George: Hi and welcome to the Seasoned Traveler, I’m George Bauer. Bauer, that’s German and that’s one of the reasons why we’re here in Germany. On this program, we’re going to take you to some of the larger towns and the smaller villages that make this country so special even for those of us who aren’t of German ancestry. It’s a picturesque and magical place appealing to most tourists but especially to seasoned travelers. The region teems with rich history, classic architecture and not a single American style shopping mall anywhere in sight. So here’s our route. We’re in southern Germany so we’ll be stopping in Koblenz, Rudesheim and Mainz, also Heidelberg, Wertheim, Wurzburg, Rothenburg and then Bamberg. A lot to see so let’s get going. And we start in Koblenz. Ruddy Reitsma is my helper on this expedition.
Ruddy: Best of all is the rivers. You have the confluence of the Moselle and the confluence of the Rhine which of course the tours mean more trade and therefore this area will be here so from the German Corner, a very significantly very important town. The – you see up over here is the Kaiser Wilhelm after defeating the French in 1871, a unified Germany and that’s why you have the 16 flags over here of Germany so it’s actually called the German Corner and significantly enough, the horses rear end is facing France.
George: And in the center of town some history and some humor.
Ruddy: What we have over here is the statue in Koblenz known specially of a policeman and a lady over here who’s a merchant. As you can see, she’s selling potatoes, carrots and cabbages and things like that. The story behind this that the people here in Koblenz are very humorous and they like to always tell stories, traditional stories of the towns. And in this case over here, this merchant, she was selling her vegetables as any good merchant will be doing and unfortunately, everyday, a dog came over and urinated on her goods. This got her really mad and one day she actually realized there was a competition at the end of the corner that would send the dog on purpose to – on her goods so they would purchase from them and not from her. So she brings the case up to the police and the policeman says, do you have any proof. She says no because the dog obviously doesn’t talk. So the policeman would say the only thing I can do is give that dog a ticket and that is actually what he is doing here.
The other interesting feature of the square over here Mainz Square is that yellow building over there with red warnings around the windows. That is a house where actually Metternich was born, the secretary of state and chancellor of the Austria Hungarian Empire and after Napoleon was defeated, he actually thought of redesigning the borders and plans of the different countries throughout Europe. The city of Koblenz here as well, this building behind us in Mainz Square, it’s actually where they used to mint their own coins because the city makes so much money actually on the trade that they had on the Rhine and on the Moselle.
The other interesting thing over here is you see behind there, that is actually story of Max and Moritz and to make a quick story a big short, you can actually see them on top of the ceiling over there with a fishing rod. They’re actually stealing these chickens from the first floor and you have a dog over there, the white dog starts barking and in the lower floor, you have the owner of the inn. He has a dog barking, of course, what happened, she goes upstairs and no more chickens are left in the pot and she presumes it is the dog who has eaten them all. To tell the story, how it all finishes is actually Max and Moritz get caught because after eating the chickens, they go for a nap and they are found with the bones etc. etc. and they’re taken into custody if you want and the fairytale tells of them, they are put inside a grinder, grinded through and come out as meat on the other side and are fed to the chickens.
George: Nearby Marksburg Castle dating back to 1607. It’s one of the best preserved castles in Germany and it’s the only hill castle never destroyed by either war, fire or other natural means. Its main tower is 130 feet tall, about 40 meters and its library holds the world’s largest collection of books on medieval castles. Construction began in the 12th century with the castle keep. Work continued for centuries and in fact it was still going on when I was here. The view from up high to the Rhine River below is absolutely spectacular. And given its height you can understand why this castle was never overrun by invaders. There’s a more modern highlight just down the hill, a local brewery serving beer and sausages.