Cochem

Cochem 2019

We did a first today, we caught the train as a family to the small fairytale German town called Cochem (KoKem, the second K has that -ch run like your spitting on the ground). As usual, we took forever getting ready and I always stress out over it. Time passes by like a blur and I wait for everyone to get ready, it always stresses me out. However, people in general don't rush on the weekend in Germany and I have to get used to it. Jared was adamant that he didn't want to go. After he threw a fit, Michelle coaxed him into coming. He has always been giving major attitude about not going anywhere and I'm not sure why, but he really doesn't want to go. Maybe he has a fear of something bad happening, he always had that anxiety.

By 8:30am, we made it out the door. Instead of driving somewhere today, we decided to catch the train. The most popular train in Germany is the Deutsche Bahn (German Train). A few months ago, Larry, Adriana's husband (Michelle's co-worker) told us at a dinner about the DB regional pass. It is a day pass and you can use it up to 5 people and can take as many kids as you want. When it comes down to it, the deal is a steal, it came to be about €7.50 per person round trip, €30 total . That's a major steal, to fill up a tank of gas is $40. There's a few caveats within the pass, it is regional meaning you can only travel within that state for the day which is why I chose Cochem because even though it is 2 hours away, it is still within the Rhineland-Pfalz state.

We parked at Kaiserslautern Station and waited for the train. I was super cold and it was only in the 50s, but the windchill made it colder. Jared and Malia seemed excited to go. There was also wifi on the train, but like many spots in Germany, the wifi is spotty at times. The train ride to Cochem was about 2.5 hours which is long considered the drive is 2 hours long, however the train takes a different route, it heads towards France first and then curves right to Cochem eventually ending at Koblenz. Both Jared and Malia were enjoying the spotty wifi, just then an employee was doing ticket checks. Luckily I had everything, my passport, a hard copy of the ticket, and other documents if needed. The lady checked the ticket and passport. Whew! I was lucky. The Germans are doing a lot of passport checks because of the insurgence of refugees from the Middle East.

It took about 10-14 stops before we got off at Cochem, we got to Cochem at 12:18, I kept on hearing nächster halt, which means next stop. As we got off the train, I asked Michelle to take out her phone and try find one of our attractions I wanted to visit. Its funny Michelle and the kids aren't picky about going to specific places, they just go and I'm the one planning the places to visit. In hindsight, this was the perfect town to visit by train. Its small and cozy. There is some walking but not a lot of walking. I digress, we walked for about 10 minutes before finding our first attraction: Senfmuseum (Mustard Museum). Reviews online said it was a must visit in Cochem, but it didn't look spectacular, the website hype it up more than what was presented. However I didn't book a tour. There were about 9 mustard to try, it felt like eating gourmet mustards. We each had our preferences. You could buy a bratwurst for €2.50 and try a mustard. Malia got the curry, Michelle got honey-mustard, Jared & I got the garlic. After the museum, Michelle headed straight for the sesselbahn (chairlift). This was the second place we wanted to see. I knew it was pricey, for a family of 4, it was €23. This is probably how much the ski lift in Switzerland is going to cost. The ride was well worth it, the kids loved it. Honestly, when the kids love it that is all that matters right now. It was windy and cold when we got to the top. Michelle had this idea of eating at the Sesselbahn Cafe which was overpriced. The good thing about Europe is that you can go to a cafe and just order drinks. We ordered 3 hot chocolates and a cappuccino, guess how much? €24, just for drinks. But the kids enjoyed it and that is all what matters. Our server gave us attitude, but I learned to not take it personal, some people are bad apples. I ended give her a tip trying to show that we were nice American tourist, sometimes people need that, maybe she had a lot of poor behaved American tourist and needed a positive one to offset her attitude. Going down, Malia was happy, she has been going through a lot and to see the excitement on her face was very important at this moment.

From the Sesselbahn we seen the Reichsburg Cochem Castle from afar, it was on the other side of town. We were going to catch the bus, but the walk wasn't too far away. It was cold, so the walk wasn't bad. I was hesitant about doing the tour because it was €16, but Malia said that we are only here once right! She is right. We were running late for the 5p train and the next English speaking tour was at 3:30pm, we asked to join the German tour which was at 2:45pm. No doubt we felt outta place, but our tour guide this old lady was awesome. She could speak English and was able to make us feel comfortable, she gave us this tour guide sheet in English and after she spoke her German part, she spoke to us in English. All the people in the group waited patiently until she finished speaking in English. It was really nice of her and the group to wait for us. She even let Malia and Jared participate in the tour. The tour was amazing, but one highlight was the balcony. From there was the best view I've seen in Germany a perfect view of the Mosel river, only a video could do it justice. There were many other interesting sites in the castle, one was the room above the gate, where the spiral staircase was built backward so a knight whose right handed couldn't use his sword when coming up the stairs.

On the way back we wanted to catch the 5:38pm train, for some reason I was thinking 5p so I rushed everything to get to the train station, we rushed to eat and buy wine, that was a mistake because we got the train station at 5:10pm and had to wait 1/2 hour in some cold ass weather. I was freezing.

The train back was so fun, it was the most fun we've had in a long time. The wifi was down, so we just talked and we really connected as a family. This got me thinking we should do this more often, more bonding time as a family is what we need. Even though we live together, it doesn't mean we bond, times like this is proof that we need this time together.