German Castle Stay #1 - Burg Arras on the Mosel

This series of 2 articles is for fellow travelers looking for an overnight stay in an authentic German castle.

In Germany we stayed at two different castles: Burg Arras in the Mosel Valley and Burg Liebenstein on the Middle Rhine. While I highly recommend both, there are practicalities to be aware of before booking either castle. This photo essay will hopefully paint an accurate picture for travelers curious about this unique medieval experience.



Our first stop was Burg Arras, the oldest existing castle in the world-famous wine region of the Mosel Valley. As of 2014 it's also the only castle in the Mosel operating as a hotel, compared with at least 3 along the Middle Rhine. Strategically erected on a hill high above the modern town of Alf, Burg Arras is accessible via a quick taxi from the Bullay train station or the ferry docks at either Alf (left shore of the Mosel) or Bullay (right shore). Our taxi ride from Alf cost about 12 Euros as our friendly driver winded through some thick forests up to the castle.



Booking a room was part of the adventure. Apparently the castle hadn't yet arrived in the Internet age, and while there's a static website, they had no email address and the phone line remained their only contact with the outside world. We had to FAX our requested date with a credit card number in order to guarantee a room. The last time I had to fax a reservation request was for a remote village in Central Japan ... and even that was way back in 2008.



We arrived at 17:30 when the Lady of the House was about to send a servant to greet us at Bullay Station. Apparently we're the only guests on this night, and the Lady wanted to make absolutely sure that we'd have no problem finding our way. Frau Maria Keuthen wasn't your typical aristocrat heir -- she's also a specialist in medical skincare and operated a cosmetic laser institute inside her castle.



While Maria did greet visitors about 6 months of the year while she's living in the castle, her female butler Andrea was the one who amazingly managed the operations of the entire castle, almost entirely by herself. Upon our arrival Andrea immediately settled us down into our private quarter, pictured above on the 2nd floor of the round turret.



While I've seen other castle-hotels with more Spartan facilities, our vaulted bedroom here came with all the modern amenities and deco you'd expect of a 4-star hotel: a comfy mattress, a sparklingly clean and spacious bathroom, satellite TV and even a safe that is entirely unneeded for such a secure location.



A fascinating part of the room was the little lounge converted from a medieval turret, complete with a small balcony perfect for reenacting any classic fairytale where the princess steps out and gets romanced by prince charming below. I won't go further to describe what we did with it.



The balcony also afforded a gorgeous view over the dark forested hills and deep valleys surrounding the castle, away from the river traffic and the bustle of the town of Alf on the backside. It's impossible to tell that we're merely minutes away from the ferry piers and the train station.



Our favorite part of the castle was the elegant living room with some priceless tapestries adorning its walls, in addition to the most breathtaking panorama over the town of Alf. It's the perfect place for an after-dinner lounge, and we're lucky enough to enjoy its exclusive use as the only guests for the night.



Dinner had to be pre-booked as part of the reservation, an easy choice for us as there's nothing else around on this remote hilltop. The castle had its own traditional restaurant, spacious enough to seat 40 though used only by hotel guests on most nights I imagine. And on this night, again we're the only patrons in the restaurant.



Prices were very reasonable considering the restaurant's unique location. While the ingredients were nothing too extravagant, nobody should complain about a 5-course dinner served by the butler at a German castle, for less than 30 Euros a head.



Andrea took our wine preferences and came back with something from the local hills within the town of Alf ... and probably within sight of the castle. While Alf wasn't the best known among the region's wine-producing towns, I've never had a bottle I didn't like throughout our time in the Mosel Valley. The overall quality of Rieslings in the region was just exceptional.



Andrea asked whether we're okay with cats, and proceeded to introduce us to Alex, "My husband," as Andrea explained. For much of the evening Alex occupied his favorite spot at the next table, minding his own business and largely ignoring the two nosy newcomers.



Our set meal started with an appetizer of cured ham, a tomato soup, a green salad, and culminating with a expertly pan-fried veal steak with herb butter. The other courses were average as expected of a hotel restaurant, but this tender and well-seasoned steak was something I'd gladly order anywhere in Germany.



Dessert turned out to be a local variant of semolina pudding. As we passed by the kitchen we saw only Andrea and a young lady inside, which led me to think that Andrea herself was likely the chef! What a multi-talented lady! After dinner we spent more time enjoying the night view of the valley from the living room, before retiring to the comfort of our own quarters. We had a great sleep in the pillowy bed.



Breakfast the next morning consisted of the typical German fare of bread rolls, cold cuts and cheese, as well as a whole selection of fresh fruits and jams. While there's always more than enough to energize us for the entire day, we finished our share quickly to allow time to explore the rest of the castle, before the arrival of day-trippers.



