Koblenz And Rick Steves Need To Kiss And Make Up

Before we left we saw the very brief entry in Rick Steve's book on Koblenz and it gave the impression that he didn't have much good to say or even much appreciation for the city. Well we may have only had a couple of days, but we found that there was a lot to enjoy about the place. It is not a haute cuisine type of place, it didn't have stunning daily markets, or even the most amazing architectural building in the region, but it had a comfortable, if understated, quality as well as the ability to access all sorts of activities. It also has the second largest fortress in Europe, only Gibralter is larger, which looks stunning overlooking the Rhein and Mosel rivers from the hillside. Hell, even with the rain on Friday we found plenty to do.

Saturday started off even less inviting in the morning. At breakfast we looked at the dark skies and the constant wind, hinting at imminent rain. It was a good thing that we had a plan for just such a situation, an afternoon/evening boat trip south on the Rhein, to St. Goar and back. We headed down and grabbed our rental bikes from the hotel parking area for an easy ride tothe banks of the Rhein so that we could get our boat tickets early and go enjoy a little more of the area. I say easy even though we had to dodge numerous pedestrians because Steph had a bike bell that make sure people were aware of us (mine made more of a weak clunk sound). Even the getting the boat tickets was a bit of fun because of the attendant's surprise that we wanted to take the last boat down river to St. Goar and then 20 minutes later start e journey back to Koblenz. She questioned us to be sure that all we would want to do is take the boat down, get off, and turn around and get back on to come back. Yeppers, that was our plan indeed.

With tickets purchased and time to spare we decided to make further use of the bikes by going down the east side of the Rhein for a few miles. This side wasn't as scenic as the west bank of the river, and the flooding river banks seemed to still be rising since we arrived on Thursday. In fact, just north of the the bridge we intended to cross to come back into Koblenz, we had to backtrack because the water had risen above the trail far enough that ducks were swimming over it. Coming back up to the head of that section of trail we ran into German and English bikers who got a laugh when we told them that it was no longer passable since ducks were able to be swimming where the trail was supposed to be. We then took the road a bit further south to the rail bridge over the Rhein that had a bike way beside the tracks. This was not an ideal crossing for Steph but she was game enough to try it and predictably a cargo train passed on the tracks nearest us when we reached the midway point. Surviving that and having an otherwise comfortable ride back into town we dropped off the bikes at Zanger. They were so kind and personable, getting the deposits back was no hassle.

Next up on the day was taking a quick jaunt down through the shopping area, which in some sense reminded us of Sauchiehall in Glasgow. Steph finally broke down and picked up a couple of scarves. It was something she had been resisting since we got into Freiburg. The shopping center wasn't so impressive as to get us spending lots of money and being just after noon time we decided it was time for coffee. We stopped at Hoefer's and relaxed and enjoyed watching the world go by us for a little bit. I know you are figuring we stop for coffee often, and we do, but it isn't quite the same frou frou coffee culture as there is here. Yes, Starbucks does exist, but we have stuck with finding more localized or regional places. 

With a refresher in place we headed down to the boat docks and were not sure what we should expect of our boat tour because of the two groups that crossed paths. A stag party stumbled down the gangway off the boat and an equally loud hen party came up to the boat as well. (Both groups were german, so there was no room to complain about it being stereotypical American or English jerks.) to our good fortune it was only the hen party that joined, and they chose to be off on their own in a different section of the boat. The chance to see all of the castles and the vineyards at a more leisurely pace was immensely enjoyable. It also made us aware that there were a number of nice small towns along the Rhein that would be worth a visit or a stop over on a bike tour of the middle Rhein. In the 20+ mile stretch from Koblenz to St. Goar there were seven lovely castles to take in on the hillsides. Of course we still had a smaller stag party, we didn't know they were initially as there were only four of them who were relatively quiet, sitting near by. We couldn't get over how much alcohol they put away on the three hours up river, a six pack of Beck's for each as well as several shots of bitters, Underberg to be exact. They weren't bad to be near and Steph and I also got to enjoy some Sion kolsch on the ride to St. Goar.

St. Goar is one of those pretty Rhein towns, on the west side of the river. We had a few minutes to walk around and get a little sense of the place, of course we found the bakery before closing to get something nice for the river trip back. That is the two of them from back in the room later in the evening as we reserved our desert for an appropriately late time.

It did get a bit cool and blustery as we awaited the paddle steamer for the trip back. It turns out that the boat, The Goethe, was celebrating 100 years this summer and that was our ride back to Koblenz. It was a lovely and comfortable boat and it made great time up the river due to the faster current with such hi water. We couldn't get over just how high the water was creeping everywhere.

