Mosel Typical Day - Cycling Along the Valley

Arrived in the breakfast room and gorged on cereal, ham, cheese, boiled egg, coffee and orange juice, the latter blended with fizzy wine (Sekt) – now that was a nice surprise.

Checked out and mounted up. A lovely sunny May morning. In places the vines seem to be planted on sheer cliffs overhanging the river, how on earth do they harvest the grapes?

Set off again, following the traffic-free bike path eastwards. In this direction we are going down river, so the route is generally downhill. We spot signs for “Spargel” all over the place. A quick look in the menu translator reveals it means asparagus, a whole month earlier than in England. Maybe we should have some for lunch.

Riding past a village we see a small bar with a menu chalked outside. We put the bikes in the courtyard where we can keep an eye on them. I have a little onion tart with bits of bacon in and a salad. This seems to hit the spot, now pudding..

The village has a small folklore museum, very quaint. Or should we have a stroll up the hill through the vineyards for an hour?

Back on the bikes and away we go, only another 10km to the family-run hotel where we are planning to spend the night. We keep seeing ferry points along the river for the big passenger boats going up and down. The timetables seem simple enough, if this cycling gets too much we could always take one.

Arrive at our hotel, it looks just as charming as in the photos.  We park the bikes in their barn, then shower.  I'll just rest my eyes for a few minutes...

We were planning a beer before supper, but it turns out that the daughter of the house is a former Wine Queen for this village, and she's determined that we should try the local wines. Fortunately, she speaks excellent English.

To bed. I'm not sure why, but we seem to be sleeping very well on this holiday, despite the naps before dinner. Just time to check the route guide to see where we are going tomorrow before falling asleep.