We climbed Burg Arras' 900-year-old tower for some crisp mountain air, as well as the best view of the surrounding countryside -- the town of Alf on the near side of the Mosel, the town of Bullay on the opposite bank, and the hilly terrain of the Hunsrück range on the horizon.



While enjoying the 360-degree panorama above the rooftop, I spotted something hiding suspiciously behind the old brick chimney. Alright I thought ... I'll wait it out and see whether you're curious enough to come out and see eye-to-eye with me ...



There it is ... a cute little owl making a comfy home in the warmth of castle's chimney! Meeting this mysterious tenant was the highlight of our morning, which we found much more interesting than the castle's medieval altar or its eclectic collection of curios from medieval weaponry to tiger pelts to Korean embroidery.



The first of the day-trippers arrived shortly after 10:00, just when we were ready to check out and head back to Cochem. We signed Maria's guestbook and thanked her for the wonderful hospitality, after which Andrea kindly chaufferred us down to the ferry pier. Andrea took great care of us during our short stay and we simply couldn't thank her enough.



We said goodbye to Andrea at the ferry pier in Alf, on the left bank of the Mosel. We could have asked her to drop us off at the Bullay train station on the opposite bank, but we wanted the full experience of crossing the Mosel by the twin towns' tiny pedestrian ferry. The crossing cost a measly 1.5 Euros, took about 3 minutes, and offered some nice vistas of both towns from the river.



The quick ferry brought us to Bullay, where we hopped on the local train to Cochem to pick up our large backpack from the winery-guesthouse where we stayed earlier. This concluded our first ever stay in an authentic castle, and while it wasn't cheap, both of us agreed wholeheartedly that it was worth every Euro. At this point my wife still didn't know, that I had booked yet another castle for the upcoming night ...

Two Quintessential German River Cruises - Rhine Gorge vs. Mosel Valley

We had an enviable dilemma prior to our trip ... should we take a short cruise on the Middle Rhine, or the Mosel Valley? Fellow travelers offered varying opinions, often contradictory and typically passionate for one or the other. So I made the tough choice easy ... we'd do both and form our own opinions!

Without further ado, here is a photo essay comparing two iconic German river cruises -- the legendary Rhine Gorge vs. the charming Mosel Valley.



The Rhine Gorge needs no introduction -- this is arguably the most famous landscape of Germany, on par with the Tuscan hills of Italy or the mountains crowned with the Great Wall in China. We started from the small town of Kamp-Bornhofen on the right shore of the Rhine, boarding a steam powered paddle-wheeler and embarking on what may be the most scenic 25km cruise anywhere in the world.



From our boat we said goodbye to the castle-hotel of Burg Liebenstein where we stayed the previous night, and its arch-rival Burg Sterrenberg on the opposite hill. We spent much of the morning in our room gazing at the white tower of Sterrenberg, originally split from the Liebenstein when two brother fought for the same woman. That's just one of the numerous legends associated with this storied river.



What sets the Rhine Gorge apart in terms of aesthetic quality is a long array of romantic castles along the entire Upper Middle Rhine. Not far from Burg Liebenstein we spotted the round turret of the 14th Century Burg Maus peeking from the hill above the village of Wellmich on the right bank, just a little north of the its arch-rival ...



... Burg Katz above Sankt Goarhausen with its neo-gothic turrets shaped conically like a cat's ears. Lurking atop a steep cliff it has been glancing in the direction of Burg Maus from a distance for the past 600 years. At this point our boat was about to dock at Sankt Goarhausen, our third stop since Kamp-Bornhofen.



This is the narrowest stretch of the Rhine between Switzerland and the North Sea, marked by the Lorelei Rock made legendary by countless composers and authors. Almost directly across the river was the next stop of Sankt Goar, one of the most popular landings along this section of the Rhine.



Sankt Goar looked intriguing enough that we returned by train the next day for a day-trip, a decision made easy by the ginormous ruins of Burg Rheinfels looming almost on top of the sleepy little town. This 13th Century castle was probably the most popular among visitors to the Rhine Gorge, and we certainly weren't disappoint upon our visit.



Meanwhile across the river, privately held Burg Katz continued its dominance above the town of Sankt Goarhausen. Originally built in the 14th Century, the current castle is mostly a 19th Century reconstruction after its destruction at the hands of Napoleon. This would be another intriguing castle to visit, except it's not open to tourists.



The next stop was Oberwesel, another attractive town with some remarkably preserved fortifications and towers, most dating from the 14th Century. This is the famous medieval landscape of the Rhine at its best -- castles atop treacherous cliffs where the nobles ruled, and fortified towns along the waters where peasants defended their territory against raids launched from the boats.



