A Trip to the Rhine Valley & Heidelberg

Our idea for this trip started started by two desires, the first one was to spend the New Years Eve abroad and the second was visiting the city of Heidelberg. It seemed as a good combination, since we saw that the city had some fireworks for the New Years Eve and beautiful during the day.

Before this first decision we saw the several airports that we could go to, since Frankfurt was on the short list, Heidelberg seemed as a fine decision.

After the decision of the city, we decided that we would enjoy the trip more if you did not just visit the city but also the Rhine Valley that was near. We wanted to visit several things, even if it was only a small time in each city, the goal was passing by, who knows if we will visit it better in the future, probably during the long days of Spring and Summer.

Our first stop after leaving the Frankfurt Airport was the city of Koblenz, we booked our first night in an hotel in this city due to its location and the landmarks, Fortress Ehrenbreitstein, the Deutsches Eck and its monument.

Koblenz is also a city where you can see the former Elector's Palace of Koblenz, a former Prussian government building, the central stations and others

Since we had enough time to visit more than the Rhine Valley by car, and there were no cruises to the Rhine, we decided to travel to Cochem by the Moselle river. The road is always by the riverside and you can see the valley and the small villages.

The main difference from the Rhine Valley is the number of castles, from Koblenz to Cochem you will not see many castles.

After the images of the cities of Koblenz and Cochem, time to see the photos of the Rhine Valley, one of the main goals of the trip.

Sorry for some lack of names in some of the photos, I will try to update it.

The Rhine Valley is such a beautiful place that even with a strange weather and the sunset in the mountains, you can take some photos catching the beautiful places.

The first time we were told that the Rhine levels rise, we were not totally aware of the implications, as we were told, because of the rise in the water level, there were not many cruising boat during winter in the Rhine.

What we were not expecting was that even cars and roads could suffer with this, but the Germans did not seemed worried about it, it seemed just like another Winter was passing.

We decided to spend a night in Bingen since we thought that after visiting the Rhine Valley, we would want to rest near the Rhine and in a "smaller" town. It does not have many things to see, but we found ourselves lucky to have dinner at such a good restaurant.

In Bingen you can also go to Rüdesheim am Rhein, and visit this beautiful village in the other side of Rhine.

From Bingen to Heidelberg, we decided to stop by these three cities. We did not spend much time in each city so there are not many photos. It was worth to stop by to see the differences and their unique landmarks, but if you are thinking on doing a similar trip, these are not mandatory stops.

Heidelberg was our final stop, famous for being a romantic city and the picturesque landscape with the mountains near the city, it is surely one city where you can spend more than one night.

Most people get to the bridge between 23:30 and 23:45. There was no street performance, or live music, just people walking to the bridge, and staying there enjoying the view, the cold and the near countdown.

At 00:00, the people started throwing their fireworks and drinking champagne in the bridge. Thirty minutes later, most people had left the bridge but there was still some resistant, and the fireworks only completely stopped after 01:00.