Sep 30 - Ehrenbreitstein Fortress

After lunch back at the ship, we had a couple of hours of free time so we decided to do more exploring. Across the Rhine River is the mighty Ehrenbreitstein Fortress. The medieval castle on this site was razed to the ground by the French in 1799. What is there now was begun in 1817, when the Prussian government made Koblenz into a garrison town. We took a cable car over the river to get to the fortress. This cable car was built for the 2011 National Garden Festival that brought millions of visitors to Koblenz. The UNESCO authorities were aghast that such a structure had been built smack dab in the middle of one of its world heritage sites and they threatened to rescind the area’s designation. After much negotiation, UNESCO backed down and the cable car and the designation can live in harmony - but only until 2026. We’ll see what happens after that.

The fortress is a huge, maze-like collection of buildings, with a layout designed to discombobulate invaders, and now, visitors. It sits 120 metres above the Rhine and is the second-largest preserved fortress in all of Europe. The views over the river are breathtaking. We could actually see where the water from the Moselle meets the Rhine and creates an eddy of two different colours of water.

Dinner tonight will be special. We received an invitation to dine in the fancy-schmancy on-board restaurant called Portobellos. (Everyone eventually gets an invitation, so we are NOT special.) As I recall from last time, this will be a 7-course dinner and will likely take almost three hours!! Such decadence.Read more