The Moselsteig – Day 6 – Schweich to Leiwen

This would be a big one as I would be doing stages 6 and 7 of the trail in one day. The two stages combined, according to the AllTrails app, represented a total of just over 26 km. Somehow, I ended up doing just over 30 due to a side trip in Mehring to buy lunch and the AllTrails route ending 1.5 km short of my hotel in Leiwen.

It was a chilly 10 degrees when I set off from the hotel in Schweich to cross the town. The vineyards above were shrouded in mist and I was eager to get up there as I suspected things would be very atmospheric once I reached the higher ground.

The trail ascended at a steady rate, never too steep, and as I moved higher, the sun began to cut through the mist.

After a section in the woods, I emerged onto a trail along the top of the vineyards that I’d seen from the hotel. And there, I had the pleasant surprise of discovering that I was finally out in the sun and above the mist in the valley. It was a beautiful sight, the kind of thing hikers who set off early have the treat of seeing at this time of year.

The trail continued to ascend and the views were absolutely stunning: a huge sea of mist below with only the tops of the hills emerging from it. It was a true delight to be out walking in such conditions, especially as this magnificent show seemed to have been put on for me alone – once again, there were no other hikers about (however, this being the weekend, I started to meet more and more people on the trail from midday on).

After a brief section back in the woods, the trail then turned to head even further uphill across an open area of land (a Moselsteig warning was posted to dog owners to put their pets on a leash as the area was often grazed by sheep). This led me up to the top of the Mehringer Berg at 420 metres above sea level.

From this high point, the trail descended gently towards Mehring, the end of stage 6 of the Moselsteig. On the way down, a section of the trial was devoted to local wildlife with information boards listing the various wild animals that can be observed in the area. That confirmed my suspicion that the previous day’s unidentified animal was a marten.

There were some interesting rest stops along the way, one in an old wine vat, another at the Huxlayhütte where a few locals had driven up from the village for a picnic brunch.

From there, a steep but brief zigzagging descent led to a trail through the vineyards that took me straight into the village of Mehring where I went a fair way off the Moselsteig to reach the local bakery for a quick espresso and a couple of filled rolls for my lunch later.

So that was the first stage of the day’s two completed. The second one, stage 7 of the Moselsteig, would prove to be a lot tougher. I had already noticed in the guidebook that there was a positive elevation of 550 m on this second stage of the day, but with a long and gentle descent to Leiwen after reaching the highest point.

After crossing the bridge over Moselle, the trail ascended slightly before descending again towards a summer bobsleigh run. At this point, there was a warning triangle on the map in the guidebook, indicating a tricky section of trail. And, at the next crossroads I came to, there was an official Moselsteig warning notice too, advising hikers that the trail ahead up to the Kumer Knüppchen viewpoint was particularly tough and steep (but without any technical difficulty). It could be avoided by following the forestry trails to the same viewpoint, but I decided to go for it.

The warnings were not at all exaggerated. The 1.6 km track was indeed very steep and badly eroded (local sandstone). There were roots to climb over and loose rocks to negotiate. That said, it was no worse than some of the climbs we had on the Alpe Adria in 2021 or in Newfoundland in 2022 when three points of contact were required at all times.

At one point, I stopped to let by a couple of girls whose packs were a quarter the size of mine and whose legs were a lot longer! We met up again at the top where there was a terrific view back along the valley. They turned out to be American living in Germany and had come by car to do this climb for the day because they had heard it was a via ferrata. There is indeed one further along the valley in a village I would reach the following Sunday. Unfortunately, the girls didn’t have time to go there as they were due back in Trier later that afternoon.

The Kumer Knüppchen view point was the perfect place to rest, plus there was a recliner bench, so I let the American girls move on and settled down to eat my lunch and rest after the climb.

I spent about 45 minutes there before carrying on. The section of trail referred to in the warning at the foot of the climb extended a little further after the viewpoint with a fairly tricky section (the fixed cable was there) before it turned into a pleasant and level trail through thick woods with occasional glimpses of the valley below.

This part of the trail ended at an intersection where I blithely set off up what I thought was my trail (the signpost was a little confusing) before I was stopped by two guys resting on a bench who told me that I’d strayed onto a mountain bike trail and would have bikers tearing down the hillside towards me if I carried on. They pointed me in the right direction – the Moselsteig lay between two bushes on the other side of the signpost – and I set off again, grateful for their intervention.

The trail continued to head uphill through the woods at a pleasantly steady rate…

..to reach the highest point on stage 7, the Funf Seen lookout tower at 421 metres above sea level.

The 105 steps led to a platform with a stunning view of what are referred to as the Funf Seen, the Five Lakes. Because of the Moselle’s meanders that make it impossible to view its course in its entirety, from this viewpoint the river is said to look like five separate lakes. I didn’t quite get the five, but I made out at least three,

At the top of the tower, I got chatting to two German hikers in their 70s who were walking from Mehring to Leiwen that day. They hadn’t any accommodation booked in Leiwen, something that I thought was a little crazy at the weekend. They found me equally crazy for doing two stages in one day! Later on, I saw them sitting on a bench in the village calling the local hotels in search of a vacancy. Before ending up in the room next to mine!

From the tower, it was a long and easy descent to Leiwen, with great views of the river. As I got closer to the village, emerging from the woods into the vineyards, I was stunned by the sheer expanse of vines before me. They covered every hillside around the village, on both sides of the river. I had been in wine-growing areas before in France and Italy, but I couldn’t recall ever having seen such a large area covered by vines, except maybe in the Champagne region.

My accommodation in Leiwen was in a house attached to a local winery, a producer of sekt, the German sparkling wine. As soon as I arrived, before I even got my key, the friendly owner served me a glass of his Chardonnay sent which was absolutely delicious. After recommending restaurants for dinner, he said he was sorry that I had the smallest room. That didn’t really bother me being alone this week, but when I opened the door, the smallest room turned out to have a separate bedroom and living room area with a huge bathroom. The place was gigantic!

For dinner, I took the owner’s advice and went to the Sandra Berweiler winery that also operated as a restaurant. I didn’t have a reservation but a friendly waitress told me that if I went for a walk and came back half an hour later, they’d make room for me. Once again, I had a delicious dinner and, believe it or not, I went for the black pudding again. This time it was actually even more delicious than the previous evening’s, with sauerkraut discreetly blended in with the mashed potatoes. The young but very knowledgeable and friendly waiter recommended a riesling produced by Sandra Berweiler with grapes from vines that I had walked through earlier that day. It was delicious.

So another great day on the Moselsteig. The idea of combining two stages paid off, although the climb out of Mehring was pretty tiring. Needless to say, I slept like a log.