Day 6: Cologne to Koblenz

This morning, (Monday September 17^th), Kathy and I struck out on our own, with a little fear and trepidation. David drove us down to the train station and helped us find our train and get our Eurail pass validated. Even with David's help, though, he wasn't able to get the railway ticket clerk to understand that he was supposed to validate both pages of the pass and enter in our passports.

We found the train to Cologne from Seigen and got onto the first class car: large, 1^st-class-style airline type seats, arranged six to a compartment, facing both directions. The train was mostly empty. At the Siegen train station there were about 50 middle-school-aged kids, along with their parents seeing them off, heading of on an outing. They all got into the second-class cars, so we had ours to ourself.

When we got to Cologne (Klon), we went to the reservation area, and the clerk validated the second page of our railpass and told us how to find the next train for Koblenz. We checked our bags into the automated baggage system, which is similar to a locker, but very high-tech. You put your bags into a bin, which is then sealed and automatically transported to a warehouse. You're given a magnetic claim-check, which then reverses the process from any baggage check site in the train station.

The cathedral at Cologne is monumental. We took the "Rick Steves guidebook walking tour" and saw the crucifix from 936, the reliquary with the actual skulls from the three Magi (although you didn't get to see the skulls themselves, so I can't vouch for the authenticity), and the chapel of the Virgin, with an awesome painting along with the famous Madonna of Milan statue.

We didn't climb the 509 steps to the top of the south spire. Instead, we walked through the city, crossed the Rhine on one of the bridges, and had lunch in a sidewalk cafe by the river. All of the restaurants there advertised a 5,50 schnitzel lunch. Our waiter tried to steer us toward something else, but Kathy stood firm and said, "We want the special." It was pretty good, but "au natural" which is basically a pork steak.

After lunch we walked back to the station, claimed our bags, and hopped right on a train heading for Koblenz. Riding into Koblenz, we could see our first stop, the youth hostel in the old fortress, Festung Ehrenbreitstein.



The fortress was built as the backbone of the regional fortification system, Festung Koblenz, by Prussia between 1817 and 1832 and guarded the middle Rhine region, an area that had been invaded by French troops repeatedly before. The fortress was never attacked.

Unfortunately, even though we could see the hostel from the train, the train kept going and the station was quite a ways away from the hostel. Kathy was already pretty tired from walking all over Cologne, and wasn't thrilled to be walking four or five more miles to get to our bed. It took us at least an hour to get across the river to the foot of the mountain (about half-way there). The Lord had mercy on us though; rather than walk all the way around, we turned a corner and found a precarious chair-lift taking riders to the top of the hill for a few Euros.

At the youth hostel, our room was waiting; unfortunately, it was also occupied by six other backpackers. They gave us another room and we went out to explore the fortress. Do you remember those middle-school children on the train platform in Siegen? Guess who we met running down the halls of the hostel? There were actually three groups of 60 early teenagers staying there, and it was pretty loud.

After dinner (which we ate at the hostel; we weren't up for climbing down the hill to explore Koblenz), Kathy and I talked about the difficulty of getting from the hostel down to the river, and we decided not to stay a second night. We got out our guidebook and Kathy called the first listing and got a reservation in the town of Bacharach further down the Rhine. That means we have to be up early to try and get over to the 9:00 AM Rhine steamer, our transportation for tomorrow.