Where the Moselle meets the Rhine

Yes, I was in that place on Saturday and let me tell you that its name is Koblenz. It is quite a beautiful town, but before getting into details, I must pay back a debt I have.

When I went to the Romantic Rhine (about two weeks ago), the batteries of my camera got empty just in the worst moment, in front of the Loreley rock and therefore I had to upload a picture from Internet in my blog. However, on Saturday, the train to Koblenz took me through the Romantic Rhine and I could take a picture of the Loreley. I know it is not the best picture ever, but the train was moving at around 120 km/h and I think you get the idea that it was something kind of personnal.

Going back to Koblenz, I must say it is a strange city. When wandering through the city centre, I could not notice many tourists and it seemed quite a nice city to me. But, just when I was approaching the Deutsche Ecke (the triangle where the Moselle gets into the Rhine), crowds of tourists appear, from thousands of buses from unknown cities in Germany (at least, unknown for me). Then, again, I walked for five minutes away from it, and the city was again with no traces of tourists. I have started to build a theory, according to which the Deutsche Eck is like a magnet for tourists.

The best views of the city are those from the Fortress Ehrenbreitstein, as the picture above shows. I recommend going there on foot, after having crossed the river Rhine in a ferry, probably unchanged from the sixties (it is like a time travel, believe me). Although a bit tiring, it is quite nice to walk uphill for a while, far from the hordes of tourists. The fortress claims to have been conquered only once and after assessing its size and its position, I think that people who conquered it were really heroes, since it seems totally impregnable.

I must admit that the Deutsche Ecke is really breathtaking, the statue is huge and the sensation is that of being in a ship, let's say Titanic, in the front part of it. But there are other amazing spots in Koblenz. For example, the one in this picture is just five minutes away from the Deutsche Ecke and I find it really, really beautiful.

In general terms, Koblenz is quite an interesting town, with a pleasant atmosphere, two huge rivers (you know the fascination for rivers that is growing inside me since I moved to Germany) and some amazing spots. And to get there, the train must go along the Romantic Rhine, in what is a wonderful trip just itself.