Castles along the Rhine River

On Friday, the four of us left the house at nine in the morning, a cooler packed with food and drinks and the camera battery