TravelWendy WangJune 01, 2024Moselle Valley

Reports from a semester of rest and relaxation: Moseying through the Moselle Valley

TravelWendy WangJune 01, 2024Moselle Valley

In February, my boyfriend and I decided that we should take advantage of my time in Amsterdam and do a road trip. After all, he really likes driving, and I enjoy curating driving playlists. After extensive research within the Netherlands for a relaxing getaway that fit our budget, we finally settled on the Mosel Valley after one of his colleagues suggested it. So we set off bright and early on a Saturday morning, blasting ample amounts of Pitbull.

Unfortunately, we did not realize that we just so happened to plan our roadtrip for carnival weekend. So after I consumed my very tasty rice, cranberry, broad bean salad, we had to wade through a sea of very drunk Dutch people that all seemed to be wearing a variation of the same jacket. Turns out, the random town we chose to stop for lunch in, Zaltbommel, also happened to the center for the carnival celebrations in that region. It happens, I guess.

Nevertheless, we continued on our drive through the Netherlands, and then Germany, where we made one more pit stop at the Nurburgring, which my boyfriend arranged to “accidentally” be on the way to our hotel. Even though all the shops were closed, it was still really fascinating to walk around. We even attempted to race each while riding tiny car-shaped bikes on an outline of the track inside one of the grandstands. Sadly, we were not able to drive on the track, as I guess it is not the right season or something. Alas.

An especially interesting relic is that you can see the remnants of the very expensive rollercoaster they attempted to construct around the Nurburgring that was run a grand total of once in its completed state before being taken apart.

At last, we reached our hotel after dark, which honestly made our hotel, the Schloss Lieser, all the more striking, as it is probably the largest building in the town. Every resident I talked to always mentioned how the opening of the hotel in 2019 has brought massive amounts of business to the area just because of the sheer size. It is also of course, literally castle, so that helps as well.

The inside is just as sumptuous as the outside, and walking around feels like you are walking around a museum, or at the very least, some wealthy aristocrats mansion. Our room was extremely comfortable, and came with sumptuous, fluffy comforters, and a chandelier.

Since we got in so late, after our complimentary welcome drink, we just had dinner at the hotel bar, which sadly meant that we had to wait a bit for our solid burger and fries and a disappointingly flabby flammkuchen. I will say, the iced Pina colada I had was shockingly sweet yet strong.

There was also a small chapel in the hotel.

Sleep came quickly, and the next day, were greeted by an extensive breakfast buffet in the ornately decorated dining room complete with views of the Moselle River. Personally, I enjoyed the pretzel bread and the sharp horseradish dip that paired perfectly with the smoked salmon.

We then walked around town for a bit, which felt a little empty, so we decided to head across the river to check out the slightly bigger and livelier Bernkastel, stopping for some rich and chocolate-y hot chocolate, and same moderately disappointing, and mild-tasting Black Forest cake for a snack.

Crazy how high the water gets during floods

The gate for Scholes Lieser with the last name of the original owner of the house, Eduard Puricelli.

Fortunately, we weren’t hungry for too long, as it was time for afternoon tea back at our hotel. My personal favorite were the scones and sandwiches, although I was a tad disappointed that they had already applied the jam and clotted cream to the scones, as me personally, I enjoy slathering my scones with the appropriate accoutrements.

We then relaxed for a bit by the pool, before heading to dinner at the Burg Landshut, which oversaw the entire valley. We got the schnitzel, the salmon and leek flammkuchen, and the cheese platter for dessert, which were okay, but it’s clear that the main attraction here is the view, which is absolutely stunning.

There next morning, after fueling up for the day at the breakfast buffet, we headed out to explore the region, first walking on this treetop platform that was honestly moderately underwhelming. The only cool bit was near the end of the walk, when we first solved this puzzle, and also they had a much larger taller, winding platform, which although we thought would have a massive slide on the side you could go down in, did have a beautiful view of the horseshoe-shaped bend in the river. Since the platform just ends in the middle of the forest, we took a slight detour getting back(my boyfriend got us lost) because the signage to return to the start was unclear.

I miss the made-to-order omelets from here so much

This view was worth braving the shaky top platform of this structure.

We then decided to visit a wolf sanctuary, which was probably my favorite activity. We saw many different types of wolves from across the globe, including ones native to the region, Siberia, and Finland. My favorite was when a wolf came up to the fence just as a family was holding up their small child to get a better look at wolves. They did just look like large fluffy dogs and I was maybe a little tempted to pet them.

We then attempted to go to a bird farm near Saarburg, but sadly, since we didn’t have cash, they wouldn’t let us in. Alas. The town of Saarburg was a stunning, quaint town though.

Our next stop was the capital of the region, Trier, where yet again, we stumbled into their carnival celebrations, which were significantly rowdier and messier. Funnily enough, we were not the only unsuspecting tourists caught up in the carnival, as since Trier is the birthplace of Karl Marx, we also saw large gaggles of Chinese tourists.

For dinner, we went to the only restaurant open in Lieser, an Italian restaurant that served classic staples like bolognese and pizza with… egg, ham, and mushroom?

these pictures definitely do not do the view justice.

After breakfast, we finally hunted down the spaghettieis I had been wanting to try for forever, and it did not disappoint. I enjoyed the unique texture, as well as the combination of the mountain of ice cream with a puddle of strawberry sauce.

we also stopped by a mini church that was randomly in the nearby mountains.

Then, it was time for the start of our wine tour. First stop, was Weingut Axel Pauly, where Pascal, a recent hire from the town over that had been a sommelier for several decades, led us through a selection of their different rieslings. We really enjoyed their Weissburgunder. I especially loved the creative labels, as the bottom of the bottles, which at first looks like a bunch of jagged mountains, when turned on its side, reveals the three faces that represents the three generations of the Pauly family that have run the wine business. We also learned that most of the wineries in this area’s vineyards were incredibly scattered throughout the valley due to a Napoleon-era rule that required property to be equally divided among descendants, creating extremely fragmented winery plots.

Next stop was the Weingut Gindorf, another family winery taken over by an American couple and their son several years ago, which had some delightful rieslings. Plus, they fed us some delicious cheese and pretzels as well. I enjoyed their sweet rieslings, and the chance to tour their basement where they bottled and aged the wine. It was crazy seeing this cavernous basement filled with barrels and wine bottles that sat under this modest house on this pleasant residential street. Maybe I was biased by my fellow brethren, but I enjoyed the wines from here the most.

We were getting very tipsy at this point, which made the very fitting (and steep) trek through the vineyards to our third and sadly last stop (since we ran out of time to go to our fourth stop) a little extra excruciating, especially since we had accumulated quite the collection of wine.

had to stop to say to this adorable goat, obviously.

At our last winery of the day, Weingut Genetsch, we sampled wines that clearly adhered to tradition, and felt like they were striving to perfect the traditional wines of this region, rather than being a bit experimental.

Finally, with our arms and stomachs full of wine, we headed back to our hotel for our last dinner at the hotel’s fancy restaurant, Puricelli. We ordered the three-course pre-fixe menu to fully experience the menu. I liked the cabbage-stuffed rice, but the lobster meat in the lobster squid ink tagliatelle was sadly chewy, and the tres leches cake was okay. Overall, I would say it was solid food, but probably not worth the money.