visit to Koblenz

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After a hectic trip along the Mosel we took an easy day with just lazing around and taking a walk through the Forrest that starts opposite the Hotel. We had coffee on the balcony and skipped lunch, we did not need it after a big breakfast. We set out around 2 pm. The Forrest was very open and a hot sun was shining just above us. We had no idea how big this Forrest was, only that a lot of Nordic walkers were using it. Lucky the open part was going over to a more shady side. We tried to remember which and what way we walked.. Artists have been busy making the Forrest more interesting. We had to recognise plants and guess what they were. Even saw wood sculptures along the road. We finished up between the vines and an amazing view over the Mosel. We lingered there for a while to get our breath back and take photos. We saw a group of Nordic walkers passing by and looking at the red faces they were not doing any better. We found our way back to the hotel and a cold beer. A bigger trip was waiting the next day. Koblenz is a lot further away and driving that along the Mosel would take to long. The autobahn was the best way to get there quickly. We arrived close to what is called the Deutsche Eck or German corner.A car just pulling out gave us an excellent place to park. We only had to come back every two hours to put more money in. We had no idea that there was a flower show on that barricaded all the places of interest. We think the city of Koblenz should have taken another place for this exhibition. We were not there for flowers but for interesting sites. Lucky we could get into the Church of St Kastor. A nicely decorated and historic church. A small paper in all languages,explained every thing about the building, that was consecrated on 12 November 836. It contains nice furnishings, each with it's own story. We had to walk right around the church to get to the Deutsche Eck. There we enjoyed the view of the two rivers the Mosel and the Rhine coming together. A big statue of Kaiser Wilhelm is dominating the corner.we asked who it was from an older German man. After telling that it was Kaiser Wilhelm, he than said with a big voice that it was time for the kaiser to come back and fix up the country. We were able to climb it, to have an even better view over the area. The Rhine is a very busy river with ships coming and going. It has a direct connection with Rotterdam in Holland, one of the biggest harbours in Europe. Walking around there, you easily forget the time and we had to hurry back to put more money in. Our stomachs were also complaining, it was passed 2 pm. We chose a nice terrace to consume a plate of goulash soup. At least I had goulash soup, Liz had tomato, but that was so salty she had to return that for the same as mine. We had to visit another palace but again that was occupied by the flower exhibition. So no go for the tourists or you had to buy a ticket for 20 Euro pro person to see flowers. We hurried back to the car and had one minute spare on the parking meter. There was time to follow the Rhine,just to see a bit more of it, but lightning and showers were stopping that. We set the tom tom take us back to Bernkastel. A small winding road through lots of Forrest brought us over the mountains back to the Mosel. Not without incidents. The road stopped and we had to turn into a very tiny road through all sorts of places we never knew existed. A few other cars were following us. We think they saw we had a Tom Tom and realised that we would find a way back to the Mosel. We did and landed back not far from our hotel. A nice shower awaited us there. This brought the visit to Koblenz to an end. It had been a very nice day after all. Bye for now Liz & Allan

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Photos

P1040874
St Kastor Koblenz