Geierlay - Germany's most beautiful suspension bridge and its caches

We perceived the Geierlay suspension bridge as a tourist attraction in Rhineland-Palatinate. RPR1 just has a series of the most beautiful places in RLP. Called Treasury of Rhineland-Palatinate. Since we can't be in the USA at the moment - as planned - let's take a closer look at home. Around this suspension bridge, geocacher team Will Riker 1311 & Age-Pi put a round. So combine sightseeing with geocaching – just the way we like it.

  Explanation of terms

The Geierlay suspension bridge connects the municipalities of Mörsdorf (Rhein-Hunsrück district) and Sosberg (Cochem-Zell district) in Rhineland-Palatinate. At 360 m, it was the longest suspension cable bridge in Germany before the Titan RT Bridge was built.  
You can still see on the posters/banners that the word "longest" is pasted over with "most beautiful". This is of course subjective and cannot be trumped.  
 
First of all, we associated these unwelcome birds with the name Geierlay. And a little internet research confirms that we are quite right. Vulture stands for various birds of prey and Lay describes a valley. So, the valley of the birds of prey. That's what the area was called before the bridge was built and the name Geierslay was adopted without the "s" for the bridge. We didn't see vultures during our visit, they were certainly much too hot...

There is much more information on the website https://geierlay.de/ We can only recommend this website. You can get a lot of information here to organize your visit.

 

Geierlay and CoVid-19

Corona has also arrived in the deepest Hunsrück. I had completely misjudged it in terms of tourism flows. Despite the very hot day, an international audience was on the road here. I would have put it empty. Okay, the hike on the Geierlay loop was rather armed, but the bridge was filled very well at all times. The operators have thought and you can find out very well on the website. So every odd hour starts from Mörsdorf - up to 10 minutes to the next hour, small groups of about 20 people are always left onto the bridge. If this group is a few meters away, the next group can do it. Quite well organized by the security service, but still annoying if you have to wait 30 minutes in a field in the sun. The most negative point at our experience here. On the bridge there is currently only one -way traffic, i.e. at every odd hour it goes from Sosberg to Mörsdorf. We enjoyed one -way street traffic on the bridge. The floor width is only a good 80 cm, there is a good thing if nobody wants to pass me ... .. ..

Otherwise there is a mask requirement at the two bridgeheads, as the minimum distance simply cannot be maintained there. And here, too, the security staff gave their all - the willingness and friendliness of some visitors still needs to be improved...

 

Directions/Parking

The only way to get there seemed to make sense to us by car. It is certainly also possible to use public transport if you have a lot more time. But actually everyone comes here by car. There are various parking spaces, which can be found on the bridge's website as well as in the cache description.

When we arrived on Sunday morning at 9 a.m., the parking lot in Mörsdorf was not yet full. However, the parking fee put us off enormously, so – we thought particularly cleverly – we just parked on a side street. OK, that's not! Absolutely not. Have the Mörsdorfer already made provisions.

Of course, if you imagine that a small town in the Hunsrück is known in one fell swoop due to the construction of a purely touristic bridge and that a large number of tourists arrive here every year - then you can understand that "parking wildly" doesn't work.

So we remembered that visiting the bridge is free. And according to the internet, the really expensive parking fee is also used for cleanliness and safety at the bridge. Okay, of course we want to contribute to that.

We drove to the parking lot a few minutes before 9:00 a.m. and after a hike, waiting at the bridge head, short breaks, cache search and a cool final drink in Mörsdorft, we were back at the car shortly before 3:00 a.m. in the afternoon. Makes 21 EUR parking fee..... 3 hours cost a flat rate of 10 EUR, each additional QUARTER hour costs 1 EUR. That doesn't sound like much, but it adds up to a lot... But as I said: if it serves safety and cleanliness, then we want to make our contribution. You don't have any other choice anyway...

It is also important that the parking machine only accepts cash (HM, which in the 21st century and in a new building ... ..). Next door, however, is directly an ATM so that everyone can supply themselves.

Also next door is the visitor center and tourist information. A souvenir can be bought here or refreshments can be taken. Toilets of course as well.

