Hiking at Moselle River

Germany, Traben Trabach

October, 21 th 2017

I was joining a Couchsurfing hiking event for a few weeks, when the organiser, Sam, posted a weekend trip at moselle river. At the beginning I wasn’t sure if I should join, because I hardly knew anybody. Anyway I decided to join. We started Saturday morning in Düsseldorf and since DB is extremely unreliable I decided to take the train from Bochum. I wondered that it was in time and felt released. After Essen the train stopped and was more than thirty minutes delayed. So I would miss the train to Moselle. Unfortunately Sam booked an IC, so if I would miss it I couldn’t take another one. I was very sad, but there was still a small chance to get the train. Luckily the IC was also delayed and I met the group at platform. We had to change in Koblenz and took a regional train, where we all sat together and started playing a card game about trust and lying. It might was the best chance to get to know each other and we had a lot of fun. When we arrived it was rainy and dusty. We directly had to climb up a hill and got an amazing view of the valley. My favourite time of the year is autumn, when other people are getting depressed I start breathing after hot and
busy summer. Seeing the colouring along the moselle river was just amazing. I wondered how it can look that different without being far away from home. We hiked along the river in the grape fields. With this amazing view next to us all the time the weather went more and more unimportant. We did a picnic after a while and I got to know Oli and Hanne. Old was a fun person which was always smiling and entertaining, we made a stop for playing a ninja game, which was more or less interesting. On the last kilometres it started raining and I was again a bit overequiped. But I was happy to have my poncho in that moment. Wet, hungry and exhausted we arrived at the Youth Hostel in Traben Trabach. I got a room with Hanne, Olil and Anna. We had less time to meet up again to go for dinner, but there was still time to take a hot shower. At 6 pm we all met at the lobby and walked to the city centre to get some food. Traben Trabach was a small village and off season they were not prepared for twenty hungry people without reservation at the same time. We decided to split the group and enter different restaurants while it was still very cold outside. But the group just didn’t split out. They just stayed together. In my experience it is always the hard point to keep a group together, but this group of more or less unknown people stuck together. We crossed the river to try our luck a bit outside the city centre. The stuff in the restaurant we entered was not happy, but in the end we could all fit at one table. A few very brave people decided to stay outside for some reason. We were only allowed to order basic stuff, but also this was very delicious. We also tried some local wines. In the late evening we left, altogether and walked back to the Youth Hostel. There was no common room, but some tables in the lobby. Some started to play kicker, while others continued with the card game. I left very early and went to bed, I was extremely tired and fell asleep immediately. In the morning we went to the breakfast buffet together and all of us sneaked a picnic from the buffet as well. One hour later, we were in the lobby and ready for the second day of hiking. It was chilly outside, but at least it wasn’t raining. We climbed up the hills again and this time it was more exhausting due to the slippery ground. At the castle’s ruins we made a break and enjoyed the amazing view at the valley, where moselle river runs through the colourful landscape. After several up and downs we arrived a small village and made a break in pizzeria. While hiking I got to know Sumanta, who is doing his PhD in Biochemistry and does some of the same stuff I did. It was going to rain again, but we arrived the train station, and therefore the end of the hike, almost dry. We had reservations in the IC and got a private compartment for six of us. I was in that compartment with Oli, Anna, Anirban and some other guys. Together we played “I never ever…” and it wonderful friendships.