From Rüdesheim, we next traveled to Koblenz, still in Germany. There, my husband and I opted not to take the organized tour, which was apparently excellent, because of the amount of climbing we would have had to do. The cruise director recommended that only those who were experienced climbers attend, so we (and many of the others) went off on our own. Right next to the docking area was a gondola station that went up to Ehrenbreitstein, an old fortress. That fortress is still mostly intact, though it’s a little confusing to navigate, but it also offers gorgeous panoramic views of Koblenz. This one was taken from the gondola, since it’s more easily viewed online. That’s our ship again, on the left.
Here’s another. Isn’t it a lovely area?
The fortress itself had many displays, but unfortunately they were only captioned in German; either English or French (even Spanish!) would have been helpful to me, but of course we were in Germany and I don’t speak German. LOL!
This last photo taken there was of one section of the fortress. You can probably tell that it was a gorgeous day, even rather hot!
From Koblenz, we went to our last German stop, Cologne. This, like so many of the European cities, is truly beautiful. This is a view over the Rhine toward a very busy railway bridge. I was lucky not to be mowed down by the many bicycles and groups of students on outings as I stopped to snap this. 😉
Our tour took us to the cathedral, of course, but we also saw this mosaic floor beneath protective glass. It dates from Roman times and was discovered accidentally during digging to create a museum where an air raid shelter had been. It appears to be in perfect condition!
On to the lovely cathedral! Isn’t it gorgeous with its spires against that sky?
Inside was this calendar with all the known planets of the time.
Tomorrow’s post will finish this series!
