Thursday, July 11, 2013

Suddenly Castle

On the only full day we spent in Bacharach, we visited Burg Eltz (located on the Mosel River), which is Rick Steves' favorite castle in all of Europe.  To get there from Bacharach, we took a boat down the most scenic stretch of the Rhine (again, according to Rick Steves) from Bacharach to St. Goar.  We saw quite a few castles, many of which were once owned by robber barons:
The robber barons would build their castles along the Rhine and put in place some sort of blockade to keep ships from passing through - until the ship paid the toll.  This was clearly a popular activity, since there are quite a few castles!

After the boat, we caught two trains and then had to walk about an hour on a rather muddy forest path to get to Burg Eltz.  We walked and walked and walked and rounded a bend and... suddenly castle!
Kate, Liz, and castle:
One of the castle courtyards where we waited for our tour to begin:
Liz clearly loved the drainspouts, since she took quite a few photos of them:
Photo by Liz
And, of course, as with all the other castles, no pictures were allowed inside.  We did take some photos of items within the treasury, however.  Liz liked this golden statue of Diana on a stag (although she bemoaned the idea of Diana riding sidesaddle):
Photo by Liz
Paul was enraptured by Drunkenness Conveying Gluttony.  And let's be honest, who wouldn't be?
And we were all puzzled by some of the very elaborate drinking vessels:
Photo by Liz
How do you drink out of that?

Afterwards, due to a bit of a mixup, we had some extra time to walk around and snap some shots of the castle from other viewpoints:
Finally, if you've been keeping track, that's one boat, four trains, and two hours of walking to get to and from Burg Eltz.  And it was worth it.  The inside of the castle was quite neat.  We saw bedrooms, a children's room, a kitchen, and much more - all very neatly designed and well-preserved.

2 comments:

  1. ;) Love the Rhine and Mosel castles.

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  2. Paul and I thought that your kids would have a blast at the Bacharach castle hostel. Maybe in a few years, you can take them and we'll join you. :-) We'd definitely go back to Germany.

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