Happy Hallowe’en to everyone! October 31, 2024 Scenic sailing on the Middle Rhine docking in Koblenz, Germany until 3am
I think I mentioned I wasn’t feeling well having gotten a cold on the Viking Hiln. Who knows from where? Richard got it and it seems to be spreading. Well I wasn’t feeling very well so I decided to stay in bed all day Wednesday October 30th as there were very small towns to visit and catch up to the ship on buses, or wander off the ship for the evening in Rudesheim am Rhein. Resting was all I felt like doing and of course I wrote 3 blogs and got all caught up on blogging this trip.
Our journey this morning involved a scenic sailing with commentary on the Middle Rhine. Our Program Director, Jackie, was commentating as we left Rudesheim am Rhein and sailing from 9:30am this morning. To hear her we had to be in the Lounge or on the Sun Deck, but I decided to put her on the Live TV in our cabin and stay in my robe and hang out on our starboard balcony whenever a castle came up on the right side of the ship. Richard headed up to the sun deck whenever there was a castle on the left side of the ship. We were given a map with all of the castles and their km markings on the side of the river, so it was fairly easy to be able to figure out what castle we were looking at and compare it to the map. Jackie added more commentary on the history of the castle or whether the castle is still open to the public and who presently owns it. So in no particular order here are some of the castles of the Middle Rhine for your viewing enjoyment.
Katz Castle was built in 1371 by Count William II of Katzeneinbogen. The castle was bombarded in 1806 by Napoleon and rebuilt in the late 19th century. Privately owned now and not open for visitors.
MAUS Castle is a castle above the village of Wellmich. Construction commenced in 1356 by the Archbishop-Elector of Trier Bohemond II and was continued for the next 30 years by successive Electors of Trier. The castle was to enforce Trier’s recently acquired Rhine River toll rights and to secure Trier’s borders against the Counts of Katzeneinbogen (who had built the Katz castle in the photo above). MAUS castle was never destroyed although it fell into disrepair in the 16th and 17th centuries. The castle now houses an aviary that is home to falcons, owls and eagles and flight demonstrations are staged for visitors from late March to early October.
Sooneck Castle was first mentioned in 1271. The castle was besieged in 1282 by King Rudolph 1. His troops overran and destroyed the castle and the king imposed a ban on rebuilding it which he explicitly restated in 1290. When the castle was rebuilt it was given to a family who were supporters of the Habsburgs (Reitenaours) to stop Swiss expansion. In 1346 the Archbishop Henry III of Mainz gave Sooneck Castle to a fief who subsequently had a new castle built on the sight. After he died it passed to his heirs and the castle become a multi family property. The castle was destroyed in 1689 by troops of King Louis XIV of France. In 1834 the crown prince of Prussia and his brothers bought the derelict castle and between 1834 and 1861 had it rebuilt as a hunting lodge. Because of disagreements within the royal family the castle was never used as a hunting lodge. After WW1 aristocratic properties were nationalized in Germany and the castle became a property of the state which it remains today. The castle can be visited on public tours.
Furstenberg Castle is a ruined castle near the site of the village of Hoingen Originally built for the Archbishop of Cologne the site was called the Prince’s Hill (Furstenberg). The castle is first mentioned in 1295 and was involved in many conflicts until finally being destroyed in 1343/1344.
Stahleck Castle with vineyards on the hillside beside it. Built in the 12th century as a fortified castle it stands on a crag 520 feet above sea level. The castle since the early 20th century has been a youth hostel and has 168 beds and has 42,000 overnight stays each year. It is almost always booked up.
Pfalzgrafenstein Castle is a toll castle situationed on Falkenau island in the Rhine River. Built between 1326-1327. The castle has never been destroyed. To ensure tolls were paid, chain booms were raised across the narrow river passage near the castle. If the toll was paid the chain would be lowered and the ship could pass or else the ship would be seized and the crew imprisoned in the castle dungeon. Passing ships could not use the wider channel on the other side of the castle due to a treacherous stretch of water downstream. The castle dungeon was a wooden raft at the bottom of a well and prisoners were lowered by rope and would remain there until a ransom was paid. Today the castle is a museum owned by the state of Rhineland-Palatinate in West Germany and visitors can take a ferry over to see the castle.
