Koblenz (Wednesay 13th September 2017)

Firstly, thanks to all my loyal readers for taking an interest in our travels through Europe. We appreciate your comments too, so please keep them coming in.

Today was a fairly lazy day. It was bucketing rain this morning so we decided a couple of extra hours sleep wouldn’t be a waste of a day. When we thought we’d better get moving it was still bucketing. Nevertheless, we had breakfast on the balcony and watched it come down. Yesterday we’d bought some basics at the village supermarket – Cornflakes, coffee, milk, jam, yoghurt, butter. Of course, no breakfast in Europe is compete without a freshly baked croissant. I took the 36 steps (literally!) from our balcony table the counter of the bakery and picked up a couple.

After we’d got all our gear for the day together I went to pick up the car just 100 metres up the street and drove back to pickup Kerry. No sense in us both drowning! We were off to Koblenz for the day!

Koblenz is a moderate sized town that sits at the confluence of the Rhine and Mosel rivers – only 70kms from Bacharach. The first part of the journey took us up the steep, heavily wooded Rhine valley walls to the rolling hills and cleared farmland on the top. I must say, that driving through these forests on such a dull and dreary day really gives one a better appreciation of the tales from German folklore that were collected and published by the Brothers Grimm in the 19^th century. It’s not a wonder that those stories about the “deep, dark woods” struck fear into the hearts the children who heard them.

The drive through the twisting, narrow roads eventually ended and we found ourselves gunning it down the autobahn, arriving in Koblenz quick smart. The town has a population of about 112,000. Not too big, not too busy and still quite charming. We found a multi-storey carpark in the centre of town, parked the Renault and headed off, following our noses. First, and really the only thing, on the agenda was to get to the confluence of the rivers. Down cobble-stoned streets we went in search of a river. Along the way we passed a little shop selling scarves do Kerry just had to stop and get one to jazz up today’s attire. A little further along that street we found the Mosel, Downstream we headed and landed at the point where the rivers meet. The large platz is presided over by a huge statue of Kaiser Wilhelm on horseback. A dozen flags representing various parts of the region were flying in the stiff breeze adding a lot of much needed colour the otherwise grey vista before us. A lovely avenue of elm trees led away from the point in the direction of the Rhine’s flow. We walked along there ad discovered a cable car that travelled across the Rhine and up to the fortress that sat upon the hill. For the small sum of EUR 9.90 each we jumped on for birds-eye view of the city.

Up the top we passed on the additional EUR 4.00 for a tour of the fortress and wandered around the lush, green lawns instead. The return ticket took us back to the riverside where we strolled until be reached Koblenz’s main park. A right turn here took us back towards the city centre in search of refreshments. Koblenz really is a city worth visiting. It’s setting at the confluence lends a special feeling that not many other town are lucky enough to have. The parks are lush and green, set amongst stone paths lined with mature trees. The city has its share of grand 18^th - 19^th century public buildings set against it share of modern 21^st century buildings.

It has straight, broad streets that that carry the vehicular traffic and narrow, winding cobble-stoned streets and platz that carry the pedestrian traffic.

 

 

We stopped in one such platz, Jesuitenplatz, in the old part of town for a beer and mineral wasser first and coffee afterwards. When the sun shone through he clouds it was very pleasant indeed. Kerry bought some more things in the various shops we passed on the way back to the car. I bought this little USB-attached LED light that I’m using as I write. It set me a back one whole Euro!!

 

 

For some reason that will forever remain unknown the carpark payment machine refused to recognise our ticket. Luckily a lovely young girl quickly recognised our plight and negotiated with the dis-embodied voice speaking to us from somewhere within the machine. It cost us just EUR 6.00 for about 4 hrs of parking. Bargain! Roadworks once again confused GPS-girl so we made our own way out of the city centre and let her take over from there. The journey home was a slightly different route, I think, but still entailed fast roads and slow streets through villages. We arrived in Bacharach in enough time to get to the village grocery store and pick up a few things for dinner.