June 3, 2018 – Day Nineteen – Kreuztal to Koblenz

June 3, 2018 – Day Nineteen – Kreuztal to Koblenz

Up and out early, after closing up the house and grabbing a PBJ breakfast.  We put out the trash since they collect on Monday, and gather up Evelin’s Garmin.  We’re going cold turkey, without checking our maps or Goggle’s turn-by-turns.  We’ll see how well Ms. Garmin does for us.

A couple of hours later we’re at our hotel with only one slightly-missed turn that was recovered within a minute or two!  I love the way she tells you that your turn is at a traffic light.

Strange things you see on a drive!

We find one of the hotel’s twelve parking spots – yay! – and let them know that we’re here, even though it’s too early to check in. We are right on the Rhine!  We walk along the river front, checking out the little kiosks and the river cruises.  We were hoping to take the 20-castle river cruise, but no one is at the DK ticket kiosk and it looks to us like it will take an entire day, regardless of where you get off.  That’s really too bad.  The castles are the reason this is a UNESCO heritage site. 

Our hotel

This is the lower end of the cable-car ride.

We buy our senior tickets for the cable car and ride across the river and up to the fortress high above us, Ehrenbreitstein.  The site has been occupied since 3,000 b.c.

The massive sandstone walls are virtually impregnable.  The current fortress qas built between 1817 and 1828, replacing a previous fortress that was destroyed by the French in 1801.  It stands nearly four hundred feet above the Rhine, near its confluence with the Mosel. 

From the cable car, in case you couldn't guess!

For a major tourist attraction, there is very little fanfare and falderol!

He called and she came running, before putting on this display!

The sandstone is so beautiful!

This is part of the archeological museum on the fortress grounds.

Monument to the fallen heroes of the German Army.

Really big door!

We’ve covered most of the area and find ourselves near the Cafe Hahm, where the special beer of the day is Bitburg Kellerbier and the food special is serviettenknodel mit pilzrahmsosse.  It’s some kind of potato and bread assemblage in the most flavorful mushroom sauce!  Life is good! 

Deutsches Eck, where the Mosel (brown) flows into the Rhine.

"Bitte ein Bit" is the slogan of Bitsburg Beer.

We find our way back to the cable cars and return to our side of the river. It’s late enough now to check into our room and ensure that breakfast will be available, even though the restaurant will be closed tomorrow.  Our room has a balcony that overlooks the river and we can see the fortress!

It’s too late to go exploring the altstadt (old town);  the shops will be closing soon.  Instead we take a one-hour panoramic river cruise.  The most interesting thing is Deutsches Eck or German Corner.  It is the point of land where the Rhine and Mosel come together and there is a large equestrian statue of Emperor William I, King of Prussia and the first German Emperor.

Love our room with the balcony overlooking the Rhine!  And there are Haribos to greet us on our pillows!

Finally a manhole worth photographing!

Interesting sights on the river cruise....

This is the only inhabited island in all of Germany!  There are 1900 people.

Watching the world go by.

Can you see the people for scale?

It’s late enough after that, that Marilyn is ready for dessert and I could eat.  We find an outdoor table at our hotel, Hotel Haus Morjan, and Marilyn has an ice cream creation with strawberries (which are in season here) and whipped cream, and coffee.  She had a glass of white wine on the boat.  I ask if I can have a ham sandwich and a dark beer. Her ice cream comes right away, as does my beer;  but she’s nearly finished before my dinner arrives.  It consists of a large, thin slice of brown bread covered with butter and four artfully rolled slices of ham, crowned with three slices of hard-boiled egg and a sprinkling of greens.  Along side it is a salad with greens, onions, tomatoes, and cucumbers!  Not quite what I expected;  but lovely and tasty!  We pay our bill and go inside to discover the wifi password from Peter, our waiter, and to check that it will be all right to leave our car until tomorrow afternoon.

Now we’re both done for the day and we go upstairs to settle in for the night.  Early to bed;  early to rise – maybe!!