Well, what a day it turned out to be. As the McCloy's met bright and early this morning we had prepared for a relaxing day touring the city of Koblenz, having a quick meeting with the Chamber of Agriculture before jumping on the train to head to our last stop of this wonderful adventure, Stuttgart. Mr. Netter picked us up from our hotel to start the day by dropping us in the middle of the city with our tour guide for the morning.
Herbert sped off as we began our walking tour in absolutely fabulous weather. We were informed that we had started in what would have been the center of the city during the Middle Ages. From what we saw, you would never be able to tell as everything in the square was modern, new and shiny. This is due, as we found out, to about 90% of the city being destroyed by bombing during WWII. Little did we know, we were in for a heck of a history lesson after that.
Koblenz is a city located at the confluence of the Moselle and Rhine rivers. The name Koblenz is actually dirived from the Latin word "confluentes" meaning the merging of two rivers. This alone should have indicated its historical importance. The city was founded by the Romans around 9 BC and was held until conquered by the Franks. It became a royal seat and was eventually given to archbishop and prince elector of Trier. A very strategic move for electing the Holy Roman Emperor.
After seeing the sights of the city which included many town squares, churches and funny statues, we were heading up a tram to get a bird's eye view of the city. As we were riding up, Herbert told us the tram was built in 2010 and will be taken down in 2022 due to it upsetting the areas view. We took a quick journey up and then back down as our time in Koblenz was limited and we learned that the trains went on strike!!! So our transportation plans from Koblenz to Stuttgart were going to need to change. Before that, it was time to learn a little more about our host state of Rhineland Palatinate's agricultural administration.
After the tram we went to the Chamber of Agriculture for the Federal State of Rhineland Palatinate and learned that they work directly with the farmers as commissioned by the state government. It was a very interesting setup being as some of it was funded through the Ag Ministry (government funds) and private funds through fees. It seemed like some kind of quazi-governmental Some of the programs like testing wine, registering vineyards, and even book-keeping are funded by the Agricultural Ministry while there are many other services they provide such as counselling on crop and livestock production, regulation of land use, and business administration. These later programs are required by the Ag Ministry, but not funded so the Chamber must find a way to fund the program.
After we wrapped up the presentations, we were shown the wine tasting room where they score many of the wines. We even were able to "score" a wine ourself. I would have rated mine very high, but they had already done that. After that it was time to say good-bye, yet again, and move on to our next and final destination. To get there, the four of us, and all of our luggage, squeezed into a fairly small car to motor down the autobahn.
Halfway to Stuttgart we met up with our next host, Ms. Ariane AMSTUTZ. We swapped our luggage out of one car to the other and continued our journey on the very heavily congested autobahn. Upon arriving, behind schedule, we checked into our final hotel (bittersweet) before heading to the Landesbauernverband office for a brief meeting with Mr. Horst WENK, the Deputy General Manager, and then heading to dinner were we discussed the agriculture of the region.
The trip is winding down quickly. We have all learned so much and cherished this adventure of a lifetime. Only three days are left, so we best make the most of them.
Cheers,
Nick
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