Mission accompolished,The Bridge at Remagen,Rhine River,Germany

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A cool change in the weather happened while we were asleep and in fact at one time in the early hours we were both awakened by the sound of a heavy shower of rain. This was certainly a turnaround of what we have experienced over the last couple of weeks as the temperatures during both day and night had built to yesterdays 38C.

We were glad however for a change as yesterday had been too oppressive to be out in for too long and although the sun doesn’t make you wet like rain it can have the same effect making you want to stay in the shade rather than out exploring.

It was still pleasant enough to be out on the balcony for breakfast and we were protected from the light drizzle that came up the valley from time to time while we ate, having bacon and eggs for the third consecutive morning. Our neighbour, when he appeared briefly, had a shirt on this morning.

Gretchen’s brother, Chris, had given us the task of checking out one of WW2’s last major battles as the Allies and in particular the US 9th Armoured Division needed to cross the Rhine on its march towards Berlin to bring the war to an end.

We had passed the turnoff to Remagen, on the day we drove to the Mosel, the location of a famous battle where the Germans desperately attempted to stop the Allies approach by first defending and then attempting to blow up a solid looking railway bridge constructed at the end of WW1 as a means of transporting troops and supplies across the Rhine. As we had already discovered yesterday there are not a lot of bridges across this mighty river, in the immediate area.

So armed with our filled fresh rolls delivered by our hosts again we set off in grey, overcast and somewhat cooler temperatures.

Our drive took us through Cochem and as we decided against fighting against the crowds of tourists yesterday in the warming sun to try and explore some of the town we took that opportunity this morning.

One gets the feeling that Germans like to stay at home on Sundays as the traffic and the crowds have been less and we found a car park a short walk away from the Centrum.

The solid stone bridge over the Mosel at Cochem is a great place to take photos of the line of buildings along the promenade with their uniformity of height but all difference in construction and appearance.

There was an older looking cruise boat called ‘Switzerland’ tied up at a pontoon on the other side of the river. We assume its passengers were ashore making up the numbers of tourists in the town although if they were, they were unidentifiable as we didn’t spot anyone wearing the telltale sign of a cruise ‘dogtag’around their neck.

The town has a number of narrow alleyways behind the promenade with cafes, restaurants and shops selling tourist items and was full of people trying to keep out of the occasional drizzly rain. If we hadn’t extended our walk along the alleyways we would never have found the town square with its picturesque buildings, some of them with the traditional biblical type scenes painted on them. It must really be an art to get the pictures so life like.

We took the Autobahn #61 north to the turn off to Remagen and then wound our way down to the riverside.

The town was not very inspiring at first sight and in the still grey overcast conditions we wondered whether the drive would all be worth it.

However, after finding a car park near the railway station, we crossed the railway line

And walked towards the river to where the sound of a brass band was coming from. Perhaps things were looking up for some action in what had otherwise appeared to be a rather dull town.

Sure enough there was a market day happening and the streets towards the river were full of people browsing the numerous stalls selling all manner of things.

Sitting in the town square looked an option and there were umbrellas up to keep you dry in the occasional light rain that was falling. However there didn’t appear to be any places selling coffee and with a lengthy drive home to come a beer didn’t seem the right thing to be drinking and besides it was only about 22C not the 38C of yesterday.

A little further on and we came to the river promenade and here we found the cafes serving coffee so got ourselves a table under cover and ordered a cappuccino and an espresso for Gretchen. She still wasn’t able to get across that she likes a small jug of hot water as she gets at home to top up her drink as she goes. A glass of cold water came out instead of hot water. After a further try with another waitress she had success!

We sat for a half hour or so watching various boats pass by in both directions right in front of us on the Rhine River and speculated on the freight boats as to whether the 2 or 3 cars that were often on the stern of the barge belonged to crew or did they belong to people who had taken a passage on wherever the boat was sailing from and to.

With the rain cleared we looked out to see if we could see where the famous bridge from WW2 had stood as there were supposed to be towers left on the riverbank.

At first look we couldn’t see them and then Gretchen spotted them further upstream from the town about 500 or 600 metres away along the promenade.

This is what we had come to see and we weren’t disappointed when we got to the towers on our side of the river as there was a memorial to the US Infantry who had fought in the battle. The US and German flags flew from the towers on our side of the river and on the other side there were the German and Euro flags.

The towers housed a museum which detailed the battle and life for the local people who had endured months on bombing before the US Infantry arrived as the Allies tried to destroy the bridge and stop the German forces from using it to get their armaments to the other side of the river.

The information given was just the right amount to not overload us with too much detail and we got a good picture of the importance of the battle for the bridge.

There was of course a movie made in 1968 based loosely on the battle but using the names of those who were in command of both sides. The movie was actually made in Czechoslovakia and starred George Segal and Ben Gazzara as American soldiers and Robert Vaughn as the German commander. Interestingly the end of the movie had to be shot elsewhere as the Russians invaded Czechoslovakia while the movie was being made and the crew and stars had to flee the country in taxis from the advancing Russians. Even Hollywood wasn’t exempt from the invasion to ensure Soviet type rule continued in Czechoslovakia for nearly another 20 years.

It seemed strange visiting a WW2 site in Germany where the Allies had a decisive victory.When we came to think about it all the other battlegrounds we have visited have been on 'Allied' soil with one exception and that was the Hiroshima in Japna,the site of the A-bomb blast that ended WW2 in the Pacific.

We drove home following the course of the Rhine although the road itself was never really in sight of the river which was a bit disappointing although here the river is not contained within a gorge as it is past Koblenz.

We were later than we expected getting back home but had time for a drink on the terrace and decide where we were going to go for dinner, although there was really only 3 choices if we were not to take the car back out to one of the neighbouring villages.

We ended up at a cosy restaurant just a short walk away and dined on local fare of pork cut from the shoulder much the same as a thick piece of ham might be at Christmas time in NZ.This was crumbed and fried and was absolutely mouth watering and delicious. So much so that we are looking forward to trying to replicate it when it comes time to buy the Christmas ham at the end of the year.

The restaurant being small meant that there weren’t many tables for two and so took the last which was for 4 people. A local couple arrived after we had ordered and asked if they could sit at the other two seats. No problem we said thinking that we might get into conversation while we waited for our meals to arrive. No such luck as they didn’t speak English. So we continued on our conversation while they sat there which all seemed a bit odd but then we thought well they don’t understand what we are talking about so what does it matter.

They stayed until our meals arrived, drinking a glass of wine each (well the guy drank all of his and most of his wife’s too) and then got up and left bidding us well. Very odd. We decided that they were locals and came down regularly, perhaps every night, for a glass of wine, but usually got to sit with other German speaking people to talk about the day but tonight had been out of luck!

With a lengthy drive to Nuremburg tomorrow we weren’t too late heading for bed after a long day out and about.

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Comments

[KJ]

A reminder of our river cruise
Enjoying the river photos and being reminded of our wonderful cruise a few years ago-a castle around every corner!

[Whiskers]

It is all beautiful but the Mosel wins out.