Cologne

On November 24, 2019, a Sunday, we visited Cologne.  The big draw there is the Cathedral, I will cover that in the next post.

Here is a view of the bridge and Cathedral from where we are docked on the east side of the Rhine:

Another river ship a little further down the Rhine, on the west bank:

We hopped on buses after breakfast, and they drove us across the bridge to the Cathedral.  We started the walking tour at the cathedral, but Sunday mass was about to start so we only went inside for a quick look, photos are in the next post.

From the cathedral we proceeded past the Roman-Germanic museum (closed, as everthing was, it was Sunday) to look through the window at the floor of a Roman villa that was unearthed during the construction of an air-raid shelter in 1941.  You can see my legs in the reflection:

Then we walked past a piece of Roman road that was unearthed at some point and preserved:

This pub is famous for something, but not being a drinker, I instantly forgot why:

I think this is the tower of the city hall, with Christmas Market stalls in the foreground (not yet open):

This was a fountain, to commemorate something to do with the end of WWII I think:

The walking tour ended there, but we went moseying off to try to see either the Mustard Museum or the Chocolate Museum.  We didn't have much choice, it was either one of those or the perfume musuem (Eau de Cologne), as almost everything is closed here on Sundays.  However, the Mustard museum was by tour only and not in english, and the Chocolate museum was insanely overpriced and looked very busy, so we just started walking back to the ship for lunch.  These are some buildings we passed along the river:

Pathway beside the river, heading north to the rail/pedestrian bridge:

The bridge we are going to cross back to our ship, which you can see off in the distance under the bridge:

This bridge was one of the first "lock" bridges, where young lovers pledge their undying love by locking a padlock to the railings and throwing the key into the river.  You can see the locks at the left:

The bridge is so full of them, that new loves have had to start colonizing the railings beside the bridge:

On the other side of the railing covered with locks is where the trains pass, both local and regional:

Ed with the locks:

Close up of some of them, they went back to 2007 or so:

The bridge from the east bank.  I lost my favourite neck-warmer scarf somewhere around here.

Arriving back at the ship, it had just moved away from the dock to let another river boat leave.  Due to lack of mooring space we had been double-docked with it overnight.

Here it is re-docked, that is my brother and sister-in-law waiting to board, they had returned to the ship just a little too late to board over the double-docked ship:

Just a view of the little balcony of our stateroom, with the Cathedral in the distance:

After lunch we headed back over the bridge, as we wanted to tour the Cathedral and climb the tower now that Mass was over.  This is the train station beside the Cathedral:

The plaza in front of the train station, beside the cathedral:

View of the cathedral and bridge from our stateroom that night:

The rest of my photos are of the Cathedral, they are coming up next.

Koblenz and the Christmas Market

Koblenz was the city our ship docked in after the scenic Rhine cruising, and was the access point for the trip to Marksburg Castle.  Because the day had already been so action-packed, we had hardly any time left to see any of Koblenz, but we headed out soon after returning from the castle tour.

Here is a map that shows where Koblenz is located at the junction of the Moselle River and the Rhine.  They call this spot "German Corner".  Our ship was docked just to the right of the "corner", right beside the monument to Emperor William I.

Here is the equestrian monument, taken from our stateroom on the boat when we docked in Koblenz in the early afternoon:

View of the fortress across the Rhine from the city:

Same fortress, later in the afternoon when we returned from the Marksburg castle tour:

The statue in the early evening (the sun sets early in November):

The next two photos are views up the Moselle River from German Corner:

Next we ventured into a couple of streets of the old town, that had the Christmas Market going on, the only one that was open on our trip.  It had just started for the season, it was Saturday evening.  We were short of time so we didn't see the whole thing, in fact I think we turned a street early and just saw a very small part of it, but here are a few photos of the stalls and lights:

 Too bad we didn't have longer here.  Overnight we travel to Cologne.

Marksburg Castle

In the afternoon on November 23, we visited Marksburg Castle in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.  It's above the town of Braubach, and not far from the city of Koblenz, which is where our ship docked.  This castle is notable for having never been destroyed or fallen into disrepair, although it has been restored over the years.

Here it is as we cruised past it on our way to Koblenz.  We hopped on buses there after lunch, and drove a little ways back up the Rhine to see this castle on the eastern bank of the river.

The first gate on the way in:

We have passed through several gates and now are walking up a roughly cobbled ramp that horses used to walk up, pulling carts and carriages too I think, into a small courtyard:

I can't really narrate all the photos as the group was huge, the castle is confusing, and we were constantly going in and out of the castle on a convoluted route so as to not get in the way of other tour groups.  I think the layout was intentionally confusing anyway, as defence against any enemies who penetrated the perimeter.  The architecture is very mixed as well, from additions and changes over the centuries.

This is looking east-ish, further up into the valley that we drove up to approach the castle:

This is a toilet structure off the banquet hall:

Beer or wine cellar:

Kitchen:

I think this was the prince's, or the lady of the castle's bedchamber:

The banquet hall, with the door to the toilet at the left:

The next 3 photos are the ceiling of a chapel.  It's not very big, and was stuffed with the tour group, so I only got pictures of the ceiling, although the room itself was not very ornate.  I think they said that these paintings were added during restoration; they were typical of what might have been there but are not original.

One room had a museum of armour the warriors and knights wore through the ages, these are some of the later, more advanced suits:

Another look at the kitchen room with its long table as we moved along the tour, I ducked my head in as we passed by for a better photo while a different tour group was in it:

This is the blacksmith shop:

This is that ramp that we came up once we were inside the final gate, the ones the horses with their humans used to climb up:

Views down (north-ish) and up (south-ish) the Rhine from the castle: