Moselle & Rhine Rivers

Tuesday 15 April

Poor internet connection, will try to load photos later

After sailing last night, we were given a talk in the ship’s lounge about the area we would be cruising through and a briefing on Cologne the town at which we would be docking tomorrow.

We sailed all through the night and arrived at Cologne at 1:57 pm, three minutes ahead of the estimated time, which was remarkable seeing that the river is almost at flood level and flowing strongly. Watching the Captain manoeuvre the boat to the docking point where he stopped the bow within 10 cm of a stone wall and a similar distance at the side, at the same time as missing the two boats moored about five metres behind, all without any assistance, gave us an indication of his skills.

After docking we were issued with a little unit about the size of an ipod with an earpiece and our guide had a little transmitter, so we could still hear him even if we were ten metres away. The guide conducted us through the new “old” part of town; the original buildings were destroyed during WW2 and have been rebuilt in the old style. We walked to the cathedral in the rain and sleet and were glad to go inside, into the reputed third largest cathedral in the world, an amazing building in size and height and considering when it was built, it would have been one of the wonders of the world. Our guide knew the history of the cathedral and would make a good religious guide, but he wasn’t very interesting so we wandered off to do our own thing.

We walked over the Rhine on a footbridge to a large circular building with an open air viewing platform on the 29^th floor (thanks to Russell Joyce for the hint). The area was enclosed with glass panels with named silhouettes of the points of interest around Cologne and as the rain had eased we had a good view of the town.

Walking back to the ship we noticed the river height had risen by around 40 cm and the speed of the current was slowing the progress of all the vessels travelling upstream. Later in the evening we left Cologne to travel to the Moselle River, this wasn’t part of the original cruise plans but as the locks on the Main Canal have been closed for repairs the company has altered the cruise and we will be bussed around the closed locks to join another boat on Sunday.

Wednesday 16 April

We awoke in a narrower river, the Moselle, and travelled past a number of pretty villages before arriving at Cochem about three hours before the planned arrival time. This was the result of not having to wait at any locks on our way upstream having received a green light all the way.

Cochem is dominated by the Reichsburg Castle which was built originally around 1000 and rebuilt several times over the centuries, before being destroyed by French troops in 1689. In 1868 a German businessman purchased the ruins and rebuilt it as a summer palace rather than a fort. The family was finally forced to sell it to the government in 1942 when they couldn’t pay the 10 year in advance taxes which were levied to help the war effort.

After lunch we walked around the old part of town before riding on a chair lift to the summit of a large hill which provided a view of the town and surrounding areas. We then joined a tour of the castle and town with a wonderful guide, in all the years we have been on guided walking tours I don’t think we have had a guide who was both as knowledgeable and humorous as this elderly lady.

After dinner on the boat we were entertained by a group of folk dancers from the village of Lutz, one of the many groups throughout Germany who are keeping the old traditions alive. After their last dance they selected passenger as partners to repeat this dance, of which Ann was one.

Thursday 17 April

This morning we looked out the cabin window to clear skies and heavy frost on the banks of the Moselle River, the sun deck of the boat was also covered in frost and to make us more aware of the conditions, the hot water on board wasn’t working.

We noticed that we were moving very slowly, this was because we had to wait for our place in the lock we were approaching, after passing through the lock we speeded up for about an hour before stopping to join the queue for the next lock, where we waited for nearly three hours before finally being able to enter. As a result of the delay we would not arrive at the twin cities of Bernkastel-Kues in time for our planned tour, so the company arranged for us to dock at a small town before the next lock and had buses waiting to transport us into Bernkastel and return.

Bernkastel on the right bank of the Moselle River, like many German Medieval towns contains many narrow lanes with 400 hundred year old half timber houses. In the days these houses were built they were taxed on the area of the ground floor with the result that the first and subsequent floors extend out over the ground floor.

The town is dependant on the wine and tourist industries and grape vines are planted on every available space on the surrounding slopes and right up to many of the houses. The vines are planted on a 1 metre by 1 metre grid and are so close together that I think you would need to be of slim build to work amongst them.

During dinner the ship sailed, returning downstream towards Koblenz. After our meal we were entertained by several acts and skits from the crew before our resident pianist took over and provided the usual evening easy listening and dancing music.

Friday 18 April

We were due to arrive in Koblenz at 8:00 am this morning, but the boat was already moored when we opened our curtains and I have no idea what time we had arrived, obviously we had a good run through the locks. We were moored about 200 metres from the “German Corner”, the confluence of the Moselle and Rhine Rivers.

After breakfast we commenced our walking tour of the town, Koblenz, like many other towns along the rivers, suffered extensive damage during WW2 and most of the old part of town had been rebuilt in a style similar to that which was destroyed. In spite of the damage, there are still many old buildings and parts of walls still standing while with others the facade survived and a new structure was built behind it.

Our visit to Koblenz was quite brief and at 1:00 we set sail to travel to Rudesheim through the Rhine Gorge, (Castle Alley) and past the Loreley Rock. Along both sides of the river there were railway lines and about every five minutes a goods or passenger train passed by either going up or down river as well as the many freight barges on the river.

Travelling upstream through the Rhine Valley we passed many castles, both ruined and still in use, the distance between these castles was such that the next one came into view almost before we had passed the last. Most of the ruined castles were destroyed when the French invaded the area in the 1600s.

The boat travelled at a steady 15 km/hr and as there aren’t any locks or bridges between Koblenz and Rudesheim we weren’t held up, arriving at Rudesheim ahead of schedule, shortly before dinner time. After dinner we were entertained by a classical trio, two violins and a guitar, they had driven over 300km from Belgium to entertain us.