Surviving to this date are 16 defensive towers along with the oldest and longest medieval town wall along the Middle Rhine. Standing on guard right beside the Rhine is the imposing Ochsenturm, serving as effective defense against invaders in the Middle Ages and functioning as a lighthouse in modern times.



Sitting right above the town was the former imperial castle of Schönburg, one of several castles along the Middle Rhine serving as hotels. I originally considered booking a night in this castle, but changed my mind after seeing that I could book one night at Burg Arras on the Mosel plus one night at Burg Liebenstein on the Rhine for only a little more.



Yet another castle loomed above our heads as our boat pulled into its 6th stop at the little town of Kaub. Burg Gutenfels may seem a little small and nondescript as far as castles go, but for centuries it formed a near impenetrable barrier to vessels on Rhine in conjunction with its famous neighbor ...



... Burg Pfalzgrafenstein, a medieval toll station built strategically on a sandbar at the centre of the river. From the 14th Century up until the mid 1800's a giant chain was erected across the river to Burg Gutenfels, forcing all passing vessels to stop and contribute to the coffers of the local Count. Today the castle can be visited, but only thru a dedicated ferry from the town of Kaub on the right shore.



We reached our final destination of Bacharach at exactly two hours after boarding the paddle-wheeler at Kamp-Bornhofen. Burg Stahleck on the local hilltop was the 9th castle I've counted along this short 25 km cruise along the Rhine Gorge, certainly the most photogenic river scenery I've seen so far. Now the question is ... how does this compare to our other cruise along the Mosel Valley?



Our cruise along the Mosel was a shorter one, a 1.5 hour cruise from the charming village of Beilstein to our destination of Alf where we're booked into the castle-hotel of Burg Arras for the night. We could have started our cruise from the much more popular town of Cochem if we wanted yet another castle on our cruise, but I thought we're seeing enough on the Rhine.



In our opinion the landscape of the Mosel Valley was very different from that of the Rhine Gorge ... the Mosel was a slow and meandering river on a serpentine course, carving through some frighteningly steep slopes covered with cascading vineyards. The scenery here was much more pastoral and serene, and most importantly, we're seeing about a quarter of the visitors compared to the Rhine.



A couple kilometres downstream we passed the town of Briedern with its 13th Century church tower. Part of the village was destroyed in the final stages of WWII and much of the medieval core was gone forever, though the timeless vineyards on its local foothills has remained to fuel the community's main economic production.



On the terraced vineyards further downstream we recognized the name of Senheim, which we first heard of two hours ago as we sipped some excellent Federweisser coming from this tiny village. The wide availability of these light and refreshing half-fermented wines is just one of the joys of visiting the Mosel in the autumn.



We glided by the 900-year-old ruins of the Stuben Augustinian Convent before arriving at Bremm, another little medieval village of half-timber houses surrounded by some impossibly steep vineyards. This was the prototypical landscape of the Mosel -- not as many spectacular castles compared to the Rhine, but equally romantic with its idyllic small wine-growing villages.



Closer to Alf our boat had to pass through the St. Aldegund lock, one of many on this stretch of the Mosel between Trier and Koblenz. A major rainstorm engulfed the entire Western Europe about a week ago when we were in the Black Forest, and on this day the water level still measured more than 4 metres between the two sides of the lock.



Somewhere on the way to Alf we spotted this graceful heron waiting patiently for its dinner to swim by. This is yet another feature of the Mosel that wouldn't be typically seen on the Rhine, a fast flowing river with heavy boat traffic coming through every few minutes. Our cruise on the Mosel was much more leisurely in comparison with the crowded paddlewheeler on the Rhine, and I think the Kolb Brothers line is doing a great job of conveniently linking so many of the charming small towns along the Mosel.



Soon after passing the medieval half-timber houses of St. Aldegund, we disembarked at Alf and said goodbye to a Dutch couple we met on the boat as they continued downstream in the direction of Traben-Trarbach. We would get the local taxi phone number from a friendly Italian café owner, and take the short taxi ride to our final destination of Burg Arras for the night.



So what's our final verdict? The photographer in me preferred the visual impact of majestic castles and dramatic rock cliffs offered by the Middle Rhine, while my wife absolutely loved the romance and tranquility of the small towns along the Mosel Valley. The Rhine has more convenient transportation with railway lines on both sides of the river, but the quieter Mosel sees less visitors and many villages remain largely unperturbed by 21st Century mass tourism. Frankly we wouldn't have gone wrong with either one, and should we ever revisit this beautiful corner of Germany, I wouldn't mind sailing down both rivers all over again, from Trier down to Koblenz and back up to Bingen.