 

Geocaches

Geocachers who are hiking to the Geierlayschleife will certainly have the small traditional tour on the hiking trail in mind. You can find 11+1 Tradi, a mini multi and a bonus here. According to the cache listing, the entire route is 7 km. You can also make other caches with small detours as "by-catch".

In the listing for the round, a few meters of altitude are indicated. And although height is not my thing (yes, that on the Geierlay is a challenge!), the climbs on the hiking trails can be described as moderate. Really good to do.

The listing already refers to the Tradi Mörsdorfer Kreuz, GC26GKY, as a by-catch. A very nice photo spot as you can get a glimpse of the bridge, albeit quite far away. And it's a great photo spot in its own right, you can pretend you've reached a high peak. But that's not the case, coming from Mörsdorf the way to the cross was quite level. However, the cache goes down a bit. Long trousers are currently also an advantage here.

 

We have already solved the short multi Now being sounded from the bridge, GC68D6A, at home. A wise decision, because on the bridge I would have had too few hands and too few thoughts for it.

It's enough that you should take a funny photo on the bridge for the Virtual Indiana Jones in the Hunsrück, GC7B770. Hey, that thing rocks! Imagining how the good Indi would cut the ropes of the bridge with a machete didn't make it any better. Our escort actually managed to do this sitting cross-legged on the bridge, while I was already struggling to take the photo. But it was also possible to wave a cap or something else. Well, of course we managed to take a photo on the bridge. We had almost unconsciously found the answer to the Virtual's question. Hard to miss. It's nice that there's a little ghost on the bridge now.

On the other side of the bridge we then visited the two finals of the multis, on the one hand the targeted one and on the other hand the multi Get the kick, GC5QG9A, before we finished the lap.

All in all, a very nicely laid out round of caches, which definitely makes the Geierlay loop even more worth running than it already is.

The way to start

From our parking lot in Mörsdorf, according to the signage, it is 1.8 km to the bridge. It works differently for us, as it starts at the parking lot with Cache No. 1 and we have already found 3 caches in town until the vulture loop started. The way to the hiking round was already embellished with Geocaches.

From the parking lot it goes straight through the small town of Mörsdorf. Probably because today is Sunday and a Sunday in the summer holidays, many barriers were set up here. These tourist crowds can certainly be annoying at times... But you will also find a small machine that mints a "coin" with 3 different motifs to choose from for little money from even less money. Of course, we can't get past here without taking a 10 cent piece with the Geierlay Bridge home with us.

Small cafés and a food truck with waffles and cool drinks are also open. A vending machine also provides hikers with cool drinks. We are initially well equipped and postpone the enjoyment of the food truck to the way back. You need goals to look forward to...

 

Der Rundweg
 

We choose the circular route as intended by the cache owner - in ascending order along the numbering of the caches. In hindsight I think it was a good decision. You only have to cross the bridge once and you have it at the end - the choice to walk back the loop or to enter the bridge is made easier. After all, we found on the Internet that 20% of visitors only look at the bridge but do not step on it. I myself had the impression that all visitors (except us, of course) come over the bridge from Mörsdorf and return there in the next swing. To be honest: boring! Much nicer to walk the loop, always with a view of the bridge and to cross it to crown it all. Crossing a bridge once is also enough – but I think I said that already…..

 

The bridge

The bridge was built in 2015 based on the Nepalese model and at the highest point you are about 100 m above the valley. The bridge has a trapezoidal shape, the tread is a good 80 cm wide, the arm width on the upper steel cables is 1.44 m. And don't think I had the time and composure to measure this on the bridge... These data can be found in advance on the internet or you can get good information from the notice boards when waiting.

The way over the bridge looks steep from Sosberg. The bridgehead in Mörsdorf is also higher than that in Sosberg. But once on the bridge, this increase is not even noticeable. And for all doubters: yes, it varies!!!! She has to. I know. Nonetheless…. In the middle it fluctuated quite a bit. And we had a windless day. It's good if you can hold on to the steel cable with at least one hand. But you don't have to worry about falling. The side parts of the bridge are well secured. And as I said: you know that swaying is right and good. I just had to tell myself sometimes... Overall, I found the bridge crossing to be less exciting and less scary than I thought beforehand.

                                                                           

Conclusion

Make! On the one hand, a building that you should have seen. A little thrill too. And a nice Cacher round that is really fun.