For your Day 3 bike ride north (downstream) from Cochem.
Building on comments from PalenQ and Fussgaenger.

Cycle from Cochem to Beilstein (11km)
Continue to Bullay (22km}
Continue to Zell(5km)
If you have come this far you have cycled 38km

For return to Cochem you may be able to return by boat from Zell. See schedules. For return by train you need to ride back to Bully(5km). See bahn.com for train schedule. Note some trains may not carry bikes!
If this ride is too far for you, you could just ride Cochem to Beilstein round trip(22km).

If you followed my advice for Day 2 you would have seen this route by car which would help you in planning your Day 3 bike ride.

Traben-Trarbach would be another nice bigger wine town and just a sweet town that I believe does have rail service - those one or two car shuttle trains.

Thanks for all the tips for cycling routes. I am thinking we will likely do a not too challenging cycle route on day 3, and on day 4, drive to Burg Eltz as previously planned, but hike up to the castle.

From the following website given to me by fussgaenger on a previous posting:

http://www.bensbauernhof.com/burgelt...osselkern.html

I understood that the wooded trail hike to Burg Eltz from Hotel Ringelsteiner Muhle, was about 2 km (30 min.walk) but dugi_otok, you say above that the trail hike takes 1.5 hrs??
From the website above, I understood the hotel to be in Mosselkern, but maybe I'm mistaken.
Can anyone clarify this for me? Thanks

I must have copied the above website wrong, but I double checked and it is exactly as in previous posting - not sure why it won't work here... sorry.

And I just wanted to add that we have heard back from our Cochem hotel and they will supply bikes free of charge, so thanks for that tip!

For above website try:

http://www.bensbauernhof.com/burgeltzfrommoselkern.html

I checked my Rick Steves Germany book. The 1-1/2 hr walk is from the Moselkern train station to the castle, passing the Hotel Ringelsteiner Muhle.

For cars he describes two possibilities.The first being parking at the castle parking lot, 1.5 euros/day, a 10 min walk to the castle. The second being from the Hotel Ringelsteiner Muhle, where parking is 2 euros/day. The walk from the hotel parking lot is 45-60 min.The elevation change, river to castle, is less than 400 feet.

Hi raz
I just read your link which describes Arriving at Moselkern via train or KD boat(or by car and you just want to hike to the castle). In reading it I noticed that Ben does not include the time to walk the semi-road from the hotel to the start of the trail to the castle. I also noticed that Ben and Rick also describe the steep stairs at the end of the trail to the castle. My original post of 1-1/2 hrs was for arrival by bike and parking at the train station. So all these times are more or less consistant. When I go later this year I am going to park in the castle parking lot. Its 0.5 euros cheaper.

Thanks - have you been there before?
We plan to park by the hotel as the hike through the forest appeals to us.

I have biked to the Moselkern train station and then walked up to Burg Eltz - though ascending seemed to be a fairly easy stroll of I'd say 3 kms tops. Faster coming down!

Hi PalenQ,
So you parked your bike, then walked past the Hotel Ringelsteiner Muhle?
How far would you say it is from Hotel Ringelsteiner Muhle to the start of the trail leading up to the castle? Am I right to assume it is not very far?
Also, why wouldn't one park their bikes nearer to the trail, or is there no place near the hotel to lock them up?
Thx

It was rather long ago - I do not remember those details just that being a rail nut I left my bike at the station - locked up outside and it seemed the trail started fairly quick but I really can't recall!

I have also ridden my bike up there on the circuitous road which seemed to be rather busy at times but not that hard - nice sailing down!

PalenQ,
What is the circuitous road?

Well the footpath goes from Moselkern straight up to the Burg - a road goes on a round about route that if I recall correctly is kind of a half-circle rather than a straight line - making the gradients a bit less than a straight shot - bikes cannot ride the footpath - but with a little effort you can ride right up to Burg Eltz via the road for car access from Moselkern.