Moselle Premium Cruise: Metz to Cochem in 8 Days

Day 1 – Metz (0 km)
Check-in and embarkation from 2 p.m. in Metz. After the welcome meeting there is time to fit your bike and take a short test ride. After dinner your tour leader walks you through the city: the cathedral of St Étienne, third largest Gothic church in France, holds the Chagall windows, and the streets around it are full of flowers, cafés and striking architecture. Arriving a day early is well worth it.

Day 2 – Metz to Remich (41 km, long option 49 km)
You cruise towards Thionville over breakfast and start riding there. Once the heart of French steel, the city is in fact ancient: medieval ramparts, gardens, old streets and the basilica of St Maximin. The route runs through quiet Lorraine countryside past the fortress of Sierck-les-Bains, then crosses into Luxembourg at Schengen, the little border town that gave its name to the agreement. Near Remich you stop at Nennig, where a Roman villa floor of three million tesserae still shows its gladiator scenes.

Day 3 – Remich to Saarburg (40 km, long option 48 km)
The Moselle is the border here between Germany and Luxembourg, and you hop between the two banks. On the Luxembourgish side you visit a cooperative making Crémant, the Moselle's answer to Champagne. Then you choose: the longer, easy route along the rivers, or the shorter, more challenging one through the hills. Both end in Saarburg, an old town in the loveliest stretch of the Saar valley, with a 10th-century castle and a 20-metre waterfall falling through the town centre.

Day 4 – Saarburg to Trier (32 km)
A short morning ride with your tour leader brings you to Trier around lunchtime. Founded around 15 BC, it is the oldest city in Germany and its Roman golden age left a respectable number of monuments, the Porta Nigra above all. After a guided walk you have the afternoon to explore on your own.

Day 5 – Schweich to Neumagen and Bernkastel-Kues (27 km, long option 53 km)
After a breakfast cruise out of Trier you pick up the bikes at Schweich and ride into the mid-Moselle, with vineyards as far as the eye can see and the great names on the way: Trittenheim in its hairpin bend and Piesport. Around lunchtime you reach Neumagen, a wine centre already in Roman times, where you can rejoin the barge for the shorter day or ride on to Bernkastel-Kues, whose market square of timber-framed houses is the pride of the town.

Day 6 – Bernkastel-Kues to Zell (45 km)
Through the wine town of Kröv to Traben-Trarbach on the left bank, known for its Art Nouveau architecture, then on to Zell, home of the Zeller Schwarze Katz. The evening is the right moment to taste what you have been riding past all day.

Day 7 – Zell to Cochem (39 km)
You pass the Bremmer Calmont, Europe's steepest vineyard, where the slopes tilt up to 60 degrees, then reach Beilstein, one of the best-preserved historic villages on the river, with the ruins of Metternich castle above it. The last kilometres bring you into Cochem, where the majestic Reichsburg castle stands over the town and is included in your programme.

Day 8 – Cochem (0 km)
Breakfast on board and disembarkation by 9:30 a.m.