The Rhine - Koblenz, Rhens and Bacharach

Rosie is not sleeping to well, it was a little too hot last night so consequently The Operator was not sleeping well either…up early, we had cleared out of the apartment by 0830 and were on the Autobahn to Koblenz. The speed limit on the Autobahn here is 130km and our Yeti was cruising.

We arrived in Koblenz in one hour, the navman found us a car park in the old center and within minutes we had a handful of brochures from the tourist information kiosk and were sitting down to a coffee to peruse them in a very German looking square.

The stone buildings are looking a little dumpier and squatter and the gables on the roof are curlier and rounder with steep pitched roofs. The first half timbered houses are starting to appear as well. Everything is getting more charming and pretty and we havent even hit the best part of the Rhine proper.

Schangelbrunnen Koblenz The Rhine Germany

This fountain is called the Schangelbrunnen or ‘the naughty boy of Koblenz’ Today the term Schangel is a term given to someone native of Koblenz…it is a corruption of a French word used in a derogatory way to describe the little boys born to Koblenz woman from French men during the many French occupations during the ages….The Schangel is known for his wit and repartee….

……so much so that when Rosie was reading this in front of the fountain, subconsciously Rosie noticed a large wet patch in front of the fountain, it must be leaking Rosie thought, there is no other way water could get that far from the fountain….just as Rosie stepped away to move on…The Schangel blew water, three meters out of his mouth into the wet patch Rosie had just left….it was awesome!

The town is quite spacious and well laid out, a result of the rebuild after WW2 when most of the town was destroyed. I think my translation reads that Between April 1944 and the end of the war in 1945, 3772 aircraft on 40 separate air raids dropped over 10,000 tonnes of bombs on Koblenz leaving 87% of the town ruined.

On the right bank of the Rhine, 118 metres above the river is a viewpoint where you look out over the city and can see the confluence of the Rhine and Moselle River. We drove there and climbed a modern space age look out tower…and at the top…the trees were a tad too high…

Back driving Rhine side on the rambling, slow, winding, river bank road. One lane up one lane back.There is a cycle and walking path from one end to the other, all 170km from Cologne to Mainz. ‘The Romantic Rhine’ however is the really picturesque part from Koblenz to Mainz, it is a Unesco World Heritage site and there are no bridges crossing this area of river, to get from one side to the other you take the car ferry if you want to drive or, there are numerous passenger ferries going back and forth. Sure made Rosie want to get back on a pushbike, it was so still with not a breath of wind.

Reading a map of the area, a sign flashed by for Rhens…it wasn’t listed in the guidebooks as a place to stop but on the map it mentioned it was a Medieval Village, we pulled off the road and were delighted we did. What a fab wee town, totally devoid of people…there was only a couple of other souls wandering around, plenty of houses, not really any shops, just a couple of pubs, a great story and an olde worlde vibe.

Rhens is surrounded by a high mud brick wall built in the 1400s, its circumference around the town is only 900 metres making it a small town of about 3000. Every night back in medieval times the peasants would drive their cattle through the gates after a day at pasture, the stock would drink from the trough on the edge of the Market Square before going into barns for the night. The commemorative statue is in the same spot and has water flowing from the same spring dating back to the 1500s.

The half timbered houses are all wonky, crooked and leaning, they date back to the 17th century and are lined with clay or pumice between the wood and then plastered with lime.

Walking through one of the town gates onto a path by the Rhine there are plaques showing how high the river had gone in floods, the oldest one we saw was from 1888….the last one was in the mid 90s…they seem to strike every twenty five years…The Operator reckoned the river would have risen about 10 metres from where it was today in times of flood, amazing.

We stopped for a beer after our circuit of the town, when we went into the pub to get our beer the barmaid was singing along to Last Friday Night by Katy Perry….perfect English American accent, word for word….but she couldn’t speak, or understand a word of English when we spoke to her…hilarious!

We came to Bacharach and Rosie was excited, it topped the day. The perfect German Chocolate box town, every building looks like its from a medieval film set, it is beautiful. We truckled our bags over the cobbles and rang the bell at the Bacaharacher Hof, it was the owners day off today but they had 6 more people to check in and were waiting for us.

We dumped our bags and headed straight out for a look around, we were greeted on the street by a couple we had said hello to in the corridor of the hotel. A brother and sister travelling France and Germany revisiting family war haunts where there father had served. Plus sampling wine and fine food along the way. They were Americans from Louisiana and we ended up settling into the nearest beer garden for a couple of hours and sampling the local wine…it was great chatting to Crawdaddy and Airmiles. They had both traveled extensively and had even been to Gods Own.

Rosie and The Operator will introduce you to our town at a later date….Rosies head is spinning a little and will leave you with a view from the their balcony looking over the rooftops.

Oh, and this is the bed….two single mattresses in a big base and two separate single duvets….plus the largest flattest pillows that you double over and they are still flat..put the red pillow under them and they are still flat, all the air comes out of them when you lie on them….will have to get used to that one.