St Goar to Koblenz, The last of the Middle Rhine Valley.

Arrived in St Goar in cloudy weather so The Rheinfels Castle and Fortress was not looking as stunning as it could be.

 Took a tour around the Medieval Castle fortress, and we got a bit lost in the tunnels and fortifications but enjoyed ourselves. When they say take a flash light, it means you need it. Lucky we had our trusty i-phone. !!I                                                                                                We get a bit lost in all the Castle history around here because European history is so convoluted and complicated. The first castle to be erected here was in 1245, and again was blown up, extended, sold, swapped or won in battle all the way through the years.

The huge wine cellar, that used to hold a wine barrel of 200,000 litres for the Garrison, and tunnels. 

St Goar has an amazing Stein shop, ( where max had to get a souvenir !! ) and a really fun Cuckoo Clock Shop, and then a Pizza night out.

View of the Marina from the Fortress, ( we are in the front of the bar, on the left.)          and how close can you moor to a bar!!!!! (note, the small glass of wine)

After 2 days we left St Goar. The river didn’t seem to be running as fast so we just trotted along at a modest 15 knots, passing more castles on the way.  ‘’ Maus Castle’’

Marksburg.

And other sights ..(advertising has a lot to answer for )..His horn was a cow mooing.

Stolzenfels Castle was definitely one of the most stunning and well looked after we saw on the river. We didn’t visit but it is said that the castle is, in general, richly filled with evidence of aristocratic residential culture thereby representing a monument of the ending era of historism. ( now that was a mouthful )

Then arriving into KOBLENZ., Ehrenbreitstein Fortress & The Deutsches Eck.The Romans first built a castle here in 260 on the confluence of the two rivers,The Moselle and The Rhine, with a city wall with 19 high towers, It remained the town fortification until the middle ages. Then with all the European wars, ownership swung between Prussia, France and Germany. In 1815 it became the Capital of the Prussian Rhine Province, and was expanded into the largest fortress and garrison town in the Reich. The fortress, Ehrenbreitshein , was built between 1815-1833 up above the Rhine.

Unfortunately Kolbenz was flattened during the war and little old stuff is left. They have rebuilt much of the town but it isn’t the same.  The original statue of Kaiser Wilhelm 1, called ‘’Wilhelm the Great’’ was erected in 1897. At the end of the war, in 1945, the Americans shot the bronze Kaiser off the base, and from 1953 only a mast with the German flag stood there. It took between 1985-1993 to sort a replica Kaiser that was finally erected in the original spot overlooking the rivers..

We went up in the cable car to visit the Fortress. Not much to see of the old buildings, cannons etc.  as it was bombed, but nice views and a Museum of all the Play Mobil children toys ever made.

Fat lady in bikini on wall waiting to jump!!!

Met up again with Robert & Sue ( from ChCh ), and boys playing tootsie in their red shoes and the amazingly sized value for money meals in the yacht club.!

Lovely mooring on the River Moselle and lots of water sports going on. Paddle boarding, sail boats of all sizes, rowers and little steam boats. And lovely to swim in. We assume that the biggest gives way to the smallest, regardless what you are!!!

Not always a lot of wind though, and against a slow flow, you have to be sly.!!

And the Big hotel boats and barges are still with us on the Moselle river , but luckily nothing like this have we seen yet!!!!

Another of many good nights with the Coppers, and then off  up the Moselle River towards Cochem and Trier, where we have decided to take the River Saar back to Toul, as we have already done the high bit of the Moselle and the city of Metz.

Just behind the yacht club, in the middle of Koblenz, a combine harvester!!!     And a picture of our nest in Strasbourg mentioned on the last blog, they have hatched!! Now has little babies ( courtesy of Francois & Sylvie.)