Cochem

During our stay here in Germany we've been having some pretty intense history lessons....I should have paid more attention in my history classes at high school. Castles feature strongly in this area so naturally we are visiting a few. 

Yesterday it was the Castle Reichsburg in the town of Cochem. The castle sits 100 metres above the river and is owned by the people of the town.

At one point in history it was used as a monastery......here's something interesting.....the priests used to drink 5 litres of wine a day each and the nuns 3 litres each!! This photo shows the wine containers......the large one for the priests and the smaller one for the nuns.

That's a lot of wine!!

There was a boar on the wall in this room staring down at us......he weighed over 200kgs.....didn't look particularly friendly I thought!

There was one particularly stunning piece of furniture that was made in the 16th century using 8 types of wood.....just beautiful.

The dining room

I thought I found my knight in shining armour in that castle......hmmm....maybe not!

From the balcony of the castle you can survey the town and the river below.

We descended down into the town for a look see......did you know that a rooster on a church means its a Catholic Church?

We stood and gazed at this house for awhile, one of the oldest there, it was built in 1704!

Our guide asked us today what was the difference between people from 'down under' (Kiwis and Aussies) and Europeans? Answer - the 'down unders' think 200 years is a long time and the Europeans think 200 kilometres is a long way!

Wine tasting was also on the agenda yesterday. Here's another fact you need to know - Germany is the biggest produce of Riesling in the world.....and we got to taste a few.....very enjoyable :-)

Wine tasting in the stone basements of this old winery

Oh and a bit of trivia for the Aussies reading this.....I saw an Aldi shop today.....but didn't go in....ha!

When I think of Holland I think of bicycles.....now when I think of Germany I think of motorbikes (and nice cars!) They are everywhere usually with leather clad people attached to them.

Cochem is a delightful typical town in this area of Germany, with a river, bridges, town squares and beautiful old buildings.

The Cochem town hall in the square.

Till next time...........