Kylltal & Mosel Day 6: Cochem to Koblenz

Today we would be back on the road again, but a shorter day than the previous ones at around 60km in total.

But first we took the opportunity to offload some more unnecessary items to the car at Cochem Long Term Parking.

I made a last-minute decision to keep my rain jacket as the weather seemed greyer than the forecast yesterday had suggested.

Then we set off.

Today‘s motor plan was to ride on number 4, using number 5 for any inclines that slowed me down too much. I would try and keep to a relatively consistent speed. Klaus wanted to stay behind me again today to try to match his speed to mine.

I had issues with my squealing brake again (the disc rotor is slightly fouling the brake gubbins, but this will be a bit of a fiddly job to repair). I also had to adjust my seat. But it was OK for Klaus to wait for me to faff about taking off my jacket, etc, as the views were good!

We passed a lot of castles today but the light wasn‘t great for photography. But here is one!

There was quite a strong headwind at times today but then we would round a curve and it would be gone. This mini harbour at Hatzenport had incredibly still water.

We were making good progress today, averaging about 17km/h, and my motor was performing well on number 4. I was also giving a bit more Helen Power to the pedals as I felt more rested and energetic after our day off yesterday.

The route is largely alongside a road but we crossed over to the right hand bank of the Mosel at Treis-Karden for 15km or so. After we crossed back across the river at Löf we headed through Kattenes and then the cycle path crossed under the railway and went up a narrow path the other side of the railway to the road. This was much more scenic but the road surface was pretty rough too.

At another short faffing stop we were overtaken by a big bunch of leisure cyclists so we stayed put for a bit to give them a chance to get ahead so we didn‘t have to overtake them again.

Here we saw lots of the little metal bogies for the viticulture. Apparently they can go up slopes of up to 60%!!

We were making good progress but had been on the bikes for a couple of hours so decided to stop for cake at a likely-looking café in Kobern.

Cheesecake for both of us!

We carried on, crossing under the A61 motorway which is our usual choice of route when visiting Klaus‘s father or other places in the south.

Photo by Klaus
Photo by Klaus

After the bridge we started climbing a little up the side of the hill on the way to Winningen. We watched gliders being launched from Winningen Airfield; my father once flew there with my Mum for a holiday (he was a private pilot).

I wasn‘t sure of the significance of this giant snail shell!

The route takes you down a steep hill in Winningen and at the bottom we saw a lady nearly fall off her ebike. It seemed that the act of turning a sharp corner in it was too much for her!

Along a road in Winningen we saw this amazing building with individual letters formed out of sheets of plate about 1 metre squared.

Photo by Klaus

Very posh for a wine shop!

We arrived in Koblenz-Güls where our hotel for the night was located. I asked if I could drop off my pannier, which was fine – the hotel took it. I said we would be back in about three hours.

From the hotel it was just six and a half kilometres to Koblenz. Klaus and I got split up twice, once when he fell foul of some unhelpful traffic lights and a second time when he chose not to go through the road closed sign that the rest of us cyclists did and ended up on a wild goose chase around Koblenz. But we both knew our destination, Deutsches Eck, and we were both there soon enough.

Photo by Klaus

This meant for Klaus he had joined up 3 river tours – Kylltal, Mosel and Rhein. There are lots of other rivers we need to add to our repertoire though!

The v-shape in the middle is our current tour. We need to join up from the Vennbahnradweg (south of Aachen) to Gerolstein. I have also ridden from Mainz to Frankfurt am Main but for some reason the GPS track is missing.

We decided it was time for some more food so stopped at the café Wacht am Rhein where we stopped on our velomobile tour. I had crepes and Klaus had Apfelstreusel.

Whilst we were there it began to rain so we had chosen a good time to sit under an umbrella! The rain eased off before we decided to head back to our hotel.

This time Klaus followed me through the Road Closed section as it was actually a lovely smooth new surface.

It felt like just a few minutes before we were back at the hotel in Güls.

We took our luggage off and then when I disconnected the battery from the motor cable – Disaster!

That little metal spike should not still be in there!!! There are four holes in the connector in the photo below, and one is missing its metal widget inside.

Was this Game Over? Klaus said that if necessary tomorrow he would cycle to pick up the car and fetch me, but I decided I would at least try to make a start on the ride back. It would probably be slow but I can ride 45 kilometres without motor assistance, just the Winningen hills would be a pain! I had resolved that I would give Klaus the pannier and the heavy stuff to carry.

I put the battery on charge just in case it would work after all. We then went out for our dinner in the restaurant next door to the hotel, and we had some good food. Klaus enjoyed his last glass of Mosel white wine on the Mosel.

Güls seems to be a bit of a ribbon development along the river but it is good to be close to the water.

When we got back from dinner the battery had fully charged. The suspense was killing me so I decided we would try it out tonight so that I would know if the motor would work for me tomorrow. I was most relieved, after carefully plugging it in, to see the battery was indeed providing power to the motor. We will see if that will be the case for the whole of tomorrow‘s 45km. But we have hope!

We have really enjoyed this tour. We have been lucky with the weather and also it is much less crowded than normal due to Coronavirus. I don‘t suppose the Mosel will ever be as empty again in June, so I am very pleased we have had the chance to see it like that.

3 comments

  1. Thanks Auntie and hope the technical issues resolve themselves and you dont have to finish your tour under your own power. Good luck.

  2. I once cyclus the Mosel route during high season, it was quite as well. On the Kylltal route I almost did not meet any other cyclist. Thanks for your stories, so many familiar places…

  3. Probably safe to conclude that that’s an unused pin on the aviation connector; the holes on the back part of it would normally be filled with solder, and I’d expect that to still be there if the wire had broken.

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