Last hiking day

The hits just keep on coming.  Welcome to the last day of our combined Rhine and Moselle rivers hiking adventure in Germany.  We had good weather, continuous great scenery, a castle visit and even a boat ride.  No day on the river could be complete without some uphill trudging but there were no extremes, and frankly, we were getting pretty used to it.  More and more of the hillsides were being devoted to vineyard as we got close to Bernkastel, a town renown for its Riesling production.  We had plenty of chances to sample the local produce :)

Castles on the Rhine were a dime a dozen, well maybe a half dozen, but they’re less common on the Moselle and it was fun to have one right on the hiking trail.

Rewards at the end of the trip included a little boat ride and our first ice cream of the trip.

Random observations from the trip.

It was a great experience.  We enjoyed to scenery, the history (so much Roman influence), and the wonderful little towns we stayed in along the way.  We were immersed in vineyard, forests, and life on the river every day. 

It was very different from from experience on the Portuguese Camino de Santiago in several ways.  It was a bit shorter but markedly more difficult; total elevation gain was over 20,000 ft.  There were very few people doing what we were doing, with only 6 other multi-day hikers encountered on our whole second week. 

We spent almost all of every day without the opportunity to stop in a cafe or get something at a roadside stand.  Two welcome exceptions - a deep woods beer bar and a roadside a wine automat, both on the same day.

There weren’t a lot of other people to talk to. We had each other, of course, but let’s face it, after 49 years, we’ve heard most of each others stories (many times?). 

Switchbacks must have been invented after these two trails were established.  The ups snd downs were usually straight up or straight down - pretty treacherous on rainy days in the mud. 

On balance, we still really enjoy this kind of travel adventure.  We’ll probably search for outings with more chance of social contact and a little less challenging next time.  That said, we’d recommend these trips to anyone, as long as you know what you”re getting into.

See you on the trail!