Lovely Beilstein on the Mosel

After 3 nights in a winery at Cochem, we stashed our large luggage with our gracious hosts and went off to stay in an authentic German castle for one of our most anticipated stays. But between leaving Cochem and arriving at Burg Arras, we spent a leisurely day in the little town of Beilstein.



This is yet another charming village on the Mosel, hugging a sharp turn of the river and surrounded on three sides by the classic steep vineyards for which this wine-growing region is famously known. There's no train station, no bridge crossing the Mosel, and the main connection to its neighbor across the river is a miniscule car ferry with no roof.



The lack of a train station also works great in deterring most visitors without cars. Our options coming from Cochem were the hour-long ferry trip, or a 15 minute bus under the VRM network. And that's what we boarded with our VRM 3-day ticket, arriving on Bus #716 in the mid morning.



Beilstein is one of those complete medieval village with an intact core of attractive half-timber houses and its own estates of timeless vineyards, crowned with the romantic ruin of an ancient castle on the hilltop above. Along with Cochem and Bernkastel this was one of my favorite towns on the Mosel in terms of aesthetic quality.



The only reasons for not basing ourselves here was the inconvenience of public transportation, and the fact that it didn't offer as many shops and restaurants as Cochem for a longer stay. This tiny wine-growing community had one castle at the top, one church on a small knoll, and two streets full of drinking establishments and shops focusing on the world-famous vintage from the nearby slopes.



One logistical problem though ... there's no storage facility for our daypack! The village had no coin lockers, no formal Tourist Info centre (the "i" was actually a souvenir shop), and of course no luggage deposit rooms for its size. I actually shouldered our daypack around town, all the way up to the viewing platform at the church, before deciding to try my luck with the local shopkeepers. We're lucky to come across the friendly Hilde Hardy of Hardy's Bistro, who was gracious enough to keep our daypack inside her café. More on that later.



With lightened shoulders we started exploring more of the village and its picturesque and strikingly steep alleys, flanked by the village's lively Weinstuben and timber-framed homes. Further uphill was the castle ruin dating from 11th Century. Sights were few aside from the village, the church and the castle, and since we weren't intending on lounging at a Weinstube, we started to run out of things to see after two hours. In retrospect we should have stayed longer in Cochem, and plan to arrive at Beilstein at lunchtime.



We had lunch at the Gute Quelle, one of the venerable half-timber houses on the historic and cozy Markplatz. Prices were very reasonable for such a prime location -- we're looking at 13.5 Euros for a 3-course lunch.



Autumn was the season for all kinds of wild mushrooms as signified by the restaurant signage for "frische pfifferlinge," or freshly harvested local Chanterelles. My wife's 3-course meal came with this cream of champignon, though I saved my anticipation for the next dish.



The wide availability of Chanterelles, and of course the delightful and sweet Federweisser, were among my favorite reasons for visiting Germany in the autumn. While these weren't the best of Chanterelles, they still tasted much more flavorous compared to the domesticated varieties. That's why I never pass up any chances to have fresh Chanterelles on our journey ... in Canada I typically only find the desiccated ones.



The main dish in the 3-course lunch turned out to be an overly charred trout, likely a farmed fish judging from the noticeable "muddy" taste in the flesh. While my wife thankfully didn't mind it at all, I couldn't quite stand it without washing it down with the local version of the sweet Federweisser. Perhaps we should have simply stuck with all things Chanterelle.

Bill for Two Persons

Pan-Fried Trout	13.5 Euros
Bandnudeln with Chanterelle Mushrooms	13.5 Euros
Glass Federweisser x 2	5.0 Euros
TOTAL before tips	32.0 Euros (CAD$44.8)

With more time to kill while waiting for our 16:00 ferry, we returned to Hardy's Bistro to thank Hilde for keeping our daypack, and to try out her desserts while sipping more of the terrific Federweisser from the local hills. That seemed to be exactly what everyone else had in mind, as Hilde's patio was entirely packed with day-trippers and their waffles.



I would have had to shoulder our daypack for 6 hours without Hilde's kind offer to stash it inside her shop. Meeting friendly locals like Hilde often becomes a very memorable part of our journeys, and I really can't think her enough. Besides, I'd much rather spend money on dessert than dropping coins into a locker.



Hilde's waffles were good, but her Federweisser was excellent with fruity flavors and a higher than usual alcohol content than what we've tasted elsewhere along the valley. This batch of the half-fermented wine apparently came from the wine-producing village of Senheim, just a few kilometers to the south. Unbeknownst to us at the time, we would pass through this village on a boat later that afternoon.



At 16:00 our long awaited ferry arrived from Cochem, carrying us along this serpentine river upstream in the direction of Alf-Bullay. There we would sleep inside the spectacular castle of Burg Arras, the oldest in the Mosel Valley, for one of the true highlights of our journey.