We had a relaxing day in Koblenz. We weren’t in a big hurry to get going and enjoyed our breakfast and coffee before heading into town this morning. The weather turned overnight and our coats and warm hats came back out for today.
Koblenz is a nice compact town that is easy to walk. We walked down to the big monument that the town is known for. It is a giant statue of Kaiser Wilhelm I that is at the confluence of the Rhine and Moselle. It is known as the German Corner. The monument is huge, and black from pollution, and didn’t appeal to either of us as a monument or art.
Around 80% of Koblenz was destroyed during WWII. The town was rebuilt to replicate what was there before the war. We hit all of the usual spots. The churches were nice, the squares had the normal array of nice cafes and restaurants, and the churches were pretty.
After covering the town we headed to a bakery that Ton had identified. She wanted a Baumkuchen cake. The cake is famous in this area, but her experience eating the cake was in Japan where it is very popular. She wanted to compare the original with the copy.
The bakery was in the commercial center away from the tourist quarter. We sat down and of course the menu was in German. Luckily our waitress made things simple by explaining that if we wanted a pastry we went up to the display and told them what we wanted and it would be delivered. The person at the counter was bemused by my pronunciation of Baumkuchen but figured out what I wanted after my second try. I didn’t even try to pronounce the strawberry pastry I wanted but just pointed at it. Ton really enjoyed her Baumkuchen, but ultimately liked the Japanese version she had better.
After our delicious lunch we were walking thru the town when we came to a sandwich place that had a long line of locals waiting patiently. We were looking at it and trying to figure out what the attraction was. While we were standing in the road a nice lady came up and very enthusiastically explained to us in German what the attraction was. The place is famous for its very inexpensive and hearty sandwiches. I regretted that we had just finished our pastries as I really wanted to try the €2.20 Schnitzel sandwich.
We walked around a little while longer before heading back to the campground. Towards the end of the day the sun tried to peek through which was nice. As we were sitting in François Ton asked me what the highlight of Koblenz was and I told her it was our pastries, and she said it was the same for her.
Ton made me a delicious dinner. After dinner I happened to look out the window and saw a hot air balloon over the river. It turns out there were six hot air balloons doing a fly by (drift by?) of a Koblenz. They drew a lot of people out of their campers to watch them slowly go by.
Since we were out Ton went on a little photo walk before we headed into François to warm up before bed. The days are getting longer here and sunset now is near 9pm which is nice.
