Cochem
One of my favorite cities in Germany is, Cochem! It has a beautiful castle, a quaint city setting, and the people always seem to be very friendly. Oh, and tasty ice cream! 🙂
We started off our day going to the Hängeseilebrucke (hanging cable bridge) Geierlay, which is a 300 meter long suspension bridge. It hangs 100 meters above the forest valley floor. It was completed sometime around 2015. It takes approximately 10 minutes to walk across the bridge, and make sure you bring your courage! The bridge is a bit shaky. It is totally safe, but you can feel the swaying nonetheless.
The bridge crosses a deep valley between two mountains/bluffs, but if you like to you can also hike a winding trail down one bluff and up the other, passing under the bridge. After experiencing this super worthwhile bridge, we drove to Cochem.
If you want to get the most tourist-less shots, start in Sosberg and walk along some fields to get to the bridge. Most people start in Mörsdorf, so if you cross from the other direction, you can avoid lots of tourists. And, as always, get there around 7-9 to have the bridge to yourself. There isn’t a fee for crossing the bridge, but there is a fee for parking.
Once we finally found a parking spot, we decided we would first go up the Sesselbahn (chair lift) to the top of one of the surrounding bluffs (the Pinnerkreuz). From up here we could see all of Cochem, it was a super sweet view! It cost €14 EUR for a round trip for both of us, but if money is an issue, you also have the option to hike to the top, it takes about 30 minutes according to the signs. And, as far as I know, it is free!
At the top is a small trail that lets you walk across the jutting slate rocks for various views of the city and valley. If you are feeling a little hungry, there is even a terraced view restaurant to stop and get a bite to eat. After taking the chair lift back down the bluff, we stopped at an ice cream cafe for our traditional ice cream stop! Yummy yummy! I had latte macchiato and smurf flavored ice cream, and Lucas had strawberry, lemon, and vanilla.
Cochem’s city center also has a lot of winding and twisting alleyways that you can get lost in and explore. Since the city is built into a rising valley, there is also a lot of climbing, it is like being in Italy. At least for us, we enjoy this kind of adventure and exploration, which is one reason we enjoy Cochem so much. We definitely recommend taking a walk into the Alt Stadt (old city) section, because you can find parts of the old city wall. This is our 2nd time being here, and yet we never knew until today that there was a city wall.
Getting to the castle involves walking, no matter what you do. In the past we took the more westward trail to the castle. This trail goes through some woods, before coming out at the bottom of the hill the castle sits on. Today, since we went exploring a new part of the city, we came out by the eastern castle trail instead. I personally enjoyed this path more. It was more fun for me because of the cool and cute city buildings. Whichever way you pick, one way or another, you will make it there.
Cochem castle is really very pretty. I like that it has a four-cornered courtyard. It was built around 886, and destroyed during the Thirty- Years war. The city then bought it, and eventually it was rebuilt by a business man from Berlin, and used as his summer residence. Since then, it has remained in the care of the city.
Like many German castles, it was built into the rock of the hillside, so wandering around the castle you will see a lot of slate outcroppings as well. The castle offers a tour if you would like to see the inside. In one of the rooms of the castle is a lamp in the shape of a mermaid that custom says you should rub for increased fertility, and there is a giant dining room table, with a secret door to the side. There are so many different rooms to see and experience here, you must check it out!
The witches tower is a tower of the castle that solely survived the war, and only a part of it had to be repaired. Since it was all that survived, people said it must have been under the protection of a witch. The castle is also very gorgeous because of the vines of ivy climbing up the sides, one of the reasons this castle is my favorite. In the late fall these turn a blazing orange, it is really nice. Also, it has a four-cornered tower, which to me is how I always pictured castles. This time we visited, we even saw a kitty!
The city also has a church, with a steeple that can be walked through while walking around. It overlooks the Mosel river, which currently looks bright green due to blue algal blooms. According to our Airbnb host, every late summer for the past three years, the river has turned green as the algae takes over. It is so thick that anything that falls into the river cannot be seen and the river becomes unsafe for people to use for recreation, although some people still do anyway.
Speaking of the river, the city has flooded in the past. The highest the water ever got, and the most recent it flooded, both occurred in December, 1993. The water was several meters high! Thank goodness it has not flooded since!
Cochem is a blossoming town, with lots of wine, hundreds of authentic German restaurants, an ivy-colored castle, and more. Take a trip! You won’t regret it.
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