Journey: None
Distance: 0 km
Campsite for the night: MoselCamping
YouTube link: Day 26

On our last day in the Mosel valley, we decided to do a boat trip down the river and walk back. Because the river is so bendy, we could travel on the boat for an hour and a half to Traben-Trarbach and end up just the other side of the Moselberge from our campsite. The Moselberge is the German name for the Moselle Hills but sounds much more exciting.

We were the only people getting on the boat at Wehlen — most people had got on at the start in Bernkastel-Kues. The man hurried us on to the boat so they could carry on and gestured for us to follow him to pay. Before getting on the boat, we’d worked out that it would cost €13 each and we checked that we had enough cash because we weren’t sure if they’d take cards. The man worked out the fee and told us it was €34 in total. I panicked a bit because I wasn’t sure we had that much cash and passed Emma the wallet to count it out. Using up all our change we had just enough, with 60 cents leftover! Afterwards I googled what the deal was with cash in Germany as it seemed quite prevalent, and apparently, 80% of transactions use cash still.

The boat was much bigger and busier than we expected, but we rushed up to the top deck (through all the smokers — it’s still weird finding smoking indoors) and got a seat right at the front of the boat. And off we pottered down the river taking in all the spectacular views of the vines until we got to the big lock. At which point, I felt like I might start to get sea sick (I am very sensitive to boats now it turns out!) but luckily I had some ginger sea sickness tablets with me that I had picked up the previous year in Spain after my terrible ferry crossing to Santander. I had never previously felt sick on ferry crossings but a slightly rougher sea had set me off for whatever reason and I’d felt the effects for a good week after, with any form of transport (including my bike) or sight of the sea making me worse. It was at that point I’d bought a variety of sea sickness cures and had obviously stashed some in my rucksack for any unexpected boat trips, which today’s self was very grateful for.

The rest of the boat trip passed enjoyably, it turns out we can look at vines for a long time without getting bored!

Traben-Trarbach wasn’t an exciting town but had a supermarket for us to get a few picnic bits, so once we’d filled our rucksacks, we set off. Not long into our walk (walking up the steps from the river to go to the supermarket), I realised I really didn’t feel very well and my legs hurt! So I took some paracetamol and battled on bravely.

After we left the town, we started walking up through the vines and kept climbing upwards, which gave us amazing views before we headed into the woods and the walking got gentler. Eventually we crested the hill, which was nearly 400m above the town we started in and started down the other side. Based on the walk up to the top of the Moselberge, we assumed it would wind down through the vines, but actually the descent was much sharper, but it gave us a real appreciation of how ridiculously steep the slopes were. By this point, I was really struggling but we eventually made it back to the campsite having walked 8 miles.