Cochem

Today was a pretty lazy day by recent standards. We got up at the luxurious hour of 8:30, had breakfast, booked our next night in Koblenz, checked out of our marvellous apartment at Haus Birgit (seriously, if you're ever in Cochem, this place is wonderful), and moved a few doors down to Blanca's place, which is much smaller and more modest, but still very nice. We had a very pretty little terrace garden pretty much all to ourselves this afternoon.

Cochem Castle

After settling in, we crossed the bridge and walked up to Reichburg Cochem, which originally dates from a thousand years ago, but whose current form, a Gothic-style reconstruction, is only a few hundred years old.

Our tour guide shows a fake door.

The walk up in the heat was worth it for the views of Cochem and the Moselle; the guided tour was interesting and, presumably (judging by the reactions of the mostly German crowd) somewhat humorous. The tour guide actually cracked a few smiles. 

A lovely view from the castle.

After lunch and the much easier walk back down to town, we might have done some more hiking if it had been cooler; there are a number of good lookout points in the hills around the town. But it was getting quite warm and we decided that we should take it easy on what was supposed to be a rest day. So I found a little restaurant patio in the Markt square and had a beer while Sonia did some shopping.

Markt square and 18th-century fountain in Cochem

Then it was back to the apartment, with its garden terrace for snacks and refreshments. Sonia had heard about a nice swimming complex up the road, so of course she couldn't resist checking it out. After supper, we spent a few hours planning our next moves. Tomorrow is our last day on the Moselle. On Saturday, we start up the Rhine, and we're thinking we'll aim for Heidelberg, which seems to have decent train connections to both Strasbourg in the south and Cologne in the north.