1737 House

1781 House

       Some of the houses in Boppard celebrate the feast of the Three Kings.  Three boys come and sing at a house, during the Christmas season,  and then mark the house with the year and the three kings initials, e.g. 20-CNB-13.

(Sorry, didn't enlarge very well)

Fountain in the main square

Chocolatier!

Candy maker's wife

Roman ruins

Decorated half-timbered house

Wood carved corners

       We have seen several campgrounds along the river.  European campers are quite different from ours.  No one has a fifth-wheel camper; we haven’t even seen any pick-up trucks!  There have been some cute small class-C rigs and when camping most have the attached tent room set up.
       The volume of barge and river cruise boat traffic has increased as we have progressed down river.  Some are three barges hooked together.   The barges carry coal, oil, grains, containers, and everything else.  It is much more fuel efficient to move goods on ships than by truck or train.

Campground

Barges on the Rhine

Koblenzer Brewery

       Our ship sailed at 2:30.
       At Koblenz we came to the confluence of the Rhine and the Mosel Rivers.  Overlooking the confluence is a relatively new fortification called the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress.  It is now a museum and youth hostel.  It was the third largest fortress in Europe.  A sightseeing cable car runs from Koblenz across the Rhine up to the fortress.  At the point of the two rivers is a huge statue of Kaiser Wilhelm on horseback. 

Ehrenbreitstein Fortress at the confluence of the Rhine and Mosel Rivers

Statue of Kaiser Wilhelm I

       We entered the Mosel River for our trip into the French wine region.  The captain ordered the superstructures and canopies on the top deck to be lowered and we had to remain seated while on the sun deck because we were going under some very low, old bridges.  Then we entered a narrow lock to be lifted up to Mosel height.  We only had about 18 inches total leeway side to side!

Low bridge on the Mosel

First lock (narrow) on the Mosel

       We sailed for a while and then docked at Winningen at 5 PM.  Steven and Johannes took us on a short walking tour of this French Protestant wine town.  In “wine square” there was a great painting on the wall of a restaurant showing the picking, pressing, and tasting of wine.  Grape vines grew up the sides of houses and over the wires across the streets.  The fountain in the square was of the wine witch. 
            It did not take long to walk through this town and admire the old houses and slate roofs.  At our dock Marge got pictures of a family of swans.

Process of wine making

Wine Witch

Grape vines everywhere!

Interesting way to put tension on the power lines

Swan family

Reichsburg Castle

Reichsburg Castle

Reichsburg Castle

       We rode the minivans back down to town where Rebecca led us on a town walk.  Cochem is another scenic old town that we liked a lot.  We walked through the cemetery.  During WWI there was a German army hospital here and the graves of the soldiers who died at the hospital are buried here. 

Cochem Cemetery

Graves of German soldiers from WWI

Interesting way the shingles go around curves and corners

Street scene

YUM!

Billygoat Fountain

       The group split up at the Billygoat Fountain and we wandered more of town on our own.  We went inside St. Martin’s Parish Church to look at the windows.  The church has stood on the same site since 862, was bombed in 1945, and rebuilt in 1951.  The windows are modern painted glass in yellows, blues, and greens. 
       Wandering around town we found the elaborate mosaic picture on a bridge wall and the witch weather vane seen with the castle behind it, which makes it look like she is flying over the castle.

St. Martin's Church

Windows in St. Martin's

Wall mosaic

Old town gate and wall

Witch flying over Reichsburg Castle

       After lunch we went on the sun deck to enjoy some partial sun and the Mosel vineyards.  At 4 PM I went on the ship’s kitchen tour.  One hundred and thirty meals are prepared in a rather small area.  Everything is orchestrated to get the meals out on time.

Sailing the Mosel

The Mosel is narrower than the Rhine!

Another narrow lock