Romantic Rhine & Moselle - Cochem

 Day 7 – Sunday 11 August 2024

 

We arrived at the Moselle at around 09:00 and waited at the Moselle lock at Koblenz. It was 13:10 when we exited the lock and we moored at Cochem around 17:30.

 

 

 

In the morning we’d had a talk about upcoming FreeChoice excursions and we had to pick the ones we wanted to go on.

 

Steep vineyard at Winninger

Before dinner the restaurant manager presented a tasting in the lounge of four Moselle wines. He explained he’d bought them but hadn’t tasted them. He then read out some information about the Moselle wine region and tasting notes of the wines. He couldn’t pronounce some words and stumbled over others and it was clear he’d not written or previously read his script. The tasting was chaotic, with long queues to collect each glass of wine and dawdling to choose matching cheeses. It would have been better to for waiters to take trays of wines and cheeses around, and the tasting notes read before each wine was served.

 

 

Pan fried veal scallopini with angel hair pasta

 

When we returned to our cabin we found an invitation to Portobellos the following night

 

We stayed overnight at Cochem.

https://what3words.com/autonomy.ahead.touches

Romantic Rhine & Moselle - Dusseldorf & Cochem

 

Day 6 – Saturday 10 August 2024

 

We arrived at Dusseldorf at 09:05, moored portside to bank, not rafted and in a central position next to the old castle tower

https://what3words.com/limiting.coarser.album

It was overcast and cold in the morning. We took the walking tour  and the sun came out. It was an informative enjoyable excursion covering both busy streets and quite parks with history lightly imparted. There were many football fans in town standing drinking beer at high pavement tables. The guide told us about Dusseldorf’s own drinks – both beers and non-alcoholic – and its mustards. After to tour I went to a mustard shop and bought a jar of Loewensenf Extra Hot Mustard. People who had taken the ‘Dusseldorf tour with Altbier tasting’ were dissatisfied that they had not had much of a tour of the city.

Ancient advert on side of a bank.  'This will never happen. you must save your money'

 

 

 

 

 

After lunch we sat on the sundeck in the sun and wind. The boat left at 19:15, 90 minutes after schedule.

 

 

 

Romantic Rhine & Moselle - Nijmegen

 

Day 5 – Friday 9 August 2024

We arrived at Nijmegen around 12:00, rafted on starboard to Phoenix Antonia which left at 14:00.

https://what3words.com/drilled.chimp.tight

 

 

We were booked on the Open Air Museum of historic houses, but didn’t go because it was raining.

 

 

The skies cleared and by 16:30 it was sunny so we took a walk in Nijmegen. Nijmegen was heavily bombed in WWII. The cathedral was reconstructed and most of the city is modern, built since 1945.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scenic Jasper left Nijmegen for Dusseldorf around 21:45