Trier

Today was our final day in beautiful Germany. Compared to the ragged schedule we have been running, today was almost a day off. 

That doesn't mean we were allowed to sleep in, of course. Checkout time at the hotel was 8:30. We broke our day in bright and early by loading the bus, then immediately hiking across town and to the top of the hill overlooking the river, for a 9am tour of Reichsburg Cochem. This is another thousand year old castle, although very little of the actual structure remains. Unlike Burg Eltz, Cochem was captured and razed by the French in the 17th century. Our tour guide says the castle has a "special rate" for French tourists who come visit. 

After two centuries as a ruin, a wealthy German merchant purchased the ruin in the mid-19th century with the aim to rebuild. The king at the time, Kaiser Wilhelm, told the new owner he could do what he liked with the castle, so long as the exterior facade was recreated to the original appearance. So today Cochem Castle remains a medieval castle on a hill with a renaissance palace inside. The owner built this restoration as a gift for his wife, whom he loved very much. Unfortunately for him, he left her in Berlin while the renovations were underway. While apart, she fell in love with another man, abandoned her husband and 3 children, got a divorce (scandal!) and had 9 more kids with her new husband. 

The tour was nice. Afterward, we walked back down the hill and hopped on the bus for a scenic drive along the river to Beenkastel-Kues, another tiny quaint ancient German town on the river with a castle overlooking from the hill. We had two hours to explore the town and eat lunch (only our third scheduled lunch break this whole time!), followed by a boat tour down the Mosel to view the adorable towns, vineyards on the steep slopes, and enjoy the river. It was cool and rainy by this point in the day, so we spent most of the two hour tour inside the cabin chatting with one another. 

One of the most interesting sights was the construction of simply massive pylons approaching the river from one of the cliffs above. It looks as though the state is building a highway through the area, and when it came to the Mosel river 
with its steep valley, decided to just simply go right over the top. The phrase from Hitchhiker's Guide game to mind, about how "inrergalactic bypasses have to be built somewhere." Regardless, it looks like it will be quite the engineering feat. I look forward to finding some information out about the project. 

Also seen here: 

The boat tour ended a little before 4. We took an hour drive down to Trier, Germany's oldest city right on the Luxemburg border (sadly we won't be going to see Lux). Built around 2500BC, Trier still has some amazing Roman relics, including a portion of the main gate to the city. We checked into the hotel and had the rest of the evening free. I walked the historic route around the city to see all of the ruins before carefully choosing my dinner from the Esso gas station next to the hotel. It's the earliest I have turned in this whole excursion, and even after an hour of chatting within Katherine and writing up two blog posts, I will still get to bed by midnight. Tomorrow: onward to another new adventure!