Yeah, I know; woefully out of order at this point...
We left Rothenburg about mid-morning and headed to Frankfurt. I whipped out the binder to find the day's driving directions only to realize that I'd neglected to include the necessary second page, which would show us exactly how to get to the Frankfurt city center and to our ultimate destination, Cochem on the Mosel River. That left me in the uncomfortable position of flying by the seat of my pants, which is not my strength or preference. The result was that we did a full driving tour of the outer perimeter of Frankfurt before I found signs to the mittestadt.
We parked near the Romerburg, the market square of the old town, and accidentally emerged from the parkhaus (love that one) smack-dab in the middle of it. It's a nice square, fairly typical of German squares as we're now learning, with post-war rebuilt half-timbered houses. On one side is the town hall, which was once used by Holy Roman Emperors to party post-coronation. Since it was Saturday the square was extra-full of tourists, who although mostly German, still stifled us a bit so we slipped away toward the Main River. When I've seen Frankfurt's name, it's usually been associated with its airport, and I assumed that the "Main" part of the name meant that it was the main airport. Silly me. The Main is a river, pronounced "mine," which divides the city in half and provides a lovely promenade on either side.
We crossed the Main on a pedestrian bridge and paused to look back at where we'd come from as well as the rest of the city beyond it. After the war Frankfurters voted to go modern rather than rebuild their city in the old style, as Muncheners had opted to do, so there's an interesting juxtaposition of the medieval church spires near Romerburg and the sleek silver towers of modern office buildings beyond. We were happy to see a slice of modern, affluent Germany, one of the top five economies, which is pretty impressive considering they were bombed to hell and bankrupt fifty years ago.
On the other side of the river we found what we assume was a regular Saturday flea market, which was like a bunch of yard sales lumped together. Not exactly fodder for my purchases, but excellent people-watching material. We heard what had to be dozens of different languages and observed a noticeable diversity in appearance that had been absent elsewhere in Germany; a good portion of Frankfurt's population is comprised of non-Germans.
Since we were now in the Sachsenhausen District, home of many apfelwein pubs, we decided it was time for lunch and apfelwein, popularized in the era of Charlemagne and reinvigorated after a few failed grape crops. We found a pub with a weingarten and settled in to sample the local treats. It was a bonus that they had a non-alcoholic apfelwein for Drew to try, so we both had glasses full. It seemed like the only option to have frankfurters and sauerkraut in Frankfurt, so we did, along with a delicious brokkolisuppe. Neither of us are big fans of kraut as a condiment, but we were unprepared for it to be the main part of the entree. The frankfurters were pretty much like hot dogs (looks like we'd had mostly authentic German food since childhood after all) and the kraut was the best I've had, but definitely too much of a good thing. Between that and the mustard, my eyes were pretty watery. The apfelwein is sort of a cross between hard cider and regular wine; I actually preferred Drew's non-alcoholic variety because it was a tad sweeter, but that might be because I needed the contrast with the sour food.
We were running short on time after that, since we'd told our new landlords in Cochem that we'd be there by around 5:00 p.m., so we skipped our planned trip to the top of the Main Tower and instead rounded out our tour of Romerburg after we crossed back over the river. We strolled down Saalgasse, which is lined with rebuilt houses designed by modern architects. They're a breath of fresh air following the medieval to the point of cuteness houses in Rothenburg, which were lovely but almost overwhelming if you lean toward a modern design sensibility. After that we nearly tripped over the ruins of a Roman bath near St. Bartholomew's cathedral, which had just hosted a wedding; the bride, groom, and party were greeting guests outsides its doors. We slipped by them inside the church, uniquely constructed out of red sandstone. It was bombed like so much during WW2 and rebuilt, the stained glass and altar having been spared from the blasts by the canny use of sandbags and the paintings having been spirited out to safety beforehand. It was on this site that the Holy Roman Emperors got their titles. Pretty crazy.
After a final spin through Romerburg we headed out, back onto the construction sites that are the autobahns right now. I think we're caught in the post-winter, pre-masses of tourists construction season. We enjoyed what high-speed areas we could get and eventually ended up on a tiny winding road to Cochem, through fields of yellow flowers we have yet to identify and the tiny, adorable villages. Oh, one thing I haven't mentioned is the crazy number of windmills and solar fields here. Drew said that Germany has the largest number of solar panels per capital ("or something like that"), which is totally believable. Pretty cool.
Another thing I need to discuss before I forget about it is how enamored we are of German drivers and their well-made cars. I wish the whole world would take a lesson from them. They drive fast but with great courtesy and safety, only using the left lane for passing and immediately whipping back into the right lane to cruise along in their BMW at 180 or so km/h. It's a thing of beauty.
The winding road spat us out onto the main road that lines the Mosel River, which meets up with the Rhine to the east and is similar, but smaller and more intimate. It winds through a beautiful green valley, lined with a bike path full of folks pedaling away and roller-bladers. We enjoyed barge-watching as we cruised to Cochem, mentally planning on taking a short cruise on one of our days here.
When we arrived in Cochem it took us about 15 minutes to locate our digs, which is pretty good because we had two sides of the river to cover and nothing but an address. I hopped out at the TI building, which was closed but had a beautifully hand-painted map on the side, showing us the street we needed. Knowing that our place overlooked the river hadn't helped much, since nearly everything here does.
Now I'm sitting by the window in our flat for the next four days. Out the window to my right I can see the castle on the hill, hauntingly lighted at night. Through the window across from me we overlook the river. We reserved a studio apartment, but they upgraded us for free to the one bedroom, which is much larger. The flat is in the old Cochem wine school and is beautifully renovated and tastefully decorated. Our hostess, Blanka, welcomed us and showed us the space, as well as the inexpensive wine options they provide for purchase. I plan to try several.
After she got us situated, we headed out on foot to cross the river to the main part of town, checking to see if the grocery store was in fact closed until Monday. It is, which is a bummer since we have a small kitchen at our disposal but only half a loaf of bread and a jar of Nutella as our provisions. Nutella on toast will be an awesome breakfast tomorrow, but I hope to find an open store somewhere else during our day trips. Anyway, we wandered along the river and through Cochem's narrow, cobble-stoned streets, eventually ending up in the market square, where we sat by the fountain near the town hall and enjoyed the fading daylight while writing postcards.
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