Day 4 – Mosel Cycle Path – Trier to Piesport

April 23, 2026

The Moselle River has a French spelling (Moselle) and German spelling (Mosel). For the sake of simplicity I will use the German spelling as the section Bev, Graham and I are riding is in Germany.

The Mosel begins in the Vosges mountains and flows for around three hundred kilometres in France before coming a border between Luxembourg and Germany. There are 208 kilometres in Germany until the Mosel flows into the Rhine at Koblenz. We are cycling from Trier to Koblenz, a distance of around 207 kilometres. Our trip is longer than the distance the river travels due to us following paths that don’t always follow the same route as the river. Of course, in Germany, like the rest of Europe, there have conquests and wars around the Mosel. The result is a number of hilltop castles. There is evidence of the Romans including old wine presses from that period.

We started off in high spirits arriving at the depot where we were to pick-up the bikes well after the suggested time for collecting the bikes only to find that the depot did not open until 10am. So, we spent a little time in a retail complex (where it was warm) before returning to pick up the bikes. The bike person was there and there were a number of other people collecting their bikes. The bikes once adjusted seemed ok. However, it was nearly an hour later before we managed to get on our way. The bikes are quite good. Heavier than our bikes at home but they are well serviced and move easily.

We had hoped to have a GPX route guide but while we got the GPX files we could not easily use them. So on the first day we used Google Maps which turned out to be less that useless. I managed to navigate our way out of Trier following the recommendations of the trail notes. A few kilometres into our ride I could not find the first real decision point and we ended up following a route through an industrial area before again finding the correct path.

Rowing on the Mosel

The path itself is well constructed and is nicely paved, it is flat and generally downhill all the way. We stopped for photo opportunities rather frequently making our progress slow. It was all so different to what we had seen before. Our first surprise was to see a huge cargo river boat go past carrying what seemed like metal waste. Unfortunately, the photo I took did not capture the river boat’s size.

We stopped for lunch at Schweich. The restaurant/café was in one of the old Ferry towers that used to be all along the river. It was lovely sitting by the river watching the river traffic.

Up to this point we had been on the left bank of the river. Following our guide we crossed the Mosel there and continued on toward our destination of Piesport. The guide suggested we go to a village called Longuich to see a castle and a roman monument. We saw neither but we did happen upon a religious event with the families and children having some ritual being visited upon them. There was even a band which could easily have been a jazz band. In my head I had it launching into “When the saints came marching home”. That did not occur rather one of those rather dirge like pieces of music was played.

The religious event

We continued on past village after village many of which are involved in the wine industry. The hills either side of the river are covered in vines on what seem like impossibly steep slopes.

There were so many stops we could have done but did not, simply because we ran out of time. A few kilometres from our destination we went through a very pretty village that is Germany’s oldest wine growing town. We did not stop as all we were focussed on was the destination. I missed the turn we needed to make. The other two saw a sign and wanted to follow that sign. I on the other hand wanted to find the sign that would not put us on the relatively busy road. In the end they decided to go their way and I quickly found the sign and stayed on the cycle path. I did not catch Bev and Graham. When I arrived at our accommodation I expected to find them there. But no, they were not. Our advanced party of Trish was but not the other two who had somehow found their way across the river to the old Piesport centre. Eventually they made their way to our accommodation.

The room Bev and I had was wonderful. It was large and had a picture window looking out over the Mosel to the vineyards crawling up the side of the hill. The sun was still on the south facing slopes making a wonderful sight.

The view out our bedroom window

We were staying at wine producer called Weingut Lehnert-Veit. We had a wine-tasting as part of our deal. Nathan, an Aussie who is married to the owner’s daughter, looked after us. He selected a wonderful set of wines ranging from a dry Pinot Gris, which was rather nice and in the Alsatian style, a high-quality Dry Riesling, a Pinot Noir which was a lighter style and finally a spätlese Riesling. We also had an Auslese. They are amongst the best Rieslings I have had. The balance between acidity and sweetness was perfect. Overall, it was just a wonderful evening and a perfect end to a long day. We had travelled about 50 kilometres.