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On Saturday, April 22, 2023, Mowgli and I took a day trip to Koblenz,
which is a bit south of Bonn on by the confluence of the Rhine river
and the Moselle (Mosel) river.
It has an Old Town (like pretty much every town in Europe), a Deutsche Bahn
train museum, that is volunteer run and gets the cast-offs from DB,
including many old trains that are still functional. The Ehrenbreitstein
Fortress is a 19th century fortress (on the site of previous fortresses
as its location at the top of a hill by two major rivers made it a rather
strategic location throughout the millennia), on the east side of the
Rhine river, reachable by a cable car on the west bank of the Rhine, as
well as roads on the east side. Because it was a weekend, and still
colder out, none of the buildings were open, but the outside was open
for people to walk around and explore.
After that we took a cab down to the Electoral Palace of Koblenz
(Kurfürstliches Schloss) which used to be for the Archbishop and now
houses government offices. It was getting late in the day, so there
was some nice "golden hour" light shining on the palace.
I will point out that none of these activities included lunch, which
was the second day in a row. (I did have a sizable breakfast while
waiting for my laundry first thing in the morning. Sadly, no photos
of either activity.) After dinner, we took the train back to Bonn.
Favorite images from trip:
Sunrise
Pakmann
Library
Night
Recycle Beethoven
Gummi Rainbow
B&W RR
Cable Car & Fortress
Mini-Castle
Cable Car Ad
Rhine Telescope
Birdhaus
Fortress Moon
Finding the route from the downtown central train station was a
little tricky as there was no direct route. We had to take a local
city train/tram that went across the Rhine to a town called Beuel,
which is effectively a suburb of Bonn and then took a bigger train
to Koblenz.
We got off the train and took a bus downtown to the Old Town.
There was a central square with a statue of someone I only recently
looked up, the town hall (Rathaus...make whatever jokes are appropriate
about rats and wrath being housed there). Outside of that area is
a more modern, commercial area with lots of shopping and such.
I only took pictures of the older areas—the newer areas were
not as photogenic.
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Looking south at the Rhine heading east to Beuel, a suburb of Bonn, to catch a...(more)
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The local train has an accordion middle, so it can make sharp turns on city...(more)
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A Bronze statue of Johannes Peter Müller, who made discoveries about anatomy...(more)
Next up was a trip to the Deutsche Bahn train museum. It was
elsewhere in town which would have taken quite a while to walk.
We looked for a cab but there were none to be found. Well, there
was one across a major road, but someone else was using it. So we
eventually found a bus that dropped us off at the DB Museum stop.
It was in the middle of fucking industrial park nowhere. After
wandering around to no avail for a while, we went into some car
lot (sales, repair, Mafia front, ???) and Mowgli asked where the
museum was, and the answer was basically make 3 right turns as it
was on the opposite side of the block, obscured by the fences and
stuff by us.
We found it. They have a number of trains inside a building as well
as a bunch outside in a yard. Many of the trains had stairs by the
engine cab, to let people see them. And a few passenger cars were
open to see how people traveled in some of the different eras.
At one point, while looking in an engine cab, a volunteer came in
and was talking to us about stuff. In German. I could make out a
few things like how that train had both a diesel and a gasoline
engine, but mostly Mowgli had to translate. I got the feeling he
knew some English but probably not that comfortable with it. But
he took down a chain rope and let us go, individually, since it was
a cramped space, into the front where the actual engine was. That
was neat. He also had explained about how some of the seats in the
passenger car had been restored, while some were original. I think
I asked something about ashtrays, since I didn't see any and figured
1960-era trains in Europe must have had ashtrays by every
seat. I think they were on the front of the armrest instead of the top.
They have a big turntable out in the rail yard. Beyond that are the
rain lines for the Koblenz station (which is pretty big). There are
no fences, just a sign saying to be careful. It was a neat place,
though no food to be had (I didn't want to get a candy bar at the
gift shop).
