A Trip Down Memory Lane…
Cologne and the Rhine Valley, Germany

Our Trip to Germany and Czech Republic

Cologne and the Rhine River

Part 2 of the Series

 

After a great nights’ sleep in Frankfurt, we headed to Cologne (Köln for you German-speakers). We were able to leave most of our luggage at the hotel in Frankfurt and just took what we needed for an overnight trip. We walked to the main train station (hauptbahnhof) and bought our tickets for the ICE (intra city express) to Cologne. This particular train travels at 150 mph…pretty darn cool!

The Cologne bahnhoff was very busy and crowded, much more so than Frankfurt. We checked our one bag at an automatic luggage machine; you put your money and your luggage in the machine and it gives you a baggage claim card that you’ll need to retrieve your luggage. The luggage is taken downstairs via a little elevator inside the machine.

We toured the Cathedral, which is very close to the train station. We stayed for the beginning of a church service so I could listen to the organ…amazing!

The Shrine of the Three Kings is behind the high altar in the Cologne Cathedral. The shrine is a very decorative gold sarcophagus said to contain the bones of the three wise men. It is decorated with images of prophets and apostles and scenes from the life of Christ, and also has over 100 jewels and beads.

I decided to not eat lunch in Cologne because I didn’t see anything that looked especially yummy; this turned out to be a big mistake as Curtis was hungry way before he was able to get food in his tummy. He tends to get a little crabby when he’s hungry.

After retrieving our luggage, we took the train to Koblenz. Koblenz is a cute little city that sits where the Rhine and Moselle Rivers come together. Koblenz comes from the Latin word “confluentes”, meaning “merging of rivers”. When we arrived at the bahnhoff, we had no idea where we were. We didn’t have that wonderful PocketEarthapp then; Pocket Earth Offline Maps – GPS Navigation Map & Travel Guideis one of the best apps ever created. If you travel at all, you should get it! It’s the best $2.99 you’ll ever spend.

We figured we wanted to be close to the river, so we started walking downhill. We ended up at the Rhine River and found a nice hotel, Hotel Kleiner Riesen, on the same street the bahnhoff was on. There was a restaurant and biergarten across from the hotel. However, the kitchen was closed because it was too late for lunch and too early for dinner (my bad for not eating lunch in Cologne).

Needing to kill some time until the restaurant opened, we walked toward the intersection of the Rhine and Mosel rivers and had some ice cream along the way; Curtis and I eat a lot of ice cream when we’re traveling. It’s like a ritual for us. We also saw a guy eating the best looking apple dessert I’d ever seen! I wish we had tried it – I would like to have been able to compare it to the most delicious apple streudel we ever had, in Hungary! We did stop to tell the guy how good his dessert looked; he said it was.

We walked through the Basilica of St. Castor, which was originally dedicated in 836 and has been renovated several times since, sometimes just because it needed renovating and sometimes because of damage from pesky wars. We also walked over to the Deutsches Eck (Germany Corner), the point where the two rivers flow together. There is a nice monument to Emperor Wilhelm I there. After wondering through the old part of town (altstadt) we headed back to the restaurant, Rheinanlagen.

Wow! What a great meal! Curtis had Rhinelander Schnitzel, which had bacon, fried eggs, and onion on top of the schnitzel. I had Gypsy Schnitzel, which had peas, carrots, and mushrooms in the gravy. This still remains some of the best schnitzel we’ve ever had. And we’ve had a lot of schnitzel.

In front of the restaurant was a beautiful flower bed. We loved the colors and design so much that we later used that flower bed for the basic design of the “terrace” behind our swimming pool at our house. The biergarten we built at our house is also very similar to the biergarten in Koblenz (on a much smaller scale of course!).

The next morning, we boarded a steam paddle wheeler at 9am and snagged a table inside. When we saw that we were approaching a castle, we would go outside to take pictures. We saw about 30 castles, some in ruins and others in great shape, and took over 600 pictures on this one day. There were lots of pretty churches and quaint villages along the way, as well as vineyards.

We saw two castles built by two brothers; the brothers despised each other so much they built a wall between their castles. Some castles came with a “toll castle” in the middle of the river; any boats passing would have to stop and pay a toll before they were allowed to pass by the castle.

There is a monument at Lorelei Rock, which is at the narrowest part of the river. The strong currents and hidden rocks have caused many boat accidents. The currents along with the hidden rocks also create a murmuring sound which is what gives the rock its name. Later the legend of Lorelei was inspired; it is said that the beautiful Lorelei sat at the top of the cliff, combing her long golden hair and singing causing the crewmen on the ships to crash on the rocks.

We had lunch on board the ship. Curtis had some really good Nuremberg sausages, kraut, and whipped potatoes. Towards the end of the trip, we moved outside; the sun and the relaxation made us (and others) want to nap. We decided it must be time to bring an end to this boating excursion.

We disembarked at Rudeshime and walked around town looking for the bahnhoff. The town was very crowded, there were people and cars everywhere, and there was much drinking and partying going on. Being the non-party people we are, we took the train back to Frankfurt and had pizza for dinner; Curtis’ Four Seasons had an egg on top. If mine had had an egg on it I would have cried. We didn’t sleep very well; it was Saturday and there was much noise from the brothel down the street. Once that quieted down, a very noisy street sweeper came around at about 6am. Sometimes when you pick a hotel from the internet you get a good one; other times not so much.

The next morning we rented a car and set off for the next part of our grand adventure!