Another weekend trip, destination, Koblenz.
It was a beautiful day, and although it was unfortunate to have to start it out sitting in a train, we did get a pretty good view as we snaked our way along the Rhine towards Koblenz, one of the largest cities in this part of the Rhine valley. The train tracks follow the river all the way from Cologne to Frankfurt, passing through villages and towns. We had the guide book out and tried to catch glimpses of various we had read about moments earlier as they whizzed by.
Koblenz only merited one star from guidebook, and there wasn't much of a map included for the city, so we were hoping to pick one up at the tourist info place that is inevitably located near the train station in every town. Indeed, we saw the tourist info building staring us in the face as we walked out of the station, but it is apparently closed on the weekends. Not really sure why. We settled for a far less useful city map available from the actual train station, no fancy numbers and blown up sections of downtown to tell you what one ought to see, just street names. We spread it out on the pavement outside the train station and tried to figure out how to get down to the water. Oddly enough, a man walked by and asked us, of all people, for directions, and when we said that we had only just arrived (which I thought was pretty clear) he walked off in a huff shaking his head and muttering. We figured out a path to the edge of town where the Deutsches Eck (German Corner) lies at the meeting point of the Rhine and Mosel rivers. This corner is watched over by a larger than life statue of Kaiser Wilhelm the First. Probably Koblenz's most famous attraction.
We stopped in front of a very interesting looking church, it had so many different shapes built into its different parts, and then came across a view of what looked like a palace, but turned out to be a government finance building. The building curves to form a bit of a semi-circle, and is fronted with towering stone columns. It looks important partly because of the large gardens that stand in front of it, but when you get right up to the doors of the large white structure, there is a small sign in a variety of languages assuring people that there is nothing to see, and that the building is absolutely not open to the public.
We kept walking. The sun was really out now, it was the brightest day of the year thus far, and everybody in town seemed to be out, looking to enjoy a few rays of sunshine. Just a few hundred meters from the forbidden palace, we found our way onto a waterside promenade which would lead us to the meeting of the rivers. We stopped to buy an ice cream, and at the same time picked up a very long map which shows all of the towns along the Rhine, all the way from Rotterdam to Switzerland which is now hanging proudly on my bedroom wall.
We kept walking, and then, through the trees that line the river bank, we could see the huge statue looming. It hadn't actually sounded like it was very big in the book, but this personification of the Kaiser is huge. The entire piece of land that juts out into the point where the two rivers cross has been cleared of anything but the statue which shows Karl riding on a horse in dress of war, with an angel at his side. It's a giant green copper mass on top of a massive stone pedestal which looks as if it was build to guard the rivers. The whole thing acts like a sentry at the watery gates to the city. Very impressive.
From here we went back into town a little ways, and stopped inside an extremely old church which had just recently been visited by the pope to have the status of Basilica bestowed upon it. There were still pictures inside of Helmut Kohl who had come to witness the event and make a speech, the text of which is now preserved for al time on the wall of the church. It was in a very different style to many of the other churches we had seen, although surprisingly similar to the church of Charlemagne in Aachen. (link)
Then it was off again to try and enjoy the sunny weather before nightfall, and so we walked along a section of waterfront that had been part of a plan of city beautification by the occupying French at the turn of the 19th century. Koblenz was actually a Prefecture of France after the revolution. The long stretch of greenery follows the flow of the river, though there wasn't much to see on the water side because the water levels had crept up and had swallowed up some parkland. We passed a small collection of restaurants called the Weindorf (wine village) along the way, and pegged it for dinner.
On the way back as the sun was setting, we settled down into the weindorf to have some supper.
The area is famous for whine in Germany, and you can order Mosel wine in restaurants across the country. So we had a glass each to complement a very German meal of Schnitzel and potato soup. It was absolutely delicious, and capped off a refreshingly easygoing day in Koblenz. From there we made our way back to the train station, to get back to Cologne in time for bed.
