Grüße aus...Burg Eltz & Burg Thurant!

On Saturday, October 14th, Karl and I drove north to the Rhineland...a beautiful stretch of the Rhine and Mosel rivers surrounded by hills, vineyards and castles! I especially wanted to see Burg Eltz (burg=fortress). It's a rare castle because, not only has it never been destroyed, it has also remained in the Eltz family since it was founded 850 years ago! By 1472 it looked like it does today. To reach the castle we drove down the Mosel river (which branches off of the Rhine and eventually makes its way to Luxembourg), then away from the river through a few little dorfs (villages) until, suddenly we came to a parking lot in the middle of the forest. We walked through the forest until we suddenly came around a corner and saw this:



The castle is stunning! The path winds down the hillside into this beautiful valley with nothing but trees and tourists in sight. Down the path we walked alongside a family with four children with toy swords and bows, pretending to storm the castle! Actually the castle had only one serious attack in the 1300s when Baldwin of Luxembourg built a smaller fortress at the top of the hill (there are only ruins today) and laid siege to Burg Eltz...after five years he gave up. We took a tour through the interoir of the castle, but unfortunately we were not allowed to take any photos. But click here to see more of the exterior of the castle.

After visiting the Eltz, we drove back to the Mosel river and stopped at another burg we had noticed on the way in:



Burg Thurant was built around 1200 overlooking the Mosel River, became a ruin in the 19th century, then was rebuilt in the 20th century. Although this castle had been ruined, there were still some wonderful original details such as the Roseneck (Rose Corner) in the courtyard where roses had been growing since the middle ages as well as a human skeleton in the dungeon that also dates from the middle ages! Click here for more photos.

We had a beautiful day!