Last year I had the opportunity to take a Viking River Cruise down the Rhine and I have been sharing my experiences with you here on the blog. Our first day was spent in Amsterdam, our second in Kinderdijk and our third in Cologne. And that brings us to our fourth day which was spent visiting another Unesco World Heritage Site – the Upper Middle Rhine Valley.
The ship left Cologne late the night before and in the morning we were close to Koblenz. We headed upstairs to catch a glimpse of Ehrenbreitstein Fortress as we passed by before breakfast. At one time it was a castle, but throughout the years it later became a fortress. It sits on a hill overlooking the confluence of the Mosel and Rhine Rivers and the city of Koblenz.
There is a cable car that takes you up to visit and it looks like there was some reconstruction being done when we viewed it at dawn that morning.
And we learned finally what all those numbers along the side of the river stood for today. Those are km markers notating the distance from the Rhine Falls. And there is even a site where you can look up the posted numbers to see where you are when cruising the Rhine. We had seen them before when we sailed from Kinderdijk to Cologne and now we knew.
And we caught a glimpse of the quaint little village of Ehrenbreitstein behind it’s wall bordering the river. I suspect those walls are meant to help with flood prevention in low lying communities.
We were told to be ready by 8 am for a quick stop in Koblenz. Betsy, Jerry, June and I waited in the lobby for our ship to dock. We were told it was a very quick visit but there were two things we needed to see: the Berlin Wall Monument and the Monument to Kaiser Wilhelm. And we were told if we missed the second, we needed to go back to bed and get some more sleep.
Our ship finally docked and we disembarked to what was called the Deutsches Eck, or the German Corner.
In the image above, off the right on the other side of the river is Ehrenbreitstein Fortress on the hill. This little corner of Koblenz is a wonderful park area overlooking both the Rhine and Mosel Rivers.
And here was a view of Koblenz along the Mosel.
Koblenz is a very old city, it celebrated it’s 2,000th anniversary in 1992.
Of course, we didn’t have time to visit, but I am glad I got a few pictures anyway.
Ok, so we had a little bit of time and two things to see. Neither of which we had seen yet, until we came upon this. The monument to William the Great, which is huge and that is why we were told if we missed it we needed to go back to bed. In fact, it is so huge, I am going to save it for another post. But here is a teaser photo taken by June.
As we passed the monument, which is larger than life, we passed these huge bollards on the banks of the rivers.
I believe these are to anchor ships through mooring lines as they would dock here in years past. They were not in use while we were there, but with their size, I imagine they could hold a pretty large boat.
I loved the faces on the anchors. Detailed down to the fangs and teeth!
Even the pillars at the monument had little faces on them. There was definitely a lot to take in.
And as you can see, it was a lovely morning, and not all that cold, as we headed to the Berlin Wall Memorial.
Behind the Kaiser Wilhelm Monument we found this simple memorial commemorating the coming down of the wall that separated East from West in 1989. These are three actual sections of the Berlin Wall.
For me, this was really special. Of all the history we had been exposed to, this was something that had happened during my lifetime. I remember how I felt when this happened as a young adult and it was amazing to see and touch this important piece of history. It was not something we knew about ahead of time and I am so glad that our crew made sure we knew to visit.
I love this shot that June captured from the back.
And this one of me taking Betsy and Jerry’s picture. And look behind me across the river, it’s a camper park! Just like we have here at home. That was cool to see, too.
Another thing we found while nosing around the back of the German Corner were gardens and a museum.
With outdoor sculptures, like this big round thing. And do you see that huge monument in the background? See how big it is?
June caught Jerry posing for Betsy.
Here is the museum, behind that fence. And June already running down to see what was behind the wall.
It was the Ludwig Museum, an art museum.
I am sure it would have been fun to explore, had we some time.
They had an outdoor café.
With an herb garden.
But it was time to head back to the ship for our next adventure of the day, Marksburg Castle. But I will show you the Monument to William the Great first, on my next post about my Rhine River Cruise.
This is not a sponsored post. This is my experience from my trip with Viking River Cruises. Email me to find out how you can save $100 when you book your first cruise with Viking through their referral program.
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