Cochem and Koblenz

Next up on last weekend's tour of the Mosel Valley and "Romantic Rhine" (i.e. a pretty section of the Rhine River) was a village named Cochem which lies along the Mosel River. The village was quaint and charming, and like many of the villages along major rivers, there was a castle sitting above it on top of a hill. Cochem Castle is from about year 1000 (!). Most towns had castles 1000 years ago so that the rulers could tax all the boats traveling on the river. Back then there were castles every few kilometers making it expensive for merchants to travel with their goods by boat when they had to pay taxes at each village to the castle there.

Nate and I hiked up a hill to get a better view of Cochem Castle and stumbled on a lovely cemetery (I like wandering through cemeteries). Check out the gorgeous view and notice how well cared for the gravestones were:


Every single gravestone had beautiful flowers meticulously maintained around it, without a single weed in sight. It was impressive how well kept the cemetery was.

The small village had cute narrow walking streets, as you would expect, and there were still some ancient towers standing that I suppose were used to protect the village a thousand years ago.


After touring Cochem, we drove along the Mosel River until we reached Koblenz. Koblenz is a decent sized city that lies where the Mosel and Rhine Rivers meet. It was fun to see the two big rivers flowing into each other. In the picture below, the Mosel River is on the left, and the Rhine River is on the right.



We took a nice stroll along the Rhine while we were there and walked through some of the city's main walking streets. Snoopy did not appreciate walking through major crowds of people on the walking streets. I had to carry him through lots of the sections because he was panicking and freaking out and he just refused to budge. Fortunately, as of today, several days after visiting Koblenz, I can say that Snoopy has overcome major challenges, and walks pretty well through Stuttgart, and even in the underground areas of the train station. He makes lots of progress each day, but it is funny to remember what a terrible time he had walking through the city of Koblenz for the first time.