Just 11 km to cover on this day, a short but spectacular hike from Neef to Ediger-Eller via the Calmont plateau at 380 metres, at the foot of which are Europe’s steepest vineyards (with a 68-degree slope).
As the guesthouse in Neef didn’t provide breakfast (apart from tea and coffee) and with no bakery in the tiny village, we finally resorted to the two dried meals from Montreal to set us up for the day. Shepherds pie for Odile and a Cuban rice dish for me. Definitely not the best dried meals ever (I find nothing beats those made by Tactical Foodpack, an Estonian company whose meals are about as delicious as these things could possibly get). However, the rehydrated stodge set us up for the day and the 300-metre climb that lay ahead.
When we set off, it was very chilly and the village was shrouded in mist, with no view of the hills and vineyards above us.
The trail led to a bridge over the Moselle that took us to the village of Bremm.
Then we began to climb, chatting along the way to a wine-grower who was dumping crushed grapes in his vineyard. We remarked how cold it was that morning. He told us not to worry, that the weather would get better and, besides, the chill in the air would strengthen us and make us hardier hikers!
After an initial fairly steep section to take us into the woods above the vineyards, the climb turned out to be steady and reasonably easy, following a way of the cross that ended at a small chapel. As we approached, we heard two male voices singing hymns inside the chapel. Along with the mist and the rays of sunlight cutting through it, that added a lot to the atmospheric morning. Not wishing to interrupt, we carried on up without taking a look inside the chapel.
And then, before you we knew it, we were at the top. We emerged from the woods onto a sort of plateau of open farmland in bright sunshine and under a clear blue sky. However, it was a little frustrating because, at this point, we did not have a view of the river. We crossed the farmland and entered some more beautiful woods with the sun cutting through the trees.
And then, all of a sudden, on the far side of the woods, we saw a few cars parked, even though there didn’t seem to be a fully surfaced road leading to this point. On rounding a bend in the track, we discovered a small and very simple café with a huge terrace overlooking the valley. At 5.5 km out of 11, it was the ideal rest stop.
We were high above the mist in the valley that was gradually lifting to reveal the Moselle far below.
At the tables around us, even though it was not yet 11 o’clock, people were sharing bottles of wine (one table of four even downed two while we sat there). This was a clearly a regular sunny Sunday routine for the locals, most of whom had clearly arrived by car – I’d have hated to be on the road when they were driving back down! As for us, we opted for coffee and a grape juice schorle. There was a great atmosphere there, with people chatting to each other from table to table. At times, above the sea of cloud, I almost had the impression of being at a café on a ski slope somewhere in the Alps.
After about 45 minutes sitting in the sun, we decided to move on. The descent began gently. We passed a number of families on their way to the top and, after a while, reached a restored Gallo-Roman shrine where passing hikers had built up precariously balanced piles of stones. After adding a small pebble each, we carried on our way as the trail began to descend more steeply.
At this point, we were in the woods with very few glimpses of the river below, apart from an occasional side track that led to viewpoint.
At a hut on the trail, we found a sign warning us that the path ahead was not to be tackled lightly, a similar warning to the one on the climb out of Zell the day before (good balance required, not for people with vertigo, etc).
Just as we were about to set off, we met a German couple in their late sixties on their way up. The husband had overheard us speaking French and struck up a conversation right away. His French was amazingly fluent and idiomatic. When I asked if he was a teacher, he told me no, that he was just a passionate francophile ever since a school exchange in his teens. They had spent the summer in Brittany and were delighted to discover that Odile comes from that area of France. All four of us agreed that Moselle valley is very special and the husband told us that he considers it to be the most beautiful part of Germany. After a good chat, they continued on uphill in search of wine and we began our descent to Ediger-Eller.
And what a descent it was! Rocky, rooty and exposed at times, with the occasional fixed cable, it was not something we would have wanted to tackle in rainy conditions. It was one of those descents where we had to watch every single step and take care not to slip. I’m proud to say that we made it to the bottom with our honour intact (i.e., neither of us fell on our behinds). But it was a close call. We were so focused on the trail, we barely looked at the view back towards the Calmont. I did, however, manage to get one photo looking back towards Bremm and the Stuben Abbey ruins on the other side of the river.
On the way down, we saw signs pointing to the start of the Calmont klettersteig, a popular via ferrata if what I see on Instagram is anything to go by.
When we reached the bottom, the pain in my calf had returned, so it clearly had something to do with steep descents. We headed for the first winery we found that could provide food for a couple of glasses of wine and a delicious flammkuche. It was a friendly place with excellent wines and a fine range of spirits too. Another place to return to!
The day’s hiking was not yet over as the Moselsteig headed uphill from Eller where the winery stood to follow a path through the vineyards and then descend to Ediger about 2 km further on. Odile decided to skip this final section and go straight to the hotel to wait for me.
There was nothing particularly remarkable about this part of the trail, apart from the view of Ediger’s church below.
Our hotel was in a fine old building at the edge of the river. Unfortunately, it was one of those places with a self-check-in and a code to access the room, so we never saw a member of staff who could have explained the Willy Brandt theme throughout the place.
The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing, reading, writing this blog, and doing stretching exercises to ease the pain in my calf after that horrific descent.
The place we had set our eyes on for dinner was unable to fit us in because they were hosting a huge tourist group that evening, so we ended up in a fancy hotel by the river where, once again, the food was excellent. As was the wine.
Footsteps 