The Mosel

Sunday, December 31

We have been staying in a house located on the banks of the Mosel River for the past three days, and tomorrow we move on to Belgium.  Before leaving, I wanted to share a little about the Mosel, which we are witnessing at flood stage as I write this.

The Mosel flows primarily south to north, beginning in the mountains near Alsace in France, and then flowing through Luxemburg and Germany before entering the Rhine at Koblenz.  We are in the middle section, which features a very winding section of the river with steep valley slopes. The region is noted for its highly regarded wines, most notably Riesling. 

Monorail for climbing vineyard

In this section of the river, nearly every wide spot near water level has a small community (or larger if there is sufficient land) and every town has several wineries.  The hillsides are covered with grape vines.  While some of the slopes are gradual, others are nearly vertical.  We noted that there are monorails installed at regular intervals in these steep areas and little vehicles climb the rail with the aid of cogs.

The river is navigable for large commercial ships (up to 110 meters) from its mouth well into France.  There are 28 locks along the river, including one just across the river from our home.  Today, as a holiday, the river is quiet (at least regarding river traffic), but on Saturday, we witnessed many barges, pleasure tour boats and other commercial vessels moving up and down the river.

The Mosel begins to cover the road about 200 

meters downstream of our house

Heavy recent rains upstream from us have caused the river to rise.  Earlier today, maintenance crews put up a barricade just outside our house warning drivers that the road ahead was flooded.  Kurt and I drove down and snapped this photo about 4 pm with the road half-covered. This shot was taken about 200 meters from our home.  The forecast calls for the river to rise another meter tonight, which will put the road between our town (Kövenig) and the next town downriver (Reil) completely under water.

Barricade just outside our house.  The signs read: "Flood"  

and "Detour"