The evening was rounded off by a walk back through town, where there wasn't much of dinner that looked appealing, so we walked back out to the hotel. As we walked in to the bar/restaurant it turned out to be halftime of the German football cup, so we went up to the room, freshened up and went down to watch the second half and have a small bite of late dinner. All in all Koblenz has been great fun and we head out of Germany for the Low Countries on Sunday.

Prost!!!

Friday - Why Having Multiple Plans Helps

Thursday night Steph and I laid out a couple plans of attack for our two full days in Koblenz. One had us renting bikes and heading down the Rhine and the other was taking a boat tour down the Rhine or the Mosel Rivers. We even had the emergency backup, museums and indoor stuff (this is the last resort choice we keep on hand). On Friday morning plans took place slowly, due in large part to us figuring out just exactly what the weather had planned. As it turned out there were high chances of rain, and a storm front that was moving from east to west against winds that were coming out of the south. This all meant that the idea of renting bikes straight away and riding down to Boppard, 23+km south along the Rhein was going to be out on hold.

Our new plan of attack was to start by walking the old town of Koblenz and at least hitting the visitor information center. The city has some of the more eclectic of fountains we have encountered, and even the architecture can vary widely from building to building. After a bit of time in the altstadt we headed over to Deutsches Eck to take in the views associated with the confluence of the two major rivers, both of which are increasingly growing toward a bad flood stage. Steph's foot has been giving her problems so we decided that rain or no rain we should rent the bikes anyway and take a ride down the path along the Rhein as far as the weather would allow us to go.

We had looked at a couple of places the night before and decided that Zangmeister's was the place to start. It did not disappoint, and in fact far exceeded what to expect. Since it was already afternoon, and it was raining we were able to get two bikes for 20€ combined, half of what we expected. They also threw in the helmets and locks gratis. They were very nice, focused on being helpful, and an overall joy. Once we were all set up, Steph and I decided to continue with the idea of pedaling south and see how far the weather lets us get. Needless to say, we encountered sprinkling, spritzing, showers, and downpour conditions throughout the time biking. Fortunately I had a secondary part of the plan in mind, biking south about 6km to Koblenzer Brauerei for a bite to eat and a little sampling. I saw the brewery from the train on Thursday and noticed it had beer garden and restaurant. The original plan to go longer distance to Boppard fell through, but this showed up just in time as it was starting to pour. Thank goodness for Gore-Tex as we were mostly dry and had on quick dry trousers.

The brewery was a great place to have a bit of lunch and to sample their Pils, Bock, Kellerbeer, and Alt styles. We each found at least one to like, if not more and the food was excellent. Prices were awfully nice as well. Unfortunately they didn't have any tours or even a shop with which to work, but we came out happy and dry. They did not rush us at the brewery so that we were able to not only get dry but to out wait the rain. We were able to make a break for it back into town and only got a few showers along the way, meaning we were much less soaked than on the trip down there. 

Upon getting back into the old town we locked up our bikes and went in search of the 4pm coffee and cake. We were able to sit outside under the awning, and with outdoor heaters above us and enjoy a good coffee at Einstein's. After that we picked up some postcards, stopped in a couple of shops and wandered a bit more before grabbing the bikes and heading back to the hotel around 6pm. All told it was a very successful day in the rain and we enjoyed every moment of it, being able to explore things we would not be aBle to easily reach on foot or by public transportation.

Travel Day Thursday

Not grand and glorious things to report for Thursday as we took the train from Freiburg to Koblenz. It was Corpus Christi here so everything was pretty much closed except for transportation and the stores at the train station.

On the brighter side, the train followed the Rhine closely from Mainz up to Koblenz so we got to see all of the beautiful wine plants along the hillsides, as well as the numerous castles. We thought better of trying to get good pictures from the train since they likely would not have turned out very well anyway. We also figured that we would do a Rhine boat tour over the couple of days we are here. After some discussion in the afternoon we also figured we should try to rent bikes and ride along the Rhine as well since apparently the Rhine bike trails go all the way from Switzerland to the Netherlands. Now it is all just a matter of getting the weather to cooperate and that isn't looking promising at the moment.

Our hotel is on the Mosel river in Koblenz and from near the hotel you can get nice views of the city.

