From Koblenz you can follow the winding Mosel River through the Mosel Valley to its origins in France. I have to say it was much more impressive than the Rhine valley we drove through previously but I’m sure the sunny weather might have helped. It’s dotted with picturesque little towns and castles dominating the high ground and numerous lochs breaking up the river flow along the Mosel. With the locals planting vines on every available space including up the steep valley sides. To access these grapes they use ladders and small monorail trains, similar to the sort used for disabled or elderly people on stairs. Aside the road runs a bike path that covers the length of the river and would be an ideal way to see the valley, as the towns are only a few kilometres apart and its virtually flat the entire way, maybe for a future visit.

On the Mosel River is the town of Trier, it is Germany's oldest town, which says quite a lot, as Germany has an abundance of old history and historic sites. Its age is officially around 2000 years, and was founded by the Romans as Augusta Treverorum in 16 B.C. This town was one of the biggest in the northern parts of the territory at its time, with around 100,000 inhabitants - as many as today - and it had two bath facilities, namely Kaiserthermen and Barbarossathermen (the biggest north of the Alps), it had a 6.4 km long city wall, of which today only remains the big gate leading into the town - Porta Nigra, named so for the dark discolouration of the stone it was built from, and it had its own amphitheatre which roomed 20,000 spectators - not bad for a town considerably smaller than the seat of the empire. The old part of town is a very nice experience, as there are buildings and build styles from several different epochs and countries - I felt that some of the buildings on the main square looked as if they had been fetched from Prague, while others looked more oriental in style. Other sights include old cranes on the Mosel River, the cathedral, which was an archeological site when we visited with them digging up Roman foundations under the Cathedral floor.