Saturday in Koblenz

This weekend it was Koblenz before I met my brother and his family further on down the Mösel River in the village of Beilstein. Koblenz has a population of 100,000 and was settled by the Romans in 9BC. Its name derives from the Romans "confluence" because it is situated where the Mösel meets the Rhein. This is a wonderful location for some emperial propoganda and so Wilhem II erected a huge statue of his grandfather,Wilhem I, looking out over all the river going traffic coming up the Rhine.

The horse alone is 9m high. I climbed up into the base where one can see the confluence. Kinda looks like the foc'sul of a battleship, no?
There were some wonderful churches. This is a newer one.
Thus is from the 12 century. Notice I am still trying for the artsy look with the sun peaking through.
They do have a sense of humor. The base flows continously into a basin, but this 'spitting boy' fountain expectorates a few seconds every minute or so on to the pavement. This family could not convince their daughter to stand in just the right spot.
This is the base of a tall fountain (my full shot did not come out well). This is a wine boat carrying the town through history (quite apt to). The different layers of the vertical reflect the different time periods from Roman, middle ages, Holy Roman Empire, French occupation in 1689, Loyalist refuge during the French Revolution, Prussian, Weimar, WWII, and present. The depiction for WWII is simply destruction which was pretty acurate if I remember my WWII right. But being demolished is something that happened a few times here, mostlty by the French. It was sacked and destroyed by the Normans in 892. It was stormed by the French in 1632. Besieged by them in 1688. And taken by the French Revolutionary army in 1794. Then bombed to rubble by us in WWII.

Koblenz has a dozen or so pedestrian only blocks that connect about three or four platz. Here is one with a beir garten.
Here is another with shops and cafes.
This is the Rathaus on the right. I shoul remember who the statue is but I don't (it is in my tourist info). On the yellow building on the left you can see two strings of bells that are used to chime the hours.
I have been pretty lucky with hotels near train stations. This is great in big cities because you can get to it if you arrive late and you know it will be near a metro hub. I made the mistake of doing the same in Koblenz. The problem was that the train tracks are not submerged and I heard freight traffic all night long. It is a small enough city that I should have found a hotel nearer a platz.