The Magical Adventures of Jennifer and Steve: Koblenz

The name Koblenz is derived from the Latin words for city at the confluence of two rivers. Koblenz sits where the Moselle flows into the Rhine. We docked there around 3:00am and will be staying here for 24 hrs. There is a big statue of Kaiser Wilhelm I, at the point where the Moselle and the Rhine meet. It is ~36m tall and he is sitting on a horse, looking out at the 2 rivers meeting. In WWII, the Americans pulled down the statue (no reason given). It was never found. Apparently, a number of years later, the head of the statue turned up in a farmer’s field. In the mid 1990s, a copy of the statue was erected on the spot of the old one. It is magnificent to see.

Today started out with a walking tour right from the ship (yeah, no buses). We walked through the old town, saw a fountain called the History fountain that depicts 2000 years of history in Koblenz. It was amazing to see. We were taken to the Schaengelbrunnen (Brunnen means fountain).

The schaengel (little john) is a symbol of Koblenz. Since Koblenz was conquered so many times in it's history there were many children fathered by invading troops. The male offspring of these relationships were called "little johns". The expression dates back to the time, when Koblenz belonged to France ( 1794-1814), when plenty of boys got the name JEAN, but the local people could not pronounce it correctly and called them SCHANG. This statue represents the people of Koblenz's disregard of foreign authority. Every few minutes, little Johnny spits water from his mouth. The spray shouts out at least 15’.

We saw a couple of old churches and finished off with seeing a clock that has a human face underneath the clock. The eyes move back and forth every second. When the hour chimes, he sticks out his tongue for every hour that it chimes.

Lunch was a traditional German lunch that included 3 types of sausages, sauerkraut, spatlese and other things. I decided to be German and order a beer for lunch. The food was good, but heavy.

The afternoon was spent going to Marksburg castle. It is the oldest and only completely surviving castle (since about 1200) in this area of Germany. It was quite impressive to see. During it’s life, it was upgraded so that it could withstand attacks as technology improved (cannons, bigger cannons etc…)

Our tour also got us entrance into the BUGA (pronounced ‘booga’). It is a horticultural show that has been going on for at least 4.5 years. There are 3 sites throughout the city. One ticket gets you admission into all three locations. We entered the Erhenbreitstein location, which is located across the river on top of a cliff. There were interesting things there. The space is huge, and not all flowers. We rode an aerial tram down to a lower section just behind the Deutsches Eck. In the Deutsches Eck location, there was a waterpark that a certain 3 year old would have loved.

We headed back to the ship for dinner. Dinner was good. I had a German dish called Sauerbraten as a main. It was beef, cabbage and dumplings. Jennifer had a tomato tart. There were eight of us, a couple from South Carolina (Roger and Ann), Brian and Anne from Australia and Peter and Joan from the UK. We had dined with Roger, Brian and the 2 Ann’s before. Brian and Anne had never tried ice wine before and we were curious to see how German ice wine (eiswein) compared to our great Canadian stuff, so we broke open a bottle. Brian and Anne were celebrating their 48^th wedding anniversary a few days ago. It was good, but did not have the depth that Canadian ice wine has. Everyone enjoyed. Peter and Joan have not had it in years, so it was a nice surprise for them. It turns out that they have family that live in Etobicoke.

Only 2 days left. Where did the time go?

The History Fountain. The detail on each level is incredible. You can see fire and smoke on one of the levels.

The 'Spitting Boy' fountain. Don't get too close.

I'm watching you. The story goes that the person whose face we see was wrongly sentanced to death for a crime he did not commit. His last request was to have is face hung from the highest building.