Cochem

Chill-out day.  Well it’s not quite ‘sit in a bar all day’, but today we’ll wander around Cochem for a look.  It won’t take too long.  Cochem is relatively small (at least the old town part of it is).  Population is only 5,000.  After another great breakfast we headed across the bridge.  Why would you stay on the main promenade when the best views of town are from the other side of the river (and from the bridge)?  We decided to do’ his & hers’ photos.  (As you do!).  So picturesque.

But then another barge slip past.  These big beasts just sneak along and glide by. If you aren’t watching you’d not even know one had come and gone.  A beautiful river is the Mosel River.  Probably plays second cousin to the better known Rhine River, but I won’t be surprised if this becomes our favourite.

My turn.

Just stunning.

We walked across the bridge and continued straight up Enderstrasse to find the Sesselbahn (chairlift). It’s only a very short walk.  On our way we passed one of the three surviving town gates in Cochem:  Enderttor Gate (at left of this photo).  The gate was built in 1332 as the northern entry point of the city wall, and it was here passenger’s waited for their stage coach to take them to Cologne & Frankfurt.  It was once used as a prison.  No sign of that today.  The hotel on the corner (Alte Thorschenke) dates back to 1332.  On the corner of the building are previous flood level markings.

Inappropriate building art!!  Kath noticed something decidedly dodgy – the art work.  What the….  is this all about??
We moved on and very quickly arrived at the Sesselbahn.  There’s a car park here, but if you’re close in to the town centre there’s no point in driving here.  It’s an easy walk.
Kath takes a seat, not realising that this particular one doesn’t go up the side of the hill.
Ok I was just kidding.  €6.30ea return (or less if you want to walk down the trail to the railway station).  Views almost immediately.  There’s Kath in the next chair photobombing.
At the viewing point.  Superb. For the record this spot can be seen from down below.  A big cross (of the religious kind) marks the spot and is lit up at night. Zooming in on our accommodation (middle, 3rd floor).
A train heads through the Kaiser Wilhelm tunnel (which connects Cochem with Ediger-Eller (this southern portal – opened in 2014). The original (northern portal) is seen here to the right with boxing all over it. It is set to be reopened in 2016 to provide traffic for both directions.  (The northern portal was originally built 1874 to 1877, is 4,205m long and was (until 1988) Germany’s longest tunnel).From the top of the look out – the ruins of Winneburg (Winnen castle) which dates back to the 13th century. It was (like most other castles around here) destroyed by the French in 1689. Last pose at the lookout, and then we’ll have a drink at the restaurant up here coz the temperature is rising!  (I know it’s only 10am but when is “too early” for a beer?  After all it’s 8pm in NZ!!).  🙂
Cheers. A refreshing Kirner Radler. (No the head on the beer is not orange!  That’s the sun umbrella playing tricks).
Heading down.  Kath goes first.
It’s a short walk to town. Through Enderttor Gate (built 1332). Here’s a better look at it.
Artwork at the bridge.  Very cool.
Along Bernstrasse the crowds appear so I aim high. PIG!
Yup yup seen this act before. Always fascinates people passing by.
We quickly popped out into the small Marktplatz (town square). Several buildings here date back to 1690.
Saint Martin Fountain (1767).


Unterbachstrasse.
Alcohol!!  Nicely presented… alcohol!!
And they also had these containers full of different liquers.  ‘Fill your ow’ as it were. A spectacular selection.  Gotta come back here.

We took a diversion off the square an immediately found ourselves on our own.  Just one detour up Obergasse and the people disappear.  We find the second of the three original town gates – Balduin Gate.
From the other side of the gate (this path passes through the cemetery).  Here we can also see a part of the old town wall.  The temperature is getting up to 32C so we don’t hang around here too long.
We returned via Oberbachstrasse.

And look what we found!  Austin Powers springs to mind: “Six billion dollars!” But wrong finger!
Some passing tourists offered to take our photo (and we did the same for them).

Wine tasting??  Just another opportunity.  Later!
Strangely angled building on the corner of Wenzelgasse and Herrenstrasse.Street sign art.
At the end of Herrenstrasse I found Martinstor (1352), a former shipping toll house and link in the city gate (the third of the three remaining town gates in Cochem).
From the other side.It’s gotta be more than 32C here in this sheltered spot against the hill.  Reichsburg castle is above.  I walked up hill to the small chapel (1422) which sits in a lone position half way up the hill.  There it is, the small white building. Closed. Not a biggy. I returned (sweating up) to the main shopping alley to see if Kath managed to extract herself from the shops.
Found her!  We wandered to the waterfront to sit in the shade and suss out our next steps.
We decided we’d have lunch. Yup lunch!!  We spotted a place in Marktplatz that was selling burgers, and we both agreed… yeah why not, we haven’t had one at all on tour!  here is the view (I kid you not) from our seat in this joint. Superb!!  At the back is the Rathaus (1739), and to the right is the church tower of St Martins which dates to 1456.
We managed to suss out most of what was in the burger. Regardless, it tasted very nice. Certainly not Macca trash!  And yes they sold beer there!!  🙂
Here’s Kath and her push chair in front of the burger joint.
A short walk along Mosel Promenade followed to attempt to lessen the impact of the feed.
A contender for tacky hotel of he year.
And a possible runner-up.

We decided to head back to base to follow up the food with a few drinks that we’ve got stashed in the fridge.
Passing by St Martin’s…

Building art at the top of our street.
Job done.  First a beer. I find the Radler refreshing in the heat. I’ve got six to polish off starting now!
For Kath (and me!) there’s some wine we’ve transported from Ribeauville!
So drinking is well underway as I write this. Rain was forecast for today and it’s trying to do that right now. A little bit of thunder in the distance.  Hard to know if it’ll come to much.  Getting rain at this time of the day is not a problem.  Cools the temperature down a tad as well. The cloud and accompanying drops of rain have sent the temperature plummeting to 27C.  🙂
Just saw Tony Martin take out stage 4 of the Tour de France on TV so the Germans will be happy with Andre Greipel also taking out stage 2. Weird to be so close to it but not attend.  Maybe another time.
Signing off for today. Guten abend!