Our boat had to wait a while to go through the locks (they’re like water elevator so boats can go down the river through different water levels) this morning. So we decided to take a bus down the road and explore the town of Cochem. We heard it has a big castle at the top of a hill and we were curious to see it up close.
We found the castle! After walking up the hill there was a man who knew lots of interesting things about the castle and took the time to show us around. He told us how the castle was originally built around 1000, by a Count Palatine called Ezzo. Then it changed ownership a few times through the years and became a medieval imperial castle, owned by the Electors of Trier and damaged during the War of the Palatine Succession. A Berlin merchant named Louis Ravené restored the castle in the Neo-Gothic style in the 1800s century which the way we saw it today. We walked through some elaborate rooms that would be used for entertaining, some smaller rooms, snd even saw secret doors that could be used for quick escapes. When we saw the knights’ armour the man told us that they were only about 1.6 metres tall. That’s sure short!
After a yummy German themed lunch (sausages, sauerkraut and pretzels with beer) as the boat cruised the Moselle River we sat up on the deck and enjoyed some of the view, watching as we passed little towns and lots of grape vines on the hillside. The hill is very steep, it must be hard to work on the grape vines, but we hear that the sunny slopes are perfect and the wines are wonderful.
Tonight we had some great fun playing team Trivia with our new friends. Too bad we forgot that Donald Duck’s bow tie is red. We could have won the chocolates. Maybe next time.
Well Behaved Kids Travel 