Wow - so much activity and so many things to do that I am falling behind on my blog entries. Better get caught up today - whoops - three different tours today separated by breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Need a vacation to catch up on my vacation...
Anyway... We continue down the Mosel Valley and arrive at Cochem. Now that we are on the Rhine, it gives me the ability to compare the Mosel and Rhine segments of our trip thus far.
The Mosel Valley and the river on which we traveled to Cochem and Koblenz are windy, steep, and narrow with many grapes planted on the increasingly steep slopes. Our guides provided considerable insight on wine growing along the Mosel which started back in days when Romans were occupying the land. Although we are pretty far north to be growing grapes, the dark slate that predominates along the Mosel River valley warms the soil underneath on south facing slopes and keeps the temperature in the range needed to grow superior grapes. Additionally, the slate provides minerals which impart flavor within the grapes themselves.
The other aspect of the Mosel which differentiates it from the Rhine is the relative narrowness of the river valley itself - there aren't a lot of flat places to put towns along the river, so the towns themselves are smaller and haven't grown that much over the years.
The last thing we learned along the way is that the cities along the Mosel were not flattened during WWII since there weren't important factories or military headquarters on the Allied bombing list. So for the most part, many of the buildings are still original construction, not replicas built post-WWII.
Our primary reason for stopping in Cochem was to visit the beautiful castle pictured below. While it would have been even more amazing if the sun had been a tad brighter and the fog had lifted off the river, we were at least dry which means our luck continues to hold.
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| The Cochem Castle in on the hill in the background |
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| Suit of armor in the castle - dude was over 7 feet tall |
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| They told us this wasn't a frog in armor - not sure I believe them |
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| The castle is really pretty inside and out |
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| Ama Lyra docked in Cochem |
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Beautiful downtown below the castle too
So - after a lovely morning stop in Cochem, we continued down the Mosel to Koblenz where the Mosel joins the Rhine. We stayed overnight in Koblenz - shortly after docking and dinner, our talented Cruise Director Uwe took us on a narrated evening walk through the streets of old town Koblenz. Everything was quiet - Sunday evening after all - and provided an interesting contrast when we saw the town the next morning during daylight on our guided bicycle tour (about 2.5 hours probably covering 5 to 7 miles max).
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| Ready to Ride... |
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| Kaiser Wilhelm staute from behind - Teutonic Knights home is just around corner from where I am standing |
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| Kaiser Wilhelm from the front side |
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| Mosel River meets Rhine River at this park - an area full of history |
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| Fall leaves along the Rhine |
Our bike tour - included in our cruise - was excellent - 16 passengers and two guides. We would ride for 5-10 minutes then our guides would pull over and explain what we were seeing the historical significance. Koblenz is a city with 2000+ years of military significance - the German General Staff was headquartered here in WWI and WWII - no wonder that much of Koblenz was destroyed during WWII. We pulled away from the dock in Koblenz just after lunch and headed east up the Rhine towards our evening stop of Mainz - but the real treat was seeing the castles along the way.
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| Saying goodbye to Koblenz from our ship |
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| The Castle Map of our route |
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| We are all comfy in the lounge with Uwe narrating the sights along our route |
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| Castle on the north side of the Rhine River |
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| Lots of vessel traffic on the Rhine |
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