Along the Rhine and Moselle Rivers, Day 1

13-15 August 2005

The Rhine is the most important river in Germany. Several big cities in the west part of the country are existed because of the river, from Karlsruhe in the south part until Bonn, Cologne, Dusseldorf, and Duisburg in the west. In the past I had visited Dusseldorf and Cologne, and in this trip I visited Bonn and Cologne.

One of the rivers that join to the Rhine is the Moselle. It flows along the valley full of vineyard. In this trip I visited cities along the Moselle, which were Trier, Bernkastel-Kues, Cochem, and Koblenz, in where the Moselle joins the Rhine.

Day 1 - Bonn and Cologne

In this trip I went by car with my wife and three friends of us from The Netherlands. We started in a nice Saturday morning from Eindhoven to Bonn as the first destination. We arrived at Bonn around mid-day, with a nice sunny weather in the city. Bonn has important historical track in Germany. It was the capital of the former West Germany until the country re-united in 1990. Bonn is also recognized as “Beethoven’s city” because this famous composer was born there at 1770.

Beethoven statue, Bonn

Our short walking tour started in Münsterplatz, a square with Beethoven’s bronze statue as landmark. From there we passed Sterntor (Star Gate), a piece of medieval city wall, and stopped to enjoy ‘bratwurst’, the popular German sausage bread. Then we visited the house where Beethoven was born. The front part of the house was changed as a souvenir shop selling things related to Beethoven, from CD and songbooks until shirts and key chains.

The next stop was the Rathaus, the town hall, which still used for many events. It was used for a wedding when we were there. From the Rathaus we walked pass the opera house to reach the side of the Rhine. Strolling along the riverside on the wide pedestrian, we arrived at the university complex. The interesting landmarks inside the complex are the ‘Koblenzer tor’ (Koblenz gate), the main building of the university that in the past was the electoral castle, and the main university park. Heading further from the Rhine we saw the long straight park from the university until the Poppelsdorf castle. Not far from there we arrived at the Münster Basilica, church that built in the 12th century. From the basilica we reached back in the Münsterplatz. We rested for a while in one of the outdoor cafes in the park before continuing the trip. We spent about 3 hours in Bonn before went to Cologne.

In Cologne, we parked the car exactly under the Dom (cathedral) square. The square was crowded with people, since Cologne was hosting Catholic world youth day. Passing the huge cathedral, we walked to the side of the Rhine. After enjoying our homemade sushi, we walked along the old town, passing the crowded old fish market square, the town hall, and arrived at the shopping streets of the city. After buying a cap in Hard Rock Cafe, we tried to find place for dinner, but could not find any interesting place, so we back to the Dom square. We had dinner in a nice Mexican-Italian restaurant.

Cologne Cathedral

The first night we stayed in Holiday Inn, about 6 km from the central of Cologne. The hotel location was very nice, surrounded by small forest with lake. We rested well before the trip in second day.

(to be continued)