Koblenz, Germany and Ehrenbreitstein Fortress

DB Train, WOOT!

So on the first day of my trip, as always, I scrambled to leave my apartment in Venlo on time.  I must really like it there, I never seemed to get out of the door on time. I tried to catch the 9:05 train, but I missed it, by about 2 minutes. So I waited another hour for the 10:05. It made me sad that I rushed so much just to sit at the station, which is 5 minutes from my (former) house. But, I did however meet a nice south Korean girl, whom I helped by telling her what train she needed to take, and the fact that she just missed it. So having both missed our trains, she taught me some basic German pronunciation, like how to say Munich, I wasn't a very good student though.

Lesson in life, be very wary of buses and trains that list your destination as their destination. You'd think it is a good thing, and sometimes it is. But most of the time, especially when you don't have far to go, and where you are going isn't very big, it means you are going to stop a lot, and maybe do some circles first. AKA Regional trains and local buses. When I got off the train to make my connection, and there was a Koblenz train on the very next platform, it was just too good to be true. Well, it was. It was a regional train. Luckily it worked out better then the time it took hours to get to St-Laurent on the #7 in Ottawa, this time it was only about 30 minutes longer then it would have been. And it was a really nice route along the Rhine, AND it stopped at a station closer to my hostel.

HOSTEL JUGENDHERBERGEN KOBLENZ

I don't know where to start with this hostel. It is interesting... Honestly though, I think it worked perfectly for my trip, but if you were staying any longer in Koblenz it would be the biggest pain ever because it is quite out of the way. First of all, it is across the river from most of everything. Secondly, it's on a huge friggin' hill. There are three/four ways to get up to the top. The first is walking, which I was stupid enough to do when I first arrived with my bag, there are two paths, on each side of the fortress (which bring you to opposite sides of the hill). The second is a Funicular, which is basically a cable car/elevator, and I am sure you are familiar with this if you have ever been a tourist to something on a hill. I was not particularly familiar with them, probably because for some reason it is ingrained in my nature to think those are for lazy people, which is probably what led me to the -tiring- decision to walk the hill with my big bag. Another note about the funicular, it is supposed to cost 3 Euro for a 2 way ticket, but the only thing enforcing that is your good conscience, because at the automatic machine you can purchase a combo-ticket, which is free, because it is essentially a transfer from public transport (and if you did take the bus, then you aren't cheating the system at all). The third way up is a gondola cable car, which actually looks quite fun, but very expensive, which brings you from across the river, so the view is probably amazing, this also is the most feasible way for anyone just visiting the fortress to do it.The hostel is really big as well, and it is really clean, and has bathrooms in the room. The only thing... it is definitely a family hostel. There is definitely a pre-pubescent girl sleeping in the bunk-bed next to me. And instead of loud drunk people, there are annoying children screaming, but at least it ends considerably earlier in the evening.

 Fortress Ehrenbreitstein (The grounds, aka the green, is just grass, so those are pretty boring)

The fortress Ehrenbreitstein, where the hostel is located, is super cool. It's really big, and staying in the hostel gets you into the fortress for free (or at least, I didn't pay). It is really cool to think about how it was used as a military stronghold, those soldiers also must have been in shape, going up and down the hill all the time! It also has the most amazing view of Koblenz, and the sunset was really pretty, I am sure that the sunrise from the other side would be awesome behind the fortress.
Koblenz.

 Fortress Ehrenbreitstein

So after dropping off my huge bag (I'll need to do something about that) at the hostel, I ventured off to see Koblenz, the tiny city it is. I took the train, since my ticket from earlier that day was still valid, and I wanted to go to the central station to check out the locker situation. The central station is a bit far from the "main" attractions, but I cut to the Rhine as soon as I could, so I could walk along the water to Deutsches Eck, which is the point were the Rhine and Mosel rivers meet. It took a while to get there, and I stopped along the water a few times, there is a really nice promenade with benches, which are inviting to eat strawberries on. And Kurfurstliches Schloss, (which I am not sure what it is used for)  has very nice grounds and gardens.
Deutsches Eck is really nice, there is a statue of Willem I of something of another, which is immensely huge.

Deutsches Eck, from the Ehrenbreitstein 

By the Rhine, My shoes, which hurt my feet, and are now in the trash :( 

Kurfurstliches Schloss

But the view up the Mosel is particularly nice, I was going to stay there for sunset, but getting chilly, I decided I could probably boogie back up to Ehrenbreitstein and make it in time. And in time I was, I even had enough time to get dinner groceries at the Lohr Center in Koblenz (the bus only comes every 30 minutes). So taking the bus, I decided to try this "funicular"

View from Deutsches Eck

Mosel

My first complaint is that instructions for the automatic machine, (it can be in English, German and Spanish) is that when you change the language, all that changes is the instruction "please select one of the options by pressing a blue button". All the options are still in German! Then, since there were 8 options, but only 3 of them were blue, I decided I must have to chose a blue one, WRONG - the options that were showing were like 17 Euros... that's not what I wanted, but apparently I had gone so far into the purchase, so I couldn't cancel. So then I needed to wait for the purchase to time out and I got to start again. I finally found a 0 Euro Option that seemed to match bus ticket (the combo ticket). Going through the turnstyle I called the Funicular (hehe it's just so fun to say) and waited what seemed FOREVER to get back down.

Bottom of the Funicular

The ride itself, was okay, it was pretty much like the really boring start to a rollercoaster, except instead of loops, turns and drops, you get a castle! It did occur to me however, that perhaps the cable was broken, or for whatever reason, there isn't a track for the funicular to continue on, which led me to wonder what would be the best way to brace myself for the concrete wall at the bottom of the hill (I think laying on the ground at the front, possibly padded by a backpack, but making sure no loose objects could hit me).

So the sunset was really pretty, and you are allowed to sit outside until whenever, so that was really nice. I called it an early night however, stoked for the next day, when I was planning on biking south along the Rhine River.

Sunset over Koblenz