Day 15: Klobenz to Cochem

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Day 15: Klobenz to Cochem

29^th September 2014



Finally the time had come to get off the boat. I went for a run in the morning and it was beautiful. It was just getting light and the mist of the river made it peaceful and beautiful. It was a nice start to the day. We had to disembark at 0900 and we packed, had breakfast and made contact with Mandy and Louis who were already in Klobenz ready to pick us up. I cannot tell you how happy we were to see them!

We said our goodbyes to Lynn and William as they were going to Frankfurt and we said our goodbyes to Guilia and then we got off the boat as quickly as possible. Even though it was a bit cramped it was great to be back in the Benz (now known as Schmidt) and to know we had freedom and a feeling of being amongst friends again.



We went for a walk along the Rhine and then took ‘the worlds most modern’ cable car (I’m getting very brave in regards to heights) up to the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress which dominates the Klobenz from its commanding position 118m above the Rhine. Already in existence in 4000BC the fortress underwent thousands of years of occupation, building and rebuilding, peace times and war, and in 1943 – 45 during the second world war an anti-aircraft battery was stationed there and as testament to its structure and strength the Fortress was also used to store cultural artifacts during the war. The Fortress now houses a number of almost incongruent exhibitions but the ones we managed to see are fabulously presented and comprehensive in their content. There was an exhibition of the history of wine including aroma stations (clearly a hit with Frank), there is a really comprehensive archaeological collection salvaged from the Middle Rhine and Moselle (Hayden Maloney would love this), and then there are a number of different exhibitions and collections, which relate to the different histories of the Fortress itself. We spent hours there and still didn’t do it all but time was moving on and so must we as we have accommodation booked in a village which takes us away from the Rhine to the Mosel River. Frank is managing to achieve his goal of a sausage and beer a day and so we stopped and had one on the way back to the car.



I must be getting better in the car as well cause as soon as I got in I went to sleep. The drive from Koblenz to Cochem is only about and hour so it was an easy journey. The apartment Mandy has booked is in a village called Ernst which is about 5 Km from Cochem and is fabulous – a complete 2 bedroom house with a living room, a kitchen, 2 loos and a huge bathroom. It looks out over the little village and people come and go on bikes and in cars along the narrow cobbled streets. The house is owned by a wine maker who, now that it is vintage, is hand harvesting 1.5 ton/ day.





For the first time we were able to cook dinner for ourselves and so we cooked pasta and drank beautiful local Rieslings. After dinner we decided to wander through the village and we came across, by chance, this underground wine cellar, which was set up for a quiet evening of drinking. They had tasting plates of 6 local wines each – 5 of dry whites, one of 5 semi dry white and one of 5 sweet whites. We managed to have one each and there wasn’t really a bad one amongst them! And then we polished a bottle of sparkling for good measure. A quiet stroll home a game of euchre finished off the evening nicely.

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