Koblenz, Germany

Koblenz was our first trip out after Caedmon was born.  We decided to drive, and he was great in the car.  It was only about an hour's drive on A3 and the weather cooperated nicely.  We got turned around a little when entering the city, but we ended up parking in a nice central location.

We got out, geared up (Caedmon in the backpack) and started walking along the Rhein.  on the opposite side of the river there were some interesting building, and on the top of the steep jagged cliffs was the fortress Ehrenbreitstein.  From waht I've read, it's the second largest stronghold in all of Europe (the first being Gibraltar).  Sadly, all of the ferries crossing the river seemed to be closed for the winter.  A lot of attractions seem to do that.  We considered driving over but we hadn't even seen the rest of Koblenz yet.

 

So we continued along the Rhein until we reached the Deutches Eck (German Corner).  There was a huge statue of Kaiser Wilhelm there, looking out over the confluence of the Mosel and Rhein rivers.  I think they said the base was 70ft tall and the statue, which was destroyed and rebuilt (with some contraversy) was another 40ft high.  I twas interesting, the inscription said soemthing about how the reich would never fail as long as there was faith and backing (don't quote me on that).  I twas interesting considering the town was mostly destoryed in WWII.  And they displayed an American flag and an EU flag there.

Along the base of the podium were the crests of all the states in Hessen, emblemized on pillars forming a semicircle around the monumnet.  In fron tof it extended a mass of land, bordered by the flags of the states.

We spent a good deal of time walking around up there.  I snapped photos while Nate read the inscriptions and wrote down some of the words/phrases for study.

From there, we went up along the Mosel and walked to St. Kastor Kirche.  Inside, Nate found a newspaper clipping on display from 1944 when the church was bombed in WWII.  There was a painting of the Madona and child, I'm assuming from the middle ages by the look of it.  The ceilings were very interesting and elaborate, and the church's history went back to the 800s.  As with many buildings that old, it was rebuilt, but parts of the old structure remained.  There was also a nearby bridge mostly constructed in a the 14th or 15th century (I don't recall witch).  3 of the middle pillars had also beed destroeyd in bombings, but most of it remained.

  

 

In the plaza above where we parked, there was an interesting fountain that depicted the history for Koblenz from the Romans to present time.

     

After walking around all day, we were ALL rather hungry, so we set out in search of food, which is rather hard to find between 2-4.  We ended up at a wine house that looked a bit like a cafe.  I had spaetzle and Nate had rumpsteak, but even more delicious than the food was the wine.  I twas called Hausmeternich Rissling, 1/2 dry, and it was the best so far in Germany.