Blogging and bikes: Day 12 - A day in Koblenz, then on to Boppard

Monday, July 13th 2014 - Day 12

Koblenz and then on to Boppard

22.1 km , 524.8 km so far

elevation gains: 67 meters

Track for the day:

Mostly cloudy and very pleasant

temp in low 20's Celsius

(The text is by Erika with pictures and captions or comments in italics added by Marvin)

We enjoyed a nice slow start to the day. After yet another wonderful German breakfast (poor Marvin will go into shock when we are home and it is back to do it yourself cereal!) the hotel let us stow our gear so we could go off exploring the town. First we headed into the Altstadt to get to a bike shop, pick up some ibuprophen (my knee), and look into a new camera. We had not gone far before there was something we wanted a picture of. Marvin automatically pulled out the camera which, to our delight, worked! We think that the rain and humidity caused it to seize up. Now things had dried out it was back to its old dependable self! Yeah!
(Actually, to be more accurate, I took it out of my pocket knowing that it had not been working but hoping for what proved to be the case: It seems the camera just needed a full day to dry out. I think there must be a sensor in it that shut it down when it sensed moisture in a bad place. I remain very impressed by the camera)

We had skipped some towers that I wished to take pictures of but then it occurred to me I should try the camera at least one more time before we bought a new one

Everything is always so impressive, you just can't stop taking pictures

You have to be careful around this one or he might just squirt water at you out of his mouth

On the way back I took some pictures of towers that I had missed earlier because I hadn't tried the camera yet

At the bike shop we got Marvin the handle bar bag that matches his panniers. We couldn't get it in yellow in Canada so, once again, yeah! I got my anti inflammatory, we discovered some sights and poked around a church from the 1100s.

Actually, I think these pictures are of a newer church than the one that Erika refers to above

Then it was back down to the Deutches Eck for Marvin's photo shoot! As I had been without anti inflammatories for over 24 hours, there was no way my knee or ankle were able to do all the stairs so Marvin did the climbing and I did the photography.

First a picture taken by me from high up on the Willhelm I memorial. This is the confluence, with the Mosel coming in from the left and the Rhine from the right. Erika is standing next to the bikes in the foreground

Taken from down below, close ups of the left hand part of the picture above

So I begin the climb

The lower of the two viewing levels you can climb to. You can see me waving in the picture below.

Now I am on the upper level. You can see me to the left in the picture below.

Erika zooms the camera in on the statue

While I was up there, I leaned back over the rail to get a close up of the statue from below

In addition to the usual sights on the Eck, there was something else we wanted a picture of. Each of the radwegs has its own trail marker that indicates where to go and distance to the next main town. At the Deutched Eck the sign post has the trail marker going one direction to go up the Mosel and the one for the Rhine. We wanted a photo to document that we had done it!

We've done it! We reached the end of the Mosel and now our 4th river valley, the middle Rhine.

Now we follow the yellow cyclist on the blue background toward Boppard

After our photo session it was down to the cable car station. In 2011 a cable car was opened from just below the Eck running up to the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress . We cheerfully payed the ridiculous fee for us and our bikes and up we went! The fee turned out to be not so bad as it gave us access to the fortress as well as the cable car. In addition, there is a wooden structure ( which is basically what they call it) that gives you access to wonderful views of the valley and rivers.

Not very busy, so we have a car to ourselves

Looking down the Rhine as we start out.

As we start to get higher, old Wilhelm looks pretty impressive trotting above the trees.

Turning and looking up the Rhine in the direction we will be going

Looking down the Rhine as it heads north

Of course, there are a lot of pictures of the Eck, the statue and the rivers. After all, we had an incredible view and the angles and perspectives were ever changing as we angled across the Rhine, all the time getting higher and higher. I will just include them all and label them as to main feature and direction.

Impressive shots of Wilhelm I with the Mosel flowing in from the west

Looking up the Rhine to the south. We will be following it on the right hand bank as we face upstream.

The Deutsches Eck with the muddy Rhine in the foreground and the much clearer Mosel flowing in from the west

Zooming in to show the difference in water color

The view of the Mosel gets better as we get higher and were angling more downstream on the Rhine. I could then zoom in on part of the Mosel further upstream.

Erika seems to like to take pictures of me. I guess it evens out since I take a lot of pictures while riding and she is often in them

Looking south up the Rhine

Big group in that car headed back down

A couple of final pictures of the Eck as we get high on the East bank of the Rhine

Looking west up the Mosel valley from whence we came

Looking north down the Rhine valley as it heads towards north western Germany and ultimately Rotterdam

When we reached the top, we peddled our bikes down to the big wooden structure at the north end of the site. This picture is taken from the top viewing platform of that structure. We are now quite high and downstream of the Eck as you can see.

The fortress is massive. It is hard to comprehend how structures like that were built in a time prior to machine assistance. Each wall is at least 40 feet tall and several feet wide. Being positioned at the confluence of the Mosel and the Rhine made it a very significant fortification.

Look at these two pictures and try to imagine how long the hook has been there to have worn the wall that much

This picture is for our gardeners, Emily and Miranda

The garden was at one end kind of on the top of the castle walls

There was a viewing area from the upper courtyard of the south end of the complex. You can see how we are much further upstream at this point than the picture taken at the far north end of the fortress grounds

Narrow passage allowing access to the fortress from the river below. We are now looking north down the Rhine

From the fortress, our hotel is visible on the opposite bank

We had one of the balconies in the upper row of flower boxes

After a good bit of exploring the fortress it was back onto the cable car and down to our hotel where we loaded up the bikes and headed up the Rhine. As it was later in the afternoon when we headed off, our plan was to get well out of the city for an easy start up the Rhine the next morning.

Waiting for the next empty car. They just keep moving slowly, so you make sure you are ready to wheel the bike on quickly

We share this car with one other tourist

There are other fortifications lower down on the river bank

Loading the bikes back up. You can see the balconies now with the flower boxes

What a great place to stay. I really warmed up to this place after my grouchiness of the afternoon before

Heading south along the west bank of the Rhine, south part of Koblenz

Steve had a picture of this in his blog (See it here), so when we saw it, I had to get a picture :)

It wasn't long before we started seeing some of the castles this area of the Rhine is known for. In one area we paused to get a picture of Marvin on his "bench of the day". Marvin counted four castles in view. I said no, there were five. "Where is the fifth?" He asked. I pointed behind him where an impressive structure towered. Not a minute later Marvin spotted another one. So, sitting on one bench on the Rhine he had the view of six castles.

Our cycle that day was a brief 20 some kilometres. When we got to the town of Boppard we stopped at the first gasthaus we came across (they were advertising a reasonable room rate) and settled in for the evening. Another lovely room with a view of the fast moving Rhine River.

Dinner was enjoyed at a restaurant in the town square followed by our now highly anticipated eis. The pain in my knee now under control, we settled down in anticipation of our cycle up the Rhine in the morning.