Allison's Wanderlust: Cruzin'

Day 2 –

There’s nothing like the gentle rocking of a ship to lull you asleep. We sailed thru the night and I think Sheila and I slept thru most of the night. Our neighbours were enjoying CNN at 6am, so we decided that since we were awake, it was a decent time to get up. What to do – morning exercise class? Nope. Coffee in the lounge? Check. Buffet breakfast? Twist my arm. By this time we’d docked in Cochem, so I toddled off the ship for a quick stroll along the river bank to get in some good castle-viewing before our morning tour.

The tour was a delight, especially in comparison to Brumhilda's of yesterday. Marie-Louisa was wonderfully cheery, full of good stories, and entertained us while still educating us on Cochem’s history. I won’t bore you with all the details but it’s a terribly old town (866 AD) and not only had feudal lords trying to one-up the other, it had to deal with WWII bombardments and periods of biblical flooding , yet it survives to this day, capturing every tourist dollar it can. It’s got an 11^th C. castle at the top of a steep hill that a Berliner bought in 1866, and restored it from ruins to a wee summer villa(!), and is now the prime attraction.

Beer is thought to be Germany’s national drink, but in the Moselle valley it’s Riesling, Riesling, Riesling. The Romans first discovered that this was the place to grow the white grape, and it’s been the beverage of choice ever since. Shoot, in the Middle Ages the monks were each given five litres of wine, per day; and that takes a lot of grapes. And vineyards are what this river valley has in abundance. Every inch, no matter the steepness nor terrain, is covered in vineyards. Plot by plot, each angled slightly differently from the other to gain maximum exposure to the sun, it’s grapes, grapes, grapes.

The weather cleared in the afternoon so we could actually sit outside and enjoy the fresh air as we cruised from Cochem to Koblenz. I now have zillions of photos of vineyards and vistas (ha ha, that’s the name of our cruise!), both dripping wet & in glorious sun so a little editing is in my future...

Koblenz is where the Moselle River(R) meets the Rhine(L),

and there’s a great big statue of Kaiser Wilhelm to commemorate this (?!?)

There just so happened to be a huge flower festival going on in Koblenz, and we docked right in the middle of it. We received special passes so we could exit the facilities if we so chose, as well as free tickets to use the cable car that swings up over the Rhine to the fortress on top of the cliff on the other side. With only an hour to dinner, we hopped aboard and went to smell the roses.