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A panoramic picture of the functional turntable with trains on the spokes...(more)
After the DB Museum, we took a cab (phoned one, as there was a big-ass
sign for one right by the bus stop) back downtown right by the Rhine river.
The cab driver was friendly and talking to Mowgli about how things have
changed and such. (The kids these days, you know?) It was in German
so I could only get the general flow of the conversation, not details
though Mowgli filled in a few blanks later. While there are various ways
to get to the next stop, the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress, the cable cars provide
a very scenic way to do it.
And the trip is quite impressive. Because it was still March and
a cooler, windy, cloudy day, in mid-afternoon, not that many people were
going up to fortress. We had a car to ourselves, so I had both cameras
out: the phone for wide shots and the Nikon with a telephoto lens.
I bounced around all sides of the car taking pictures. The view over
the Rhine and up the hillside was really nice.
The current Koblenz Fortress
(Ehrenbreitstein Fortress) was completed in 1828. It is a UNESCO
World Herritage Site since 2002.
The hill was originally settled in the 4th millennium BC and the
fortifications were built in the 10th/9th centery BC. It was a Roman
fortification in the 8th/9th centuries. A castle was built there around
1000 and had been extended over the next several centuries. The castle
was turned into a fortress in the 16th century and was occupied by the
French several times in the next 2 centuries. When the French withdrew
from it by a treaty but blew it up in 1801 to prevent giving a fully
functional fortress back to the Germans. It was then rebuilt from
1817 to 1828, with France paying 15 million francs towards it by a
peace treaty and survied WWII.
The fortress has several museums, restaurants, and has concerts and
plays outside.
And nothing there was open when we were there. So we walked around
the grounds and took pictures on the overlook. No lunch was to be had.
It was also really windy.
The fortress is 118 meters (387 feet) above the Rhine River.
A balcony with an overlook (and a telescope) has a great view
of the Rhine River, the Mosel River and the confluence of the
two rivers at the German Eck, and Koblenz itself.
At the confluence, the German Corner
(Deutsches Eck),
sits a statue of William I, the first German Emperor, mounted on a horse.
The original status was destroyed in WWII but a replica was created in 1993.
At the time it was cloudy, gray, and windy, and late in the afternoon,
so facing the west back, I was taking pictures into the sun. That tended
to make it harder to meter and wash out a lot of the colors.
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The Rhine Viewing Platform (didn't know it until now). Looks like it was open,...(more)
The Electroal Palace
(Kurfürstliches Schloss) was commissioned by and the residence of
the Archbishop and Elector of Triel, Clemens Wenceslaus of Saxony, built
int eh late 18th century. In the 19th century, it was the official
residence of the Prussian Crown Prince, who later became Emperor Wilhelm I,
while he was the military governor of the area. It is now used for
various federal government offices. It has been a Rhine Gorge UNESCO
World Heritage Site since 2002.
During WWII, in 1944, the palace complex was bombed and only a shell
remained. It was reconstructed from the original plans in 1950-51.
Because it was getting late, and it's a government building, we remained
outside and I took pictures only from the front.
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A wide angle of the place. Interestingly, HDR looks OK until you zoom in, then...(more)
After dinner in Old Town at a Thai restaurant, we walked to the train station. I bought some chocolate covered cherry candy at a newstand in the station and was later horrified to find it had a highly alcoholic goo inside (which tasted terrible to me). From the platform at the station, we had a good view of the fortress which was illuminated by flood lights. I took a few pictures of it. A crescent moon was out too. It was hard to get the exposure setting correct for both of them, so I cheated and took two pictures and combined them in Photoshop (manually). The trip back to Bonn was uneventful.
Favorite images from trip:
Sunrise
Pakmann
Library
Night
Recycle Beethoven
Gummi Rainbow
B&W RR
Cable Car & Fortress
Mini-Castle
Cable Car Ad
Rhine Telescope
Birdhaus
Fortress Moon
