We had an enviable dilemma prior to our trip ... should we take a short cruise on the Middle Rhine, or the Mosel Valley? Fellow travelers offered varying opinions, often contradictory and typically passionate for one or the other. So I made the tough choice easy ... we'd do both and form our own opinions!
Without further ado, here is a photo essay comparing two iconic German river cruises -- the legendary Rhine Gorge vs. the charming Mosel Valley.
The Rhine Gorge needs no introduction -- this is arguably the most famous landscape of Germany, on par with the Tuscan hills of Italy or the mountains crowned with the Great Wall in China. We started from the small town of Kamp-Bornhofen on the right shore of the Rhine, boarding a steam powered paddle-wheeler and embarking on what may be the most scenic 25km cruise anywhere in the world.
From our boat we said goodbye to the castle-hotel of Burg Liebenstein where we stayed the previous night, and its arch-rival Burg Sterrenberg on the opposite hill. We spent much of the morning in our room gazing at the white tower of Sterrenberg, originally split from the Liebenstein when two brother fought for the same woman. That's just one of the numerous legends associated with this storied river.
What sets the Rhine Gorge apart in terms of aesthetic quality is a long array of romantic castles along the entire Upper Middle Rhine. Not far from Burg Liebenstein we spotted the round turret of the 14th Century Burg Maus peeking from the hill above the village of Wellmich on the right bank, just a little north of the its arch-rival ...
... Burg Katz above Sankt Goarhausen with its neo-gothic turrets shaped conically like a cat's ears. Lurking atop a steep cliff it has been glancing in the direction of Burg Maus from a distance for the past 600 years. At this point our boat was about to dock at Sankt Goarhausen, our third stop since Kamp-Bornhofen.
This is the narrowest stretch of the Rhine between Switzerland and the North Sea, marked by the Lorelei Rock made legendary by countless composers and authors. Almost directly across the river was the next stop of Sankt Goar, one of the most popular landings along this section of the Rhine.
Sankt Goar looked intriguing enough that we returned by train the next day for a day-trip, a decision made easy by the ginormous ruins of Burg Rheinfels looming almost on top of the sleepy little town. This 13th Century castle was probably the most popular among visitors to the Rhine Gorge, and we certainly weren't disappoint upon our visit.
Meanwhile across the river, privately held Burg Katz continued its dominance above the town of Sankt Goarhausen. Originally built in the 14th Century, the current castle is mostly a 19th Century reconstruction after its destruction at the hands of Napoleon. This would be another intriguing castle to visit, except it's not open to tourists.
The next stop was Oberwesel, another attractive town with some remarkably preserved fortifications and towers, most dating from the 14th Century. This is the famous medieval landscape of the Rhine at its best -- castles atop treacherous cliffs where the nobles ruled, and fortified towns along the waters where peasants defended their territory against raids launched from the boats.
Surviving to this date are 16 defensive towers along with the oldest and longest medieval town wall along the Middle Rhine. Standing on guard right beside the Rhine is the imposing Ochsenturm, serving as effective defense against invaders in the Middle Ages and functioning as a lighthouse in modern times.
Sitting right above the town was the former imperial castle of Schönburg, one of several castles along the Middle Rhine serving as hotels. I originally considered booking a night in this castle, but changed my mind after seeing that I could book one night at Burg Arras on the Mosel plus one night at Burg Liebenstein on the Rhine for only a little more.
Yet another castle loomed above our heads as our boat pulled into its 6th stop at the little town of Kaub. Burg Gutenfels may seem a little small and nondescript as far as castles go, but for centuries it formed a near impenetrable barrier to vessels on Rhine in conjunction with its famous neighbor ...
... Burg Pfalzgrafenstein, a medieval toll station built strategically on a sandbar at the centre of the river. From the 14th Century up until the mid 1800's a giant chain was erected across the river to Burg Gutenfels, forcing all passing vessels to stop and contribute to the coffers of the local Count. Today the castle can be visited, but only thru a dedicated ferry from the town of Kaub on the right shore.
We reached our final destination of Bacharach at exactly two hours after boarding the paddle-wheeler at Kamp-Bornhofen. Burg Stahleck on the local hilltop was the 9th castle I've counted along this short 25 km cruise along the Rhine Gorge, certainly the most photogenic river scenery I've seen so far. Now the question is ... how does this compare to our other cruise along the Mosel Valley?
Our cruise along the Mosel was a shorter one, a 1.5 hour cruise from the charming village of Beilstein to our destination of Alf where we're booked into the castle-hotel of Burg Arras for the night. We could have started our cruise from the much more popular town of Cochem if we wanted yet another castle on our cruise, but I thought we're seeing enough on the Rhine.
In our opinion the landscape of the Mosel Valley was very different from that of the Rhine Gorge ... the Mosel was a slow and meandering river on a serpentine course, carving through some frighteningly steep slopes covered with cascading vineyards. The scenery here was much more pastoral and serene, and most importantly, we're seeing about a quarter of the visitors compared to the Rhine.
A couple kilometres downstream we passed the town of Briedern with its 13th Century church tower. Part of the village was destroyed in the final stages of WWII and much of the medieval core was gone forever, though the timeless vineyards on its local foothills has remained to fuel the community's main economic production.
On the terraced vineyards further downstream we recognized the name of Senheim, which we first heard of two hours ago as we sipped some excellent Federweisser coming from this tiny village. The wide availability of these light and refreshing half-fermented wines is just one of the joys of visiting the Mosel in the autumn.
We glided by the 900-year-old ruins of the Stuben Augustinian Convent before arriving at Bremm, another little medieval village of half-timber houses surrounded by some impossibly steep vineyards. This was the prototypical landscape of the Mosel -- not as many spectacular castles compared to the Rhine, but equally romantic with its idyllic small wine-growing villages.
Closer to Alf our boat had to pass through the St. Aldegund lock, one of many on this stretch of the Mosel between Trier and Koblenz. A major rainstorm engulfed the entire Western Europe about a week ago when we were in the Black Forest, and on this day the water level still measured more than 4 metres between the two sides of the lock.
Somewhere on the way to Alf we spotted this graceful heron waiting patiently for its dinner to swim by. This is yet another feature of the Mosel that wouldn't be typically seen on the Rhine, a fast flowing river with heavy boat traffic coming through every few minutes. Our cruise on the Mosel was much more leisurely in comparison with the crowded paddlewheeler on the Rhine, and I think the Kolb Brothers line is doing a great job of conveniently linking so many of the charming small towns along the Mosel.
Soon after passing the medieval half-timber houses of St. Aldegund, we disembarked at Alf and said goodbye to a Dutch couple we met on the boat as they continued downstream in the direction of Traben-Trarbach. We would get the local taxi phone number from a friendly Italian café owner, and take the short taxi ride to our final destination of Burg Arras for the night.
So what's our final verdict? The photographer in me preferred the visual impact of majestic castles and dramatic rock cliffs offered by the Middle Rhine, while my wife absolutely loved the romance and tranquility of the small towns along the Mosel Valley. The Rhine has more convenient transportation with railway lines on both sides of the river, but the quieter Mosel sees less visitors and many villages remain largely unperturbed by 21st Century mass tourism. Frankly we wouldn't have gone wrong with either one, and should we ever revisit this beautiful corner of Germany, I wouldn't mind sailing down both rivers all over again, from Trier down to Koblenz and back up to Bingen.
