On the first three days of our German Bike Tour, we cycled downstream along the Saar River and continued along the Mosel Bike Path.
Saarburg
One of the highlights of our German Bicycle Tour was the lovely town of Saarburg where our tour started.
To get to Saarburg, we took a three hour train trip from where our international flight landed in Frankfurt. Coming from Australia, this was indeed an arduous journey, but we arrived before dark, and were enchanted when we saw the canal that our small hotel was perched next to.
After a good sleep, we had a day to explore the area. We climbed to the top of the local castle, and were rewarded with lovely views of the river.
Those tantalising bike paths on each side of the river! We couldn’t wait to get started.
We did not board our barge until after 4pm on the following day, so we explored the possibility of renting a bicycle in Saarburg. When we saw the bicycles available, we rejected the idea.
Never mind, we decided to walk the bike path east instead! Some parts of the river path were truly beautiful.
Day 1 – Saarburg to Trier 41 km
After our first night on board, we packed our lunch at breakfast, attended the English speaking briefing at 8:45 am (German speaking briefing was at 8:30 am) and set out on our first day of touring.
As the weather was drizzling, I didn’t take many photos that day. The first highlight was a beautiful reserve along what we Australians would call a billabong of the Saar River. Later, we saw where the Saar River flowed into the Moselle and stopped at an interesting pub at Oberbillig.
After taking a ferry across the Moselle River to Wasserbillig, we spent five minutes in Luxembourg before crossing a tributary and making our way east towards Trier, where our barge was waiting for us.
Fortified by some coffee and cake back on board, we set out on our bikes again to explore Trier.
Trier, founded in 16 BC by the Romans, was an amazing place, and well worth a visit of several days.
We had time to see the old city walls,
the Porta Nigra (the former northern gate to the Roman town)
and the Konstantin Basilika.
The Konstantin Basilika was originally part of a palace commissioned by the Roman Emperor Constantine in the fourth century AD, but is now used as a church.
Map of Day 1 on our German Bike Tour
Day 2 – Trier to Mehring 32 km
As the second day of our German Bike Tour was a relatively short day of cycling, we had the option to spend more time in Trier. However, Rhonda and I prefer country scenery, so we decided to instead try the detours to Villa Urbana and Villa Rustica.
First, we enjoyed a delightful coffee stop at Issel, along with many other cyclists on the Mosel Bike Path.
However, the big excitement of the day for us was our visit to Villa Urbana, an excavated and reconstructed Roman villa. Part of the fun was finding our way there, as it involved a short deviation from the well-signposted Mosel Bike Path through the local village and vineyards.
Historians believe that Villa Urbana is an example of a typical upper class home on the Roman Wine Route in the second century AD.
Later in the day, we visited Villa Rustica, a more rural style of Roman home near Mehring. However, a busload of tourists arrived at the same time as us, making the modestly sized villa very busy. With rain setting in, we crossed the bridge at Mehring to our berth for the night.
Map of Day 2 on our German Bike Tour
Day 3 – Mehring to Bernkastel-Kues 49 km
The third day of our German Bike Tour offered so much variety. First we passed a sunflower field
and then stopped outside the family home of Beethoven’s mother.
This seemed to me a rather tenuous link with the great musician, but the village was pretty and the garden attractive.
Neumagen
Our stop at the bakery at Neumagen was memorable for its delicious food and coffee. Archeologists unearthed a stone sculpture of a Roman wine ship near here and a copy of it sits opposite the cafe.
We continued through the vineyards of Piesport.
On this day I had started coming down with a cold. We had both intended to do a wine tour in the afternoon, but fearful that I might not make the deadline when I was feeling unwell, we decided that I would cancel. Rhonda continued on ahead and attended the tour.
While I was sorry to miss out, it turned out to be a good decision. Rhonda reported that the tour had involved standing in the hot sun for an hour before inspecting the Roman wine complex that I had been so keen to see.
Winterich
My next stop was at a pub at Winterich. Like all the villages along the Mosel bike path, there seemed to be more bicycles in the town than cars. What a wonderful world!
A German couple from the boat was enjoying the same relaxed pace of cycling. They caught up to me again when I stopped to take a photo of this pretty village on the opposite side of the river.
This kind of scene was so typical of our whole journey – riverside villages with church spires and castles on cliffs.
I cycled into the town of Bernkastel-Kues and found our mooring for the night.
Map of Day 3 on our German Bike Tour
After the first half of our journey, we were in a good routine and had become familiar with life on our blue barge. With three more days of cycling to go, I was hoping that my cold would improve.
In my next post, I will describe the second half of our German Bike Tour, cycling from Bernkastel-Kues to Alken.
Top photo: Cycling through the vineyards near Villa Urbana by Rhonda Whyatt
