Greg had a four day this weekend, but since tomorrow is my first day of work, we wanted to take it easy. There is a huge wine festival in town this week that we almost went to, but changed our minds late on Friday night when Greg decided we should check out some castles instead. Next week, we'll probably head over to the wine fest. Saturday, we took a very scenic drive through the Rhineland countryside and visited one of the oldest and never destroyed castles in Germany, Burg Eltz.
Burg Eltz isn't a particularly famous castle. It was never owned by anyone particularly well known historically and it probably isn't one of the most beautiful castles in the area. However, it was built in the 12th century, never destroyed and relatives of the original family still own and live in it. A lot of the Romantic Rhine castles are now in ruins or, if still standing, are relatively newer (ie: 19th century). We wanted to see a big, mid-evil castle and that's exactly what we did.
The best part of the trip was probably the drive. A lot of the castles in the area aren't close to main public transit lines, so they are often overlooked by usual tourists. Actually, finding a castle that was English friendly was not an east feat. Castles are only briefly mentioned in my guidebook and excluded from most of the "suggested itineraries."We considered a few other castles, but were deterred since we still do not know very much German and many do not often tours in English. In the future, I'd still love to take a Rhine riverboat tour to see more castles. In the meantime, driving through the country was adventure enough for us.
We were only on the autobahn for a few kilometers before being directed off onto the country roads by our less than brilliant GPS. Most of these roads are as narrow across of one lane in America, yet built for two-way traffic and have no speed limits. They are also extremely steep and winding! I thought mountain roads in Colorado were bad, but these are intense. If you aren't paying close attention, you could easy end up rolling down the side of a hill. The views were amazing, though!
We actually got pretty lost on our way there thanks to the GPS. Apparently, there are three roads with the exact same name within a 10 kilometer radius. When we finally got to the right place, we had to park and walk about a mile and a half or so through the forest to the castle.
The scenery was absolutely gorgeous. there were streams on either side, hills covered in trees all around and ruins in the distance. We took a tour of the inside for 9 Euros each which was in English and allowed us to enter the treasury where all of the old guns, swords, armor and gold and ivory trinkets were kept. You aren't allowed to take pictures inside the castle, so I don't have anything to show, but it was pretty amazing. It was still furnished with much of the original furniture. There was artwork everywhere and the walls were beautifully painted. Greg thought it looked much nicer than he would have expected from a mid-evil castle, but I think he was hoping for something a little closer to Game of Thrones. We had a great time, but I don't see any reason why we would go back to this particular castle again. There are so many all over Germany, I'm sure we'll check out a few other ones, but probably not Burg Eltz again. We were right near Cochem which is supposedly one of the most beautiful little towns in Germany, also complete with it's own castle. The castle at Marksburg is also relatively close, but probably one we'd only choose to see from afar. Of course, we still haven't ventured farther than about an hour and a half from our apartment, so there is definitely still plenty left to see in other areas!
 |
| I have no idea which castle this is, but we saw it from the other side of the river on our way home. |
Tomorrow, I go back to work full time. I'll only be working part time after this week, but I'm happy to be back to do something. Cleaning dishes and sweeping floors is not exactly the life I'm meant to lead. I'll be much happier to feel useful again. Also, Greg will be gone for a month coming up here soon and I'll be happy to be able to keep busy.
No comments:
Post a Comment