Trip to Alken on the Mosel - 2

These notes are from Ken Baldry's diary entries, made on tours organised by the society. (It will take me some time to put all these up).

Tuesday 19th May Cochem & Burg Eltz

A helicopter spraying the vines woke me at 4 & 6, which we could have done without. The coach took us to Cochem first. We walked up to the Burg, Reichsburg Cochem, & went round it in a tour in German. Like many here, it had been blown up by Louis XIV in 1689 & had been restored in the last century by a megalomaniac steel magnate called Ravené & using the old plans. It did have some good antiques but much of it was grossly over-blown & not attractive.

Cochem from the Reichsburg	In Cochem	Cochem History Plaque
Reichsburg Cochem	In the Reichsburg	In the Reichsburg

Lunch was sarnies Avis had made - not a good idea. Then, the coach at 2 to Burg Eltz at 3, where we had had to book a tour. This was much nicer. The Eltz family were the local Vicars of Bray, always on the right side. So, the castle had never been sacked & was in its Medieval condition, by & large. It contained a Cranach & a couple of contemporaries of his in excellent nick.

	Round: Aspects of Burg Eltz Below: The Wine tasting
Dinner (chicken) then the Wine Tasting (right) in the cellar of another castle in the village of Alken. Quite nice local stuff, if not spectacular. We bought 3 bottles each of the best ones.

Wednesday 20th May Koblenz

To Koblenz & the coach dropped us near the Deutsches Eck, where the Mosel joins the Rhine. There is a grotesquely large statue of Kaiser Bill I & a barrel organ player, to whom the Manchester cousins Catherine & Florence (about 70 but hitherto known as the Pretty One) danced. (They later told Avis their story. The Grandfather was deported during the First War as an enemy alien but leaving his eight children & wife behind. The girls could have gone but not the boys, so he refused to split them up. But it was hard for the mother to bring up the kids. I don't know what happened to the father). We went into the Old Town, such as it is after the bombing & mooched around, with a coffee & later, a proper lunch (lasagne & thonsalat) in the main square. (The Central Square is all new & not too bad, architecturally speaking).

Mosel at Koblenz	The Organ Grinder	Deutsches Eck
Old Koblenz	Old Koblenz	Us in a bit of the Berlin Wall

The driver took us back a little way up the Rhine & over the Hunsruck, which is the area between the Rhine & Mosel & featured in the 'Heimat' series, of which we saw 'Heimat 2' & had been mightily impressed. However, Patsy (commentating) was more impressed by the first series. When we got back, I went round the back of the village to take photos & bought some local wine schnapps & more Williams. I took Avis round the same way just before dinner (a Giant fish finger each). Then, there was a boat trip up the Mosel, which was very pleasant & we danced on the lower deck, getting a bit tight on a litre of local wine for 15 marks, quite reasonable.

Thursday 21st May 1998 Going home

Up at 0615 for an early breakfast at 0700 & away at 0800. We had a brief coffee stop just in Dutch Limberg & an extended lunch break outside Brussels. This new route was as tedious as the out one. Different boat at Calais - 'Stena Empereur'. We left Dover at 5 & were back in the house by 1845, having got a taxi at London Bridge (£6.50 with tip).

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