Wednesday we just pottered about the site as Karol had hurt her back and was laid up as a result. We did however manage a short walk into the local village to buy some bread, and also to wash the caravan – the first time we’ve done it since Spain 3 months ago! Needless to say it was in need of a bit of TLC.
Karol’s back was much improved Thursday, so in the morning we set off in the car to explore the Mosel to the north. We stopped and walked around at Ediger-Eller, a two centre town with a few hundred meters separating each part.
We then drove onto Bremm, where the (allegedly) steepest vines in the world are located. They certainly were steep, but didn’t seem more so than other Mosel Valley vineyards we’d encountered already. However, they do produce the best wine – the region is known as Calmont, and the most expensive Mosel wines originate here. Apparently it’s to do with the amount of slate in the soil, and the fact that they are obviously well drained! Because the vines are on such steep cliffs, special ‘lifts’ have been installed on the mountainside – a bit like stairlifts, which run on tracks between the rows of vines.
We then briefly passed into, and out of Bullay, which we’d struggled to find as it was hidden behind its own railway and bus station, and wasn’t as picturesque as we’d been told. On the way back we stopped for a brief look at the famous Kaiser Wilhelm Tunnel. This is a 4km railway tunnel built in the 1870’s and still in use today. However, they are in the process of upgrading it, so it was difficult to get close, but we did manage to take a picture of the signboard, and one of a goods train passing through for good measure.
After lunch we put on our glad rags for a return trip to Cochem, to visit the opening day of their four day wine festival – on the bus this time. We were a bit shocked at the price of the tickets though, at just under €10 each for a return ticket to cover the 17 km journey, the most expensive public transport we’ve encountered so far.
Each town on the Mosel has a wine festival in the summer months, so you can be pretty sure to come across one or more during your stay. As Cochem is the largest big town nearby, we expected great things. However, when we got there late afternoon we found it wasn’t in fact open yet. It eventually kicked off at five o’clock with three market square bars serving their own Mosel wines in souvenir glasses (which you had to buy of course, costing €1 each.) We sampled a couple of the wines, and were amused by the antics of a group of ladies of ‘a certain age’ – one in particular was obviously well away, shaking her stuff to the piped music in the square. A lone gentleman happened to be passing, and she decided to engage him in conversation; it was clear she was propositioning him! He seemed quite taken for a while, bantered with her and then walked on, so her efforts were all in vain. However I for one was giving her a wide berth as we had a walk round the remainder of the festival ‘area’ which took about 10 minutes, none of which was yet open.
So we went and had an early supper back in the market square, and as nothing else appeared to be happening, caught the bus back to the site. Maybe they have too many of these things, or maybe we were just too early and they really get going much later in the evening. Either way, we won’t be rushing back!
The bus journey was memorable however, as the ‘ladies’ (including the forward dancing one) got on our bus ahead of us. Karol was amused by my wariness and it was with some relief that we got off at our stop without interference, leaving them behind.
Friday we were on the move again, this time just an hours drive to Koblenz, where the Rhine and the Mosel converge. In fact we’re staying at Guls, which is 7km from Koblenz City Centre, still on the banks of the Mosel. We haven’t been to Koblenz since we passed through it with Scriven Park FC in 1982 on our way to Rohrdorf. At the time we were in three mini buses in convoy through the City Centre (not sure why we were going though the centre) and Dave Kemp was driving our bus for this leg of the journey. He was a recently qualified driver, and hadn’t got used to the fact that in a left hand drive car all of the vehicle is on your right, not your left. I have a vivid memory of him mounting the pavement with the bus, and pinning pedestrians to the wall before we managed to drag him back into the road. I don’t remember anything else about Koblenz though, so was looking forward to seeing it in less stressful circumstances.
So on Saturday we cycled into Koblenz. There is a cycle path all the way so it was quite straightforward, and we parked our bikes near the bus station and set off to explore. We stopped for a quick coffee at what turned out to be a Spanish bar, so it was quite confusing to be spoken to in Spanish rather than German, having only just got used to ‘Ja’ and ‘Danke.’ I’ll be glad when it’s back to only English!
Koblenz is one of the oldest cities in Germany, located next to the famous Deutsches Eck (German Corner) at the confluence of the Rhine and Mosel. It was founded in 14 BC by the Romans, and in the course of its 2,000 year history has been conquered by the Franks, occupied by the French from 1794 until 1815, and ruled by the Prussians. We started our tour at the Electoral Palace, which, whilst not open to the public, does have some beautiful gardens which you can stroll around. As it was Saturday, there were a few brides and grooms in the gardens with their photographers, and despite my best efforts I’m sure we managed to photo-bomb a couple! The gardens lead you out onto the Rhine, and it’s then just a few hundred yards to the confluence. There’s a huge statue here of Kaiser Wilhelm I which was destroyed in the 2nd World War, and they decided not to replace it until Germany was reunified. A replica was therefore erected in 1993.
We’d decided not to explore too much as we were planning to join the once weekly ‘English’ walking tour at 3 p.m. It left from the Tourist Information, so we set off to find it, and to book ourselves on the tour before getting a bite to eat. Unfortunately, despite trailing round for 90 minutes, getting directions from a helpful local lady, using SatNav and Google maps, we failed miserably to find it. We’d been told that it had recently moved, but everyone seemed to think it was somewhere it wasn’t! Disgruntled, we stopped for lunch at an Italian restaurant (about half the restaurants here are Italian) under an outside umbrella for a belated lunch, and just in time as it started to rain.
After lunch we detoured towards the railway station to book a table for lunch the next day, as it was our 40th (Ruby) Wedding Anniversary! We’d picked it out on Trip Advisor – Koenigsbacher Treff – and following the directions found what we thought was the restaurant (the sign above it said Koenigsbacher) and booked a table for 3 the following afternoon. We then decided to head back to the site, but on the way came across, (yes, you’re ahead of me, I know…) the Tourist Information! Unfortunately it was now after 3.30 so the tour was long gone. However, we were able to buy a map in English with all the attractions catalogued, so decided that we would return on Sunday to see the remainder of the sights and do our own tour, before heading off for our celebratory lunch.
We had a leisurely start on our Ruby Wedding, exchanging cards, and opening the ones the kids and others had given us earlier in the trip, before having a late breakfast (my now famous poached eggs on toast) and cycling back into Koblenz.
Armed with our map, we ticked off most of the well known tourist attractions in short order. Unfortunately however, I can’t show you too many photos, as I’d forgotten to put my memory card back in the camera, so all the photos we took are still on its internal memory, and I didn’t think to bring the right lead with me to download them! It’ll have to wait until we get home now…..
Whist walking around we had noticed that a number of bars seemed to have Koenigsbacher signs. It dawned on us that this was a brewery, and maybe we hadn’t booked a table at the right restaurant after all? That proved to be correct, as we found the right restaurant a bit further along the same road right opposite the railway station. Fortunately there were plenty of tables so we didn’t need to book, and we both had a lovely meal – steak for Karol and steak and pork steak (a two meat mixed grill) for me. However, we both felt guilty for being no shows at the other place, and shuffled past with our heads down on the way back to our bikes!
