Koblenz

My dad has worked for the train company all his life, so for him taking a train is just no big deal. A few years ago we all took a train tip from from Bacharach to Mainz, however, it was only a local commuter train and not a very nice one at that.

So Doug and I decided to take a train ride before we go back home. This is what the weather looked like when we got up on Sunday morning.

It looked really pretty, but it also meant it was below freezing. It was really cold, but that would not stop us. So of to the train station we were.

The train went so fast that it did not make sense taking any pictures. The ICE can go up to 190 m/h, however, driving on the windy tracks along the river it "only" managed to go about 100 m/h. The picture below can attest to that.

We saw some beautiful winter scenery along the Rhein, which is one of Germany's main waterways. The trip took about 50 minutes and off we were exploring Koblenz. It was below freezing, which makes it a little bit hard to enjoy the old part of town. We wanted to see an old castle in town to find out that it was closed to the public. So we went on to a beautiful old church and the main attraction in Koblenz, which is the "German Corner". Here two of Germany's major rivers actually meet.

To the right you see the Rhein and to the left is the Mosel. It was bitter cold, but here are some more pictures of the area. As you can see, the Rhein right now is also running a little bit high.


We wondered around the old part of town some more and found a nice place to have lunch and defrost our hands and feet.


Another train ride, this time in the dark, which was pretty neat too, and we were back in Mainz.