Autumn, a yearly ritual when nature paint its own canvas transforming the lush green landscape into different shades of red, orange and yellow.
It’s also a reminder that the new year is not far and all the untouched resolutions from the last new year can now again be refreshed. Though I like winters but here in Netherlands, apparently in whole Europe, it’s way beyond a pleasant foggy morning and lukewarm noon sun. Day light is reduced to few hours and sun light is now a rare event. Nevertheless, autumn is one among very few reasons why I still wait for the summer to end and can live with winters. When it comes to road trips, fall season has its own unique charm as it adds so many surprises at every turns and bends and no more roads are left ordinary.
I read about Moselle valley, one of the best places to visit at this time of the year located in the German Rhineland. The whole valley and many small little towns and villages are transformed into a fairy tale world and the architecturally magnificent century old castles and endless stretch of vineyards just adds to the scenic perfection.
4 hours from Amsterdam, we decided to head south to Moselle valley for a 3 days road trip. Usually, I am the one who picks the destination of our every adventure, but the itinerary planning and research are the things I leave to my husband, Aashish. I have often found planning quite complex and boring and have managed with very little or none. For Aashish it’s the other way around, he seems to enjoy the trip planning almost as much as he enjoys the real trip and often when travelling he knows enough that I sometime doubt that he has been to this place before.
We had a fun company as two of our friends, Saptorishi and Sangeeta also joined us. This is how our itinerary looked:
Day 1: Amsterdam – Eltz – Reichsburg – Cochem
We left early at 8 and picked our friends on the way. With short days, it was still sunrise and we were lucky to have some clear skies. The network of canals, rivers, spectacular bridges and windmills make Netherlands so unique and beautiful that undoubtedly even being a very flat country you don’t miss nature.
In couple of hours we were in Germany and reached Eltz castle. 4 hours of uninterrupted drive no doubt is exhaustive but for my husband it was better than risk of losing the driver seat to me if only we had stopped for a break. We took the short hike of around 1.3 kms through curvy forest trail to reach Eltz. Castle is breath-taking and more than the architecture I was amazed by its location, deep in the valley amidst forest. The castle was engulfed in fog and it looked like hanging from the sky onto a rock top.
We spent few hours before heading to Reichsburg caslte in Cochem. Reichsburg castle’s history dates back to 1000 years and it has one of the best panoramic views overlooking the valley and the town below. It’s a fascinating to see how the town moves with life and so close to an absolutely brilliant basket of nature. I could sit there and keep staring for hours as things kept moving yet so calm and silent.
Day 2: Cochem - “Traben-Trarbach”
We dedicated this day for hopping from one town to another, taking short breaks to click pictures and reaching out to anything that looked interesting and intriguing. The road in itself was so beautiful running just next to the river at one side and vast stretches of ramping vineyards to the other. We wanted to go for a wine tasting tour but unfortunately it was not the best season and most of the tours were closed. But that didn’t deter us from doing our own short walk into a small town where we hand picked grapes from the side of the road, yet they tasted sugary sweet.
Our next stop was a small town of Alken, though not planned but it was worth few hours we spent as we discovered another castle, “Burg Thurant”. The castle is must visit though less for the view but for so many well-kept things inside. It looked small until we stepped in and were lost in narrow alleys, staircases and chambers entangling the castle from inside.
By the evening we reached Traben-Trarbach, twin towns separated by the river and not so surprising Traben-Trarbach has its own, Landshut castle. This is the place from where you get the famous panoramic view of the valley and the river cutting it in a loop. We dumped our luggage, took a short nap and were back on the road. The drive to the castle is quite steep and goes through several bends. I badly regret offering the driver seat to Aashish and missing on all the adventure of that short drive. The view definitely is the best we had during our whole trip and it brings every element of the Moselle at one place in single frame. The valley, far towns, faded bridges, the curvy roads, ramping vineyards, hills laden with colours and indeed the beautiful Moselle.
There was not much to see in the town itself and we headed back to our stay after a nice dinner.
Day 3: “Traben-Trarbach” – Trier- Amsterdam
On our final day of the trip we decided to visit Trier, the biggest city in Moselle valley and surprisingly it’s bigger than we thought. Abundance of history, cobblestone lanes, roman architecture and lots of things to do. Though it’s quite like any other European or a German city but the architecture is heavily roman influenced. Port Nigra is one such piece of architecture which subtly resembles the Roman Colosseum. Similarly, the Cathedral Trier and Liebfrauen church, complimenting each other, have significant hints of Roman influence and though not an architecture enthusiast I can see architectural differences as compared to some of the other German cities. We spent several hours wandering through the city centre and taking out some moments here and there to eat, shop and take photos. I also met this little beauty, BMW Isetta, a tiny car that holds 2 people and the door opens from the front, a perfect photo moment for me.
It was almost the time to head back home though it’s not the place you would like to say good bye to. As the sun went down and we were back on the road towards the city lights, I wish I had more days and hope to come back to Moselle soon.
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