Cochem, Germany

‘We sailed overnight to Cochem. It’s a pretty little town amidst the vineyards. There is a castle on the hill. After a buffet breakfast in the dining room, we joined our tour. It had 3 parts-wine tasting, city walk and castle tour. Guess which group got the wine tasting first? Ours, of course. So we went down the road a ways and parked in a park. It was a 5 minute walk to the winery which was in the village. The owner is 11th generation vintner. The sign said Wine Museum. You will see in the photo there was a wall of tools hanging above us. The Moselle valley is known for Riesling wines, my favorite. So there we were at 9:00 AM tasting wine. They served dry Rieslings which were not to my liking..Then came a peach wine that was more an after dinner drink. I bought a jar of peach jam. Verna bought a couple bottles.
I spoke to our tour guide and told her I was a bit concerned about the castle visit-length of walking and steps. She suggested I switch to another group, so I did. We took a van up to the entrance but still had to climb a bit of a rise and go up a staircase to get in. So long as I went slow, I was fine. And since I was alone I didn’t have to worry about holding my group up. I’m so glad I went. The interior was beautiful. The castle was in ruins after the war and a rich Dutch industrialist restored it so most things are from the 60’s. They used it as a summer home! We went through the dining room, living room, ladies room, gentlemen’s room, armory and a terrace. There was a mermaid hanging in one room. We were supposed to make a wish under it, so I did. On the way out, the guide showed us where they have weddings and the 150 foot deep well. She poured water in it and it took 5 seconds to reach the bottom. She also showed us the witches tower. A woman would be forced to jump from the top. If she died, she wasn’t a witch. If she survived, she was a witch and they killed her.
‘From there we took the vans a short downhill ride to the old city wall and had a short walk through town. The tour was over by 12:30. There was a shuttle back to the ship at 1:00 or I could walk it. I chose to make the walk. I had to go up stairs to the bridge, cross the bridge, go downstairs and walk a hundred yards to the ship. It took 1/2 hour but I did it with plenty of rest stops. As I got near the ship, the guide was leaving in her car and stopped where I was resting. She asked if I was ok. I said yes and thanks for stopping. I made it back to the ship just in time for lunch and I had worked up an appetite. My pulled pork sandwich was wonderful. My phone tells me I walked 6700 steps today.

we rested in the room until 3:30 when the Cruise Director, Emma, gave us a German lesson. She mostly showed us words that were 25-50 letters long. Germans combine words to make one long word. She also gave us some laws-it’s illegal to give someone the finger in Germany.. She showed us the words for numbers 1-10. Then she put up the words for combinations of words for 5, 55, 555, 5555, 5555 etc. As you can imagine they got longer and longer.

The captain gave a talk next. He said he was born in 1975 and is 35 years old. He showed pictures of his family and told us he grew up on a barge on the rivers in Europe. His wife’s family were also barge owners. They worked together on a barge until the kids had to go to school. Now she and the kids live in Holland. He works 2 weeks on and 2 weeks off. Not a bad life.
‘Tonight’s dinner was a German food extravaganza. There were sausages, sauerkraut, red cabbage, sauerbraten, pigs knuckle, spaetzle and potato’s salad. Then there was Sacher Torte, and various other desserts. Of course I had some bratwurst.. it was great.

After dinner we played a game of Five Crowns and came back to the room. Now it’s time to rest up for a walking tour of Koblenz. I was there in 1968 but I’m sure it’s changed a lot. In the afternoon we will be going down the scenic part of the Rhine and Emma will be narrating as we go. We’ll see 18 castles and The Lorelei curve.

Photos; many are of the castle. There is one of the name of the winery and the wall of tools, a view from the terrace of the castle.

There’s also a photo that shows why my laundry was over 100 euros!!!