Koblenz

Pictures from Koblenz here:

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=DB80BEE8046DF606!561&authkey=!AJ9c3HZ4KQc-xyQ&ithint=folder%2c.jpg

We soon discovered that our German hosts had a very well thought-out "program" put together for us, so even though they had told us that we could sleep as long as we wanted, it quickly became obvious that we should get ourselves moving to meet even half the plans they had for us!

So off we went to Koblenz which is about 20 minutes north of the where they live.  We walked along the river and visited the monument to Kaiser Wilhelm I who was the King of Prussia at the time our Peter Schaefer emigrated to America.  The statue is located where the Rhine and the Mosel Rivers converge and it's really quite a site.

From there we took the cable cars across the river.  The cable cars themselves are a fantastic way to cross the river, but they are supposed to be only temporary as a means of accessing an international garden show which was recently being shown on the other side.  Technicially nothing as modern as a bridge or cable cars are allowed if the area wants to keep its status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  We'll see what happens - the cable cars are popular and people want them to stay.

So where do the cable cars go?  To the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ehrenbreitstein_Fortress).  The truth is that we didn't spend a heck of a lot of time IN the fortress because they had a great place from the top where you could have lunch and the views were fantastic.  Eventually we returned back across the river to walk in the old parts of Koblenz.  Some of the churches there were quite lovely.  One of my favorite attractions was the Schangelbrunnen, better known as the spitting boy fountain.

So even though there were more sites to see, we decided it was enough for one day and returned to Udenhausen to clean up before heading off to a fabulous local favorite restaurant in Winningen. This area is known for some of the finest wine in Europe - every square inch of the mountainsides in every direction are growing grapes.  It's also known for having die Weinhex - the wine witches, which supposedly cast their special charms to protect the crops from evil.  All of which confuses that heck out of me since this region as well as many other areas of Germany routinely burned women at the stake for being witches.  Trudel said the story has been changed for commercial benefit now - of course.

Well, the dinner was one of the best ever, and the cook - an ancient and jovial big German man came out to shake everybody's hand and chat for awhile.  We were very full in more ways than one.