Day 13 (14th July): Koblenz in Honeymoon

We had a rich day today. We finished cruising on the Main last night, and started the day on the Rhine. I stayed up late-ish to watch the World Cup finals, so was a bit groggy, but luckily we are supposed to stay on the ship in the morning, when we go upstairs to watch the scenary in the Middle Rhine.

You can tell immediately that we were in the Rhine, because the waterway was wider, and the ship was going much faster than the snail pace in the Main. I had wanted to come back to the Rhine ever since going to St. Goar on the Contiki tour and wondered what it would be like to cruise on it. Now I know. It was wonderful. The weather cooperated and it stopped raining but was not too sunny, so we got to see many spectacular sights, of castles and little towns, and the Lorelei rock. It is only now that I come to the realization that, as far as towns along the middle Rhine go, St. Goar isn't that small a town; it's probably medium-sized. It is good to actually be in the middle of the river and see the scenary from the perspective from the water, it's very different from travelling on the shore. I got to take a picture of the same spot on St Goar where I had taken a picture that ended up being my phone's wall paper, and as luck would have it, the ship lines up with that spot so I could take the same picture again. So that was fun. We also got to see Oberswesel, where our ship was built.

We must have spent two hours on the sun deck, where it was very windy at times (the Rhine could act like a wind tunnel) and hot at times (when the clouds part and we get direct sun light, it heats up quickly), but the scenary was so beautiful everybody stayed on the boat. It was also funny to see so many people snapping so many pictures tirelessly, alternatingly pointing their cameras to the left and right.

Eventually we docked at Koblenz, which is itself a city worth visiting, but we didn't spend much time there. There is a castle on the other side of the river from the town, with a tram going up there, but we didn't go there. Instead we were bussed to the Marksburg castle, 20 minutes away upstream, which houses a society for preservation of German castles and a museum of sorts on the subject, since it is the only castle that has not been destroyed on the Rhine. The tour was wonderful - we go up rocky stairs, squeeze through tiny crawl spaces, and looked out the cannon sights. The guide was also very knowledgeable and gave a lot of information about the middle ages practices - what kind of infraction would result in what type of torture, what kind of cannons are used at what time and what are their ranges, and she was very efficient and clear. Something you associate with the typical German.

After the castle tour, we came back to Koblenz and explore the town on our own; we got to the giant Wilheim I statue by the confluence of Moselle and Rhine, and walked up the Moselle to the old town and into the town center. It was fun but a bit exhausting after a whole day of sight-seeing. La Professeure, strangely enough, was feeling the effects of a cold early in the day, marginally decided to go on the castle tour, but during the castle tour she was completely fine. All she did was to buy ricolla at the castle souvenir shop. Maybe the fresh air did her some good.

We had a special dinner tonight of german food culture. They even got a duet - baritone and tenor/accordion player - on board to sing beer hall music. So it wasn't as good as being in a beer hall, but it's still pretty awesome.

Koblenz is easily the nicest place we docked after Budapest. I wish we could have spent another day here (I'd like to see the Ehrenbreitstein fortress and take the cable car up there), but as we found out, this tour used to be 3 weeks long and the company had to cut it short because it was hard to fill. So there isn't much we can do about it. I was wondering how come we would skip some prominent places like Frankfurt, Linz, Bonn, or even Mitelburg, but I suppose the cost would become prohibitive.