One last shot from the boat in the Rhine River Gorge:.
That afternoon we docked in Koblenz, a town at the confluence of the Rhine and the Moselle Rivers. It was founded more than 200 years ago as a trading settlement. The "German Corner" where the two rivers meet has a huge statue of Kaiser Wilhelm I. It also has a lovely strolling park along the river banks and a piece of the Berlin Wall. Not too remarkable looking now, but obviously of great significance in recent history.
Linda and I went on the "easy stroll" with our guide through the town
We visited the Liebfrauenkirche (church of Our Lady) in the town. One of the points of interest there was an unusual statue of Joseph holding baby Jesus.
We also happened upon a group teaching kids to do CPR
A town landmark is the Schängelbrunnen fountain which has a statue of a boy in the center. According to our Viking materials, "during the French occupation of 1794-1814, there were a lot of boys born to French soldiers and German women. They were given the derisive name "Jean," which in the local vernacular morphed into "Schang" and then "Schängel." These street urchins were known for their pranks and today all Koblenz-born citizens are called "Schängel." They have come to embrace the image of Koblenzers as being fun-loving, quick, and clever." Throughout the town, the manhole covers feature the Schang boy. Seems to me there's more to this story, but I'll let it be. As you pass by the fountain, the "Schängel." boy spits a jet of water at you every few minutes.
Another fountain in the city is called the Historiensäule or History Column. It has 9 levels, each dedicated to one era in the town's history.
From a spot right near the docking point, there's a tram that takes you way up over the Rhine to the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress of Koblenz 400 feet up above the river bank. Melissa and Diana took the tram up to see the fortress. Linda and I just took it for the ride and the view (and the W/C at the top). We were told that we could get a discount if we said we were from the Viking ship. But with my nearly non-existent German and the ticket-taker's English we somehow gave him the idea that we were staff from the boat. Seems like his BS meter should have gone off that these two gray haired ladies were crew members, but oh well. In the end we got free round-trip tickets and didn't discover until later that they said Viking Crew on them.
Back on the boat, we got our waiter Edgar to take a picture of our table. He always addressed us as “Ladies and ladies” with a touch of pomp. One of the more impressive things about the waitstaff was that they learned all our names by the second day. Obviously part of the boat culture, but more than any of us could imagine doing.
