We left Cologne close to 11:00, and sailed most of the night down the Rhine. By early morning we had turned into the Moselle at Koblenz. The Moselle valley is quite steep, with vineyards on very steep slopes on both sides of the river. Up until the late 1980s, only white wine grapes were allowed to be grown in this valley, but there are now substantial red wine grape vineyards. It a beautiful valley, so after breakfast I went to the bow and just enjoyed the scenery. About 48 kilometers into the Moselle, the ship stopped and started reversing itself. We learned that the reason was that past that point, the river was too narrow for the ship to turn around. From that point, we reversed to the port of Cochem, about 5 kilometers.
Right after lunch we visited Reichsburg Castle. The castle was destroyed during Napoleonic times, but restored in the later 19th century. It is an impressive site, high on a hill overlooking the town of Cochem. There is a main tower, the last resort for warriors during a siege, and a “witches tower,” that was used to house convicted witches into the 16th century. The restoration of the castle made it into a fine country estate with interior rooms not at all like the original castle, but much more modern. It was an enjoyable tour with wonderful vistas of the town and surrounding areas. Afterwards, we did a walking tour of the town of Cochem with our guide.
Like many towns in this region, it started as a town probably about 3,000 years ago, became a Roman enclave about 2,000 years ago, later became an important regulator of traffic on the river, only to be completely destroyed by Napoleon in the early 19th century. Not only was the town destroyed, but the entire population except for about 400 individuals was murdered. Like many of the towns along major rivers, the rebuilding of the town incorporated both the old (what remained) and the new, often using rubble from the destroyed old to construct the new buildings. A pleasant walk back to the boat, which was conveniently parked right across from a wine shop, where I stopped and sampled both the local white and red wines.
After dinner it was Karaoke night. As usual, I only knew about half the songs by title but was able to recognize about half the others. It was fun. About 10 we started back to Koblenz.