Odile’s first day on the hike with me would be a fairly easy one with just under 14 km to cover to reach Bernkastel-Kues.
Over breakfast, we got chatting to a German guy who was on one of the Compostella trails that cross Europe. He was doing it in two week stretches and going as far as Toul in France this year. And, like me on the Moselsteig, he had seen hardly any other hikers.
We set off at around 8:45 and, for once, the day didn’t begin with a steep climb out of the valley. As Monzel was on higher ground in the vineyards, it was simply a case of setting off and walking more or less on the level. The trail did rise gently at one point, but it was nothing to write home about.
There were a few teams of grape pickers at work in the vineyards. Until this point, I had seen the grapes being harvested by machine, so it was good to see traditional methods being used as well,
The trail led gently downhill to the bridge at Mülheim, where we crossed the Moselle. On the way, it began to rain quite heavily and so we got into our rain jackets. However, the rain soon eased off again and, as we began to climb up out of Mülheim, the jackets came off.
We had a brief snack stop at the spot where the trail left the vineyards to enter the woods that we would be walking in until Bernkastel. They were occasional views of the river below, but these were mostly masked by the trees. The woods around us were especially beautiful and the walking was very easy, mostly on forestry tracks.
At around midday, the heavens opened again, this time with a vengeance, and it poured all the way into Bernkastel. We passed the Annakapelle just outside the town, remarkable for the mosaic covering the wall that faced the valley…
…then made our way towards Burg Landshut, the castle above Bernkastel that we had seen in the distance ever since setting off. Along the way, we passed some of the steepest vineyards seen so far.
There was one final steep ascent to the castle. We didn’t really linger there in the cold wind and pouring rain, especially as the café inside the castle was closed for a private function. It would have been a great place to stop though, with huge panoramic windows overlooking the valley.
So we set off down the steep path to the town, hoping to find refuge in a café that we could see part way. Unfortunately, it was closed on Tuesdays, so we carried on to the town centre where the first café that we came across miraculously had a table free for us (along with an amazing selection of cakes). A warm bowl of soup and a slice of cake soon helped us forget our damp condition.
On leaving the café, we decided to try the hotel to see if our room was ready. And it was. And the heating was on! Our rain gear and pack covers had kept everything pretty dry but the warm radiators came in handy all the same.
After a quick shower and a short rest, we set off to explore the town, which was a charming little place with a lot of half-timbered buildings and huge numbers of tourists. Kues, on the opposite bank of the Moselle, was much less interesting, a sort of modern adjunct to the old town.
Between further rain showers, we ended up at a wine sampling booth by the river, where we tried a couple of the local wines in the usual generous 20 cc servings that seem to be standard in this area. We were both impressed by the quality of the wines we tasted. Mention German wines at home in France and people give you funny looks, but the stuff we sampled was as good as any top quality Sancerre or Chablis.
Dinner turned out to be a bit of a problem as the sheer number of tourists in the town meant most places were packed out. We had set our sights on a restaurant by the river in the old railway station that unfortunately had no room for us right away and, as the heavens had opened again, we didn’t feel like wandering around for half an hour until they could fit us in. We tried another place that was highly recommended, but it was fully booked out too. Finally, we decided to try our luck in an atmospheric old tavern that actually had room for us, and where the food was of an amazingly high quality, served in generous portions. So this rather drab day ended on a high note.
Footsteps 