Freiburger Langes Rot Day

Wednesday ended up to be just what Tuesday left off as, a rainy, overcast, and cool day and it started inauspiciously with the case of the missing coffee. In true mystery form we were asked about coffee, yet 10 minutes later it had not arrived, truly not what we have come to rely on from the hotel. The rest of the breakfast was wonderful as usual,  it the coffee had disappeared. When some finally came it had some of the same intensity to the flavor, but we noticed about an hour later that it had lacked the same caffeinated boldness as the previous two days. The conversation on our walk in the rain turned to it being Nescafé or Sanka, just like the MacDonald house in Kinlochleven a few years ago.

First order of business, finally get our tickets for Koblenz since we are headed there tomorrow. Easy enough done and the automated machines worked just fine for us, not sure why I had previously waited in line. Think we will try and get the tickets for Amsterdam prior to our departure tomorrow. We decided to just take the train directly to Koblenz and get the lay of the land and where we are staying, giving us time over the next couple of days to determine which Rhine boat tour we are thinking of taking down toward Mainz.

The rest of the day was sprinkled with trips to the museums since the weather had not remained our friend this day. Since we had been at the train station, our initial stop was the Colombischossle archeological museum. It is a great little museum in a wonderful setting on its own hill. It is small enough to not be overwhelming but has objects dating back nearly 10,000 years from this immediate area, very cool. The next wander was further into the altstadt again and the Augustinermuseum of religious antiquity, much of which came from the Munster in town. The religious history of Freiburg is quite intense, and not just from the Munster and other churches, the monasteries, seminary, and other religious facilities.

After wandering our way through the Augustinermuseum it was time to finally get down to what we hadn't been hungry enough for on previous days, the Freiburger Langes Rot sausage from the market. Steph went to Lichts' and I went to Hassler's, and needless to say, our decision was that Lichts' wurst was the better of the two. It was fun because the owner served Steph and decided she was not worthy of having it broken in half so it fit the bun, but was rather extended on both ends. The other person in the booth was being kind enough to break it in half before serving it. We just figured it was a tourist test, eat the sides down to the bun or take the moment to break it so it fits, which is what Steph did. Hassler's was more of a knockwurst and didn't have the same flavor I had come to expect of the Langes Rot. Oh well we have one more day to give it a try and plenty of other options to choose from at the market before heading north.

All this left two more minor shopping stop after going to the Museum for Modern Art. The modern art changed their upstairs exhibit, so no more launching yourself off a platform to make your own smashed box art form, this time it was an ecology and art exhibit playing on the idea of Freiburg as green city. Together I think er both agreed that the slave city exhibit was disturbing and ingenious, but we wanted to see even more about it. 

After the museum we wandered over to finally get Steph a slice of Schwartzwald Sacher torte from Kolben Kaffee Patisserie under the shadow of the Martinstor. We got it to go so that it could be savored as desert later in the evening. It was then time to track down a baschle duck for Steph, and not just to take back, it needed a good ride down a baschle or two first. We were able to find an SC Freiburg baschle duck and then took the short walk down to Rufs bakery for the ritual of afternoon coffee. This time we had a companion for the coffee.

The little duck seemed to enjoy a bit of Steph's cafe au lait. 

We relaxed back at the hotel a bit before final y wandering out for the duck's initiation to the open water streams throughout the old town and what better place for a first time that the ones around the Munster. Appropriate pictures of that will be added later when I am able to download it from the camera.

We returned to Martinsbrau tonight as we weren't overly hungry and wanted an adult beverage instead. The Freierling brewery was packed to the gills already, so we headed to the first hausbraureri of Freiburg for a nice relaxing drink and a nosh. We then wandered a bit more through the university campus and around a bit more before returning to the hotel to finally have the Black Forest cake. Makes for a nice end to another full day and has left is feeling there will be another trip back here and this time we will start going a bit further afield into the smaller alpine towns in the Black Forest.

Hiking in the Schwartzwald

Right after breakfast Tuesday we got hiking stuff together for a wander up to the top of Rosskopf. It was about a 5km walk up the hillside, which Steph did a great job reminding me was continually going uphill. At one relatively early point we came across four senior aged ladies hiking down the hillside. All of them were in schnazzy track suits and well perfumed as they wielded their trekking poles down the hillside, meaning they were probably even more heavily perfumed to start since they had to get up that far to be coming down at that point.

We continued up to the top, where there was both a fire/lookout tower, four wind turbines and of course a cell tower. The cell tower made sense as there was a couple with a tween son who was on his mobile phone as we were wandering our way to the top. It was bright and sunny and I took the extra few minutes to go up the tower which provided great views of the entire area. The top of the tower it was 767m, and stable as could be for a steel girder construction from the late 1800s. There were a number of hikers that made it up there after us and there were quite a few mountain bikers headed up and back. On the way down we headed south-east and made our way to the chapels of St. Wendolin and St. Odelein, the first had room for about 10 people inside. The second had a restaurant and beer garden next door so we did the proper Schwartzwald hiking thing and stopped for a beer before heading down the mountainside.

Once down we got a glimpse of the hostel, which is much more hidden since everything has leafed out and the field is uncut grasses. We decided that before heading back to town we should stop for a coffee at Ambrosia, which is in the neighborhood near to the hostel and was a nice stopping point in March.

We made it back to the hotel and the sky opened up and it started pouring about 15 minutes after we got back, so we really could not have timed it better. It continued to rain all evening and finally we decided it was time for dinner and ate at the wonderfully quaint Gasthaus Zumba Kranz. It is a bit more out of the way and only a couple of tables really available in the whole place, but it was well worth the walk up to find. 

All in all a very full day and two days in a row with enough sun and warmth to truly enjoy outdoor activities up in the Schwartzwald.

Monday's Lessons In Patience

Monday morning we were awoken at about 4am by some very noisy and persistent birds. Sleep was a bit disruptive until about 6.30, when the alarm went off. From then on it was easy to sleep a bit more probably because of the earlier disruption. The Alleehaus has a great breakfast and good, well needed, coffee. After breakfast we wandered up to the information center and then to the post office for post card stamps. From there we wandered through the market and finally bought some apples and very juicy oranges.

After stopping for another coffee, au fresco on the Munsterplatz, we decided to take the cable car up Schauinsland to the top. The true source of patience was that on the way up the car stopped about 3/4 of the way up for about 15 minutes. I was so proud that Steph dealt with the time suspended up on the line so very well. Up at the top we wandered up toward the tower, which I climbed and Steph made a wise decision not to do. It wasn't overly high up there, but there were shadowy areas that still had little bits of snow trying to hang on, as well as on the higher peaks. We had a great walk up there, especially the time following the young boy with the intense crocodile tears. It was truly surprising that he was able to keep it up so continuously without taking deeper breaths. The hope was to go back to the restaurant at the cable car facility at the top, but it was undergoing intensive renovations and thus we were unable to have anything there. It was hoped that we could enjoy a drink while overlooking the western valley in front of us - too bad, so sad. On the way down the car stopped again, this time for only 5 minutes or so, but it just seemed par for the course Monday.

Upon coming back from Ruf's bakery, such a great place to be based on where the hotel is.   We looked at scarves for Steph again, picked up a wee nipper of scotch and then went to dinner at Martinsbrau, which is more varied in beer choices. We enjoyed sitting au fresco for dinner and some nice dark and light weizen biers. After dinner the next step was to go for a long walk up to the small botanical garden and then along the shoulder of the Black Forest without climbing into the higher reaches of it.

The Weather Ain't So Different, But So Much Else Is

After quite a long day of travel we have finally reached Freiburg and have settled into the hotel. The temperature isn't much different here than back home, maybe even a few degrees cooler. There is a nice light rain welcoming us to town as well.

The trip here was nicely uneventful. We got to the airport early yesterday and had a relaxing time in the Delta Sky Club or whatever they are calling it. It felt good to just take it easy for a bit before the flight. We arrived in Amsterdam ahead of schedule, leaving us plenty of time to just wander a little and stretch our legs before the flight to Basel. Nothing especially interesting in Amsterdam's airport on this occasion, then again there seldom is. The flight to Basel was nice and quick by comparison, only an hour in the air, but with the smaller plane it took about 15 minutes of taxiing to get to our runway. An hour wait and the we took the bus up to Freiburg, it was about a 50 minute journey in the rain.

What was especially nice was wandering from the bus station to the hotel in the light rain with Steph. It feels absolutely wonderful to be in this city again, and so shortly from March. It is all starting to leaf out and show signs of blooms, so it will be exciting to see how it all differs in a new season. We are off for a wee wander and then some dinner, or vice versa to make for a good end to a long travel day.

We ended up at Feierling Brauerei, maybe unsurpringling the fist night, but it is also just a couple of blocks from the hotel. It was very good, as I have come to expect, but can't say I was a major fan of the house tap, Inselhopf. It reminded me a lot of a recently manure spread field mixed with a hefeweizen. After dinner it was back to the hotel in search of a good night's sleep.