We are now on the Moselle River having left the Rhine at Koblenz. What a difference! No more 7km current against us and endless barges. Instead we have a tranquil river, very pretty villages and lots of tourists. But you meet people in the strangest places.

Adrian and Nuala lunching at the foot of cable car

On Friday we decided to explore Koblenz. It’s a strategically important city as it is where the Moselle flows into the Rhine and the Romans built a town here. It has a massive fortress built by the Prussians on the hill top overlooking the city. At one stage Napoleon and the French army occupied it. The city was also very badly damaged during World War II.We decided to take the cable car to the up to the fortress. Before that we had a picnic lunch on the quayside.

Nuala ringing ahead to book the berth

As Nuala does, she asked a passing lady who was speaking English (Chinese tourist I think) to take a photo of the two of us. The girl duly obliged and asked Nuala to look at the photo. Nuala said it was “grand”. Then the girl’s male companion said ‘”you must be from Ireland?” We asked how he knew and he said it was the way Nuala said “grand”! Apparently only an Irish person says that! It turned out he lives in Cherrywood Dublin 18. So we had a brief chat. Once again it shows how small the world is.

The picturesque villlage

The next day we moved 50km up the Moselle to Cochem. The Moselle River flows gently (well to us anyway as the current is now .6km/hour against us, which after the Rhine is nothing) between steep hills lined with vineyards. There are lots of very well kept villages, camp sites and tourist barges. This area is a meca for hillwalkers, cyclists and wine drinkers. We moored right in the centre of Cochem. It was so pretty we decided to stay two nights.

Today we are on the move again and expect to be in Luxemburg in two days’ time!