Blogs from Koblenz, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, Europe - page 2

This morning was greeted by dry, cool temperatures, 59F-62F, which pretty much makes you rethink your outfit for the day. Cargo shorts and short sleeve is not a wise choice. The reason being, is today we cast off, and go through the Romantic Rhine Gorge. Such great scenery, that I was planning to be on the sky deck, so I could see well, and take pictures without a window, or weather / ship radar mast in all the photos, off the bow of the ship. We had a wind of 15-20 knots, it was chilly, and I got my jacket. The breakfast was good, and we shoved off, and began the journey through the Rhine Gorge. This is one trip to Germany/Europe where I can say I saw more castles than cathedrals. There were 35 castles ... read more

Dzień zaczęłyśmy od kąpieli i małej zimnej kawy. Sprawdziłam skąd i o której odjeżdża autobus. Okazało się że mamy autobus całkiem niedaleko naszego hotelu. Postanowiłyśmy iść na 9.43. Zdążyłyśmy dosłownie na ostatnią sekundę. Byłyśmy bardzo zadowolone ponieważ następny był za godzinę. Postanowiłyśmy że najpierw pójdziemy coś zjeść a ja jeszcze marzyłam o dobrej kawie. Wysiadłyśmy na dworcu i po rozeznaniu się w sytuacji i terenie poszłyśmy w stronę rzeki Ren kierując się jednocześnie w stronę centrum. Ren i okolica nie były ujmujące jako że niebo było zachmurzone i brakowało dobrego humoru. Przez jakiś czas szłyśmy wzdłuż rzeki jednak Gloria zdecydowała się iść do informacji turystycznej a potem zaraz na śniadanie. W informacji kupiłyśmy mapę Koblenz i poszłyśmy coś zjeść. Miałyśmy duże szczęście bo trafiłyśmy na fajnie wyglądającą restaurację która miała certyfikat of excellence Tri... read more

Day 2. This was the drive from St Omer, France to Koblenz, Germany. We got up around 7ish, ready for breakfast and the morning meeting. Everyone was dozing from the night before, so people set off whenever they wanted. The trip was about 4 1/2 hours, but we did do about 80mph on the unrestricted German Autobahn, so it quickly flew by. We set off from St Omer on the hunt for diesel. Luckily, the 306 is quite good on diesel, so we used 3/4 of a tank from Somerset to St Omer, which we were amazed at. We found fuel on the border between France and Belgium, as did a lot of the other teams. Having not ventured out of Somerset apart from holidays, I was amazed at how they sold fuel over there. You ... read more

Geo: 50.3567, 7.59948 First stop this morning was to visit Ehrenbreitstein Fortress which overlooks Koblenz. Access to the fortress is via cable car from the Koblenz side of the Rhine River. After walking around the fortress, we caught the cable car back across the river. After lunch we drove to Burg Eltz, which is a medieval castle nestled in the hills above the Moselle River between Koblenz and and Trier. It is still owned by a branch of the same family that lived there in the 12th century, 33 generations ago. Burg Eltz is the best known ancient castle in Germany. The castle was never conquered. We had a tour of the castle in english which was great. The stairways that link the various levels of the castle were designed to assist in defending the castle. ... read more

We sailed away from Cochem at 6:00 am and arrived in Koblenz at 12:30 pm after coming through two more locks. Koblenz is where the Rhein (Rhine) an Moessel (Moselle) meet. On the photo you can see the difference in color between the two rivers where they meet. The picture(s) was made from the cable car we went on that brought us up to the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress that rises 118 meters above the Rhine (see photos) and offers amazing views of the famous corner *Eck* where the two rivers meet and where the statue of Kaiser Wilhelm 1 was erected in 1897 and is 37 meters high. The Fort was built between 1817 and 1828. We walked through parts of the Fort, it had many cells where prisoners of war would have been kept and display ... read more