Fire on the Rhine
From Trier, we headed over to Koblenz for the Fire on the Rhine festival and fireworks. Left Trier around 6:30 and got to Koblenz just around 7:30. Mr. Smartguy, I parked right near the Altstadt in the Zentralplatz. That will come back to haunt me...
The second car was a distance behind, so we walked down past the Rathaus to the Mosel and took in some of the carnival atmosphere. As we neared the Deutsches Eck, we found that you could not walk the rest of the way to the Eck with a camera, and some Germany guys told us that basically the place to be for the fireworks was across the river, so we warned the second car to park on the north of the Mosel and we took the walk up to the bridge to cross over to the north as well.
The six of us sat and chilled for a while at a table we were able to commandeer near a beer tent, a bratwurth tent, music, toilets, and an ok view of the castle. This would be home for the coming hours. Some beer (then cola...had to drive still later), cards, a Brat, and good times, then when it got dark, the fireworks began. Thirty minutes or so of pretty impressive fireworks, then the fun began! Took around 15 minutes to walk back to my car (and find it in the lot), and by 00:04 I was officially outside the gate of the parking lot. I hit the highway at 01:11!!! ARGH!!!!!!!!!! My god, what horrible traffic! Finally made it home at 3AM (actually made amazing time once I hit the highway). Why am I already awake???
