Bye, Bye Cochem

This morning Udo met mom and me at the hotel at 9:58 am. He came with a nice surprise. His sister Inga had walked over with him. I’ve heard stories about Inga forever but this was the first time I had met her. She spoke decent English and anything we couldn’t understand Udo translated for us.

We all walked over to the local ferry terminal in Cochem. Kathy met us there. We then got on a boat and sailed down the Mosel to Beilstein. It was a little cold on the boat but we had fun. The Mosel is broken up by 14 locks. During our trip we had to sail through one of them. I had been in a ship lock one other time, when I sailed the Yangtze with Dad in China. On that trip we were the only boat in the lock. This time another huge freighter shared the lock with us. Watching the captain manipulate his boat behind ours was rather amazing. No joke he had six inches of space in between his boat and the lock walls.

Beilstein is a very small town. So small that both Kathy and my guide book didn’t even mention it. However Udo said it is actually a very popular place. The two main attractions are its castle, Burg Metternich, and its church. The church is really magnificently maintained and famous for its Black Madonna. The Madonna was brought to the church by the Spaniards some 500 years ago at which point it was converted from a Lutheran Church to a Catholic Church. The town itself is also super cute. It only had one main street that not surprisingly featured classic German architecture. Inga knew of a coffee shop with great cakes, so we decided to stop there before catching our boat back to Cochem at 1:30 pm.

The ride back was very pleasant. We had fun chatting and looking at all of the beautiful scenery. It was raining and cold, so we rode inside. Upon arriving back to town we wanted to do some shopping before hitting the road to Frankfurt. Mom bought a few dishes and some of what Kathy describes as the world’s best Nutmeg. I’m looking forward to testing that out on some cookies, mac n’ cheese and or French toast.

Udo’s other nephew Marcus wanted to meet us and test out his English, so Inga ran home to get him after school. Like both his brother and his mom, he was super nice. His English was pretty good too. We hung out in Hans and Fini’s apartment with everyone for an hour or so and then it was time to head up the highway.

I really, really enjoyed our time in Cochem. Udo’s whole family was a blast to be around. His town is beautiful. It’s small enough to explore on foot but big enough to entertain for a few days. And of course, it’s castle had a basketball hoop ;~)

Our drive to Frankfurt was uneventful, which is a good thing. We left a little after six and arrived around eight. I wanted to see what downtown looked like, so after we checked into our hotel near the airport we drive into downtown. We then found a little Italian place called Mi Famiglia to have dinner. It was one of the better meals we had on the trip. It’s now 11:30 pm back at our hotel. We are leaving for the airport around 11 am. I still need to reorganize my stuff for the flight home, so I’m calling it a night. I’ll write one final time for Euro 2010 tomorrow.

Katy