. On the way back to the van Yvette spotted a café serving icecream sundaes... it didn't take much to convince me to stop to check it out... we ordered two spaghetti sundaes, promising each other to go for a long bike ride later to make up for it and to ease the calorie guilt! The waitress mentioned that they also sell dog icecreams for one euro... at this point Bear barked (just in case you don't know Bear isn't a barker... he probably barks about once a month)... so we took that as a sign that he wanted to try out the icecream... I think it's safe to say that none of us left disappointed!
One very lucky (and happy) dog...
After his icecream... Bear's tail wagged every time the waitress walked past our table!
We really like the Mosel valley, it has all the important ingredients for us... peace and quiet, a river, good cycle routes and of course great icecream... the trouble with a place like this is everywhere looks great and it's hard to decide which places to drive-past... we settled on one final stop on the Mosel, at another vineyard in a town called Ernst, the town itself wasn't much but it was close to the river and just a short 6km bike ride to the town of Cochem, which we wanted to visit. When we checked into the campsite (really just a carpark behind the wine shop) we were given half a bottle of Riesling, not bad when we only paid £10 for the night!
Cochem was great, with crowded narrow cobbled streets and an impressive castle looming above it. This was Bear's first proper outing on the bikes and his longest trip so far, he got a lot of smiles and a few smirks along the way, with his ears flapping in the breeze! We spent a few hours in Cochem exploring the streets, listening to the strange clock-tower striking weirdly out of tune bells and finding a quiet cafe for some lunch, before we hit the cycle path back to the campsite and away from the noisy crowds of Cochem.
The town of Cochem and a few dark clouds that thankfully never delivered the forecasted downpour!
Our final day this week was slightly less exciting and actually quite challenging... we packed up early (for us) and left Ernst at 8am ready for a 3 hour drive south taking us just over the border back into France... our next plan is to explore the Black Forest and it was a little too far to make it in one day... plus the laundry bin is more than full and I'm writing this sat in my last clean t-shirt, so we decided to head for a campsite and stop at a 24 hour outdoor laundrette on the way. After driving for three hours we pulled up into a nearly deserted super-market carpark and found the outdoor self-service laundrette, as we approached the washing machines... the only other car in the car-park stopped in front of us and the passenger jumped out with a basket of washing... taking up the only large washing machine! The air briefly turned blue... Yvette took Bear for a walk around the carpark, whilst I calmed down and worked out our next move... as luck would have it there was another laundrette just a five minute drive away and not only was it all open and working but we were the only ones there... crisis avoided and we're back to a full set of clean clothes!
Laundry day... and a pizza vending machine, which we didn't try. We've spotted quite a few in this area... they do hot or cold pizza to cook at home! Quite tempted to try one... but we don't have an oven, so would need it cooked!
So just another half an hour drive to get to a campsite that we found online next to a pretty lake... and we could put our feet up and watch the Dutch Grand Prix.... as we pulled up Yvette spotted a sign by the lake that seemed to say no-dogs, we assumed it meant no dogs allowed in the lake, surely a campsite in France wouldn't ban dogs... ahh, yes it can, so off we set again... there was an aire about 10 minutes drive away, so we set satnav and set off. As we drove through a small town on the way, we saw lots and lots of parked cars... strange must be something going on, ahh so they've closed the town for a fete (which looked more like a car-boot sale).... luckily the thoughtful locals had marked a diversion around the closed road... unfortunately this ended up taking the traffic round some almost impossible right-angled turns in narrows streets, with over-hanging low roofs on both sides... to end up at a gravel track that was barely a footpath... one three point turn and a few checks on google maps later and we drove back round the almost impossible right-angles turns out of the town and found a longer route on the main roads... eventually feeling a little frazzled and travel weary we arrived at the aire, to find a great quiet spot on the edge of a town and right next to a big forest for Bear to finally enjoy a decent walk!
All in all it's been a great 2nd week back in Europe, despite the laundry and navigation issues today... can't wait to explore the Black Forest next!
A small boat on the Mosel...
A small dog crossing the Mosel...
We think they get all the oldies involved when its time to harvest the grapes, with these special stannah stairlifts to help them get up the hills! The do seem to run the vines up impossibly steep hillsides!
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