Moselle River Adventure: Guided Bike and Boat Tour

Welcome to Cologne! 

 

Join your group and the team outside Cologne Central Station at 1.30 pm. Our guides will be on hand to help you with your luggage and take it to the boat so you can take some time to explore the city. 

As the fourth biggest city in Germany, Cologne is not short of cultural and historical wonders just waiting to be discovered. Its main sights include Cologne Cathedral, the largest cathedral in northern Europe, the Old Town and the Hohenzollern Bridge, made of three adjacent truss arch bridges, each with three arches. The city is dominated by the River Rhine, one of the main trade routes between eastern and western Europe, which has given it huge commercial importance throughout history. We will be visiting Cologne again on the last day of our tour, so don’t worry if you don’t manage to explore everything on Day 1!

You will need to be back at the boat, the A-ROSA SILVA, around 4 pm as it will set sail at 5 pm. Settle into your cabins before dinner, which will be onboard while the ship sails upriver towards Cochem. 

Please note: It will not be possible to attend special events such as tours held in Cologne Cathedral on the day of arrival. There will be time to explore the city and its sights further on the sixth and final day of our tour. 

On Day 2, the ship docks in Cochem in the morning, giving us views of the spectacular castle towers that dominate the landscape and the surrounding valley. After breakfast, we’ll get the bikes ready and start our first leisurely bike ride to Zell (Mosel) to warm up our legs. 

We’ll be cycling alongside vineyards set on the rolling countryside and beside the river, on a completely flat route. We’ll also get some great views of the Bremmer Calmont, thought to be Europe’s steepest vineyard, as well as over the Moselle Valley. One of the most famous wines from this region is Riesling, known by some as “the queen of white wine”. Many of the wine producers in this area still rely on manual labour for their work. We’ll enjoy a picnic lunch before continuing along the course of the river to Reil where we’ll join a wine tasting session and meet the winemaker to learn about his work. 

You will travel back to Cochem with your guides by bus. Dinner will be once again served onboard the ship whilst you enjoy the sunset on the river on the way to Bernkastel-Kues.

Day 3 begins with a walk through Bernkastel-Kues. In this pretty town on the Middle Moselle we’ll discover Nicolaus Cusanus (von Kues), the mediaeval philosopher who overthrew the Ptolemaic worldview and became the Pope’s deputy. He deliberated one of mankind’s greatest questions, who gives some people the power to govern others, since we are all, by nature, free beings. His answer? That lawmakers and rulers alike should be subject to the same law as the people it governs.

After our walk, we take the bus to the start of our cycle route in Daun in the Eifel, where we will ride along one of Germany’s most beautiful disused railways. It will take us through the Vulkaneifel mountains, over viaducts and through tunnels, back towards the River Moselle. The landscape is dominated by uniform vineyards, some of which are so steep that winemakers have to hike up and down everyday to check their crops. Then, enjoy a glass of Riesling with your picnic lunch.

After another great breakfast, our ship will dock in a quaint wine-producing village outside of Trier, where we will explore the remains of a nearby Roman villa built to gain some much needed R&R from the city and bask in the spectacular surrounding countryside. 

We’ll continue along the meandering Moselle cycle path until we reach the small Ruwer river and head down into the lush Ruwer valley. Water was harnessed as a power source here as early as Roman times, supplying Trier with water from the Ruwer. 

After a picnic lunch, your guide will fill you in with some information about Trier, the university town. After lunch, we’ll jump back on the bikes and head right into Roman Trier, enjoying wonderful views as we descend towards the town. Enjoy a guided tour and discover and see for yourself the evidence of the area’s rich history. 

On our last day of the tour, our route follows the winding River Moselle past vineyards and ancient castles. The sun falls shine particularly force on these steep slopes, meaning they get as much nutritional radiation as vineyards some 1000 km further south!

Such conditions and temperatures allow for an almost Mediterranean variety of flora and fauna to grow here. As we continue on our ride, we’ll see the convergence of the Moselle and the Rhine at a point known as Deutsches Eck, where a statue of Kaiser Wilhelm I has stood proudly since 1897.

Before our final dinner on the ship, you will join your guide who will tell you all about Rhine romanticism, the depiction and interpretation of the natural world and history of the Rhine valley in all forms of artistic expression in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. 

Departure. Farewell Cologne!

The cruise draws to an end today and you will disembark the ship around 9 am, leaving you the whole day to either explore Cologne or start your onward journey home. If your schedule permits, we recommend booking an extra night or two in Cologne to really experience this wonderful and historic city.