Gutenfels castle which is surrounded by vineyards which are on the steep slope of the hillside. All grapes are harvested by hand! The castle was erected in 1222 as a toll castle and used with the Pfalzgrafenstein Castle to become an imprenetrable anti-toll zone for the Holy Roman Emperor until Prussia purchased the area in 1866 and ended the tolls in 1867. A UNESCO World Heritage site the castle is now a hotel with rooms going for 270 euros per night!
Thurrant Castle which dates back to 1209. Privately owned now by two families.
To get a sense of how many castle there are on the Middle Rhine this is a photo of the brochure that Viking provided us with while we were sailing through the Middle Rhine!
So many castles…so little time!
We did this same sailing last December when we were on the Viking Grand European Christmas Market’s cruise, but we did not have the brochure for reference so this was a nice touch to be able to follow along based on the km marker on the side of the Rhine River, to know what castle was coming up next and to get ready to photograph it either on the Port or Starboard side of the ship.
I finally surfaced feeling a bit better before lunch and wanted to make sure that I was up and about as we sailed into Koblenz, Germany. The weather is a lot cooler now that we have sailed north and I’m glad I bought a hat, gloves and have a warm jacket and scarf!
The included tour of Koblenz didn’t interest us in the least. We had visited Koblenz last Christmas and done an included tour of Marksburg Castle, which on this Viking ship was an optional tour which we would have had to pay for! So we decided instead to just walk through Koblenz and see some new things we had not seen before after returning from the Marksburg Castle tour. We did not arrive into Koblenz until around 2:15pm and with it getting dark now at 5:00pm, there really was not a ton of time anyway to walk around Koblenz.
Koblenz lies at the junction of the Rhine and Moselle rivers and as a result there are a fair number of River Cruises which stop in Koblenz. Koblenz is a Roman town and was founded in 9 BC. After coming under Prussian rule in 1815 it was the capital of the Prussian Rhine Province from 1824-1945. Most of Koblenz was destroyed in WW2 although many historic buildings have been restored and the city has a very spacious and modern appearance, with touches of its historic roots still visible if you look.
Aerial photo of the Kaser Wilhem 1st statue. The Moselle River is on the right and top of the monument and the Rhine is on the left of the statue. Our docking location was at the first pier to the left of the stateue. A great docking location in Koblenz!
You can see how hight the monument really is basd on how tall Richard is for perspective
Koblenz is also known for its 37 meter high monument of Kaiser Wilhelm 1st who unified Germany after the Franco-Prussian War in 1871. The statue was hit hard in Allied strategic bombing during WW2. After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of East and West Germany, another statue was controversially erected in 1993 at the confluence of the Moselle and Rhine Rivers.
Three sections of the Berlin Wall are located behind the Kaiser Willhelm the 1st statue. The Berlin Wall came down on November 9, 1989. The three sections of the Wall are dedicated to the victims when Germany was divided after WW2. The placement of these pieces of the Berlin Wall in Koblenz are significant because both the Kaiser Willhelm 1st monument and the sections of the Berlin Wall speak to the reunification of Germany at different times in their history.
On the Banks of the Moselle River opposite Koblenz we saw theat there was an RV park! Our trailer George would fit in nicely in this campground! It sure is hearty weather to be camping though! I think we are much warmer and cozier in our Viking Hiln cabin than being in a camper on the Moselle River in Germany in late October! This is the first time Richard actually had to put on his big, new puffer jacket that he actually had to buy at Winner’s the day we left for this trip when we realized his Eddie Bauer 3 in one waterproof and puffer jacket coat was in Florida!
The City of Koblenz has already planted their winter frost resistant flowers of pansies and these ornamental cabbages
Drummer Boy Hennerich Resch was a shoemaker under the Prussians who loved his schnapps. Drunk one day he went around town drumming the alarm and everyone turned up except for him. We are not relating any drinking Richard does to this little drummer boy!
The Market wife and the Policeman. The wife has complained a neighbours dog has just peed on her basket and she wants the policeman to fix the problem.
These 4 towers known as the “Vier Turme” on the old buildings in Koblenz along a pedestrian shopping area were originally built in 1608. Destroyed during WW2, these 4 towers have been rebuilt and are now since 2002 protected under the UNESCO World Heritage Fund. It was obvious as we walked through Koblenz that these 4 towers were of special significance, but I had to google what the importance of them was after we returned to the ship.
Koblenz has started preparations for the upcoming Christmas markets which commence on November 22 to January 5, 2025. We remembered walking through this very gate and area last year when we visited Koblenz on our Viking Grand European Christmas Market cruise. Although we were just here 11 months ago, we were still seeing new things in Koblenz and that is why going to a city a couple of times is definitely a good idea since we never really feel like we’ve gotten to know a city unless we have walked it from end to end!
The Forum in Koblenz. I had bought a Rituals bath gel in this mall last year so I knew exactly where we needed to go for the toilets. 50p to use the facilities!
We needed a toilet while in the main shopping area and we both remembered exactly where the toilets were in the shopping mall in Koblenz. It’s amazing how our minds work compartmentalizing details like where the toilets are in foreign cities!
As we were walking back to the ship we bumped into our Aussie friends who had gone on the included walking tour of Koblenz. They needed a grocery store and a pharmacy so I walked them back to where we had come from to show them where the stores were, while Richard walked back to the ship with our new suitcase we had picked up at TK Maxx. We never seem to have enough room on our travels to bring back the souvenirs we pick up along the way!
The winning pumpkin carving onboard which was done by Chef Chris which was gracing the Guest Services desk for the evening. Viking put out a small selection of Halloween candy for guests to enjoy.
Once we arrived back on board we changed and went to the Viking Explorer’s Society (VES) cocktail reception for former Viking cruisers. There are so many VES guests now that the repeat customers pretty much takeover the entire Lounge of the ship so everyone gets to enjoy the VES cocktail reception with small canapés and free sparkling Viking wine (its awful).
Demonstrating the movement of the ship and the history of the Norwegian Aquavit which is used for toasting the Norwegian ‘SKAL’ or ‘Cheers’ at the end of the cocktail reception.
Richard looking very dapper in his new clothes we bought for him at C&A in Koblenz. There was an outlet on the top level of the C&A store in Koblenz which had very nice clothing at discounted prices. Richard had wanted a pair of coloured pants and these ones are not offensive at all and better than the black, navy or grey he usually wears!
We of course had dinner with our Aussie friends and after dinner there was a 9:15pm string quartet onboard in the Viking lounge which had arrived via train from Cologne to put on a 45 minute set for us. The quartet was very spirited, even dressing up a bit for hallowe’en and the lounge was the fullest we had seen it on either one of our two back to back cruises. A couple of guests had hallowe’en costumes and even light up halllowe’en necklaces, but the ‘go nuts for hallowe’en is more of a North American, than a European phenomenon!
Richard and Steve (our Aussie friend from Perth) were up to no good during the concert and not only did I have to tell them to ‘shush’ but so did other people too! I guess classical music is not their thing or they were having too much fun to stop laughing to enjoy the concert.
AI image. I told it Rhine River, Castles, Cruise ship. Nailed it!
Sailing up the Rhine looking at castles and spending some time on our own in Koblenz was a nice break from the early morning excursions we’ve been having on this cruise so far. Learning about the history of this interesting part of Germany and how frankly tax money built the castles and fuelled the many wars, campaigns and sieges over the years was quite fascinating. That is the great thing about travel because it fuels our curiousity has us seeking out the history of what came before and why, what, where, who and how?
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