Day Trip: Cochem and Reichsburg, Germany

In the past few weeks, it finally getting sunny and warm outside! This glimpse of spring time sadly did not last long before it started raining every single day. Of course, in a month it will be burning hot and neither our house nor work have air conditioning, so we have to enjoy the weather before it turns miserable again. Several weekends ago, we drove to Cochem with some friends of ours to get out of the house and explore somewhere new.

Cochem is a city on the Moselle River that you've probably seen pictures of but had no idea where it's located. The first time I saw an advertisement for Cochem, it was on Pinterest labeled as "The most beautiful town in Germany!" After seeing it, it's certainly beautiful, but I'm not completely convinced that it is the most beautiful. However, it is a very cute little town with lots of wine shops and good restaurants and cafes. It's definitely a great place for a day trip.

Sitting high above Cochem is Reichsburg. Reichsburg is a castle that, you may have guessed, was owned by the Third Reich through WWII. As is typical in Germany, not a lot of places will talk about WWII history, and Reichsburg was no exception. To get there, it's a short hike from the center of Cochem that is entirely up hill.
The price for entry was 5 euros and included a guided tour in German. For comparison, Burg Eltz which is only a few miles away cost 12 euros and you weren't allowed to take any pictures. Reichsburg was much more laid back and encouraged you to take pictures, even with flash, if you wanted. As far as castles go, I personally think Reichsburg was one of the best. Greg really enjoyed both Reichsburg and Cochem, but his favorite castle remains Rheinfels.

After a while, all of the castles kind of look the same, but each have particular strong points about them. Reichsburg had beautiful ceilings and woodwork around the fireplaces. It also had some nice views of the river. The stained glass was a little bit nicer than what we've seen at some other places as well.

In a few weeks, some of Greg's friends are coming to visit and we will probably do some more exploring in Germany. We'll possibly be visiting another castle and taking a trip to the Black Forest. Hopefully, I'll be good about finishing my back-logged blogging before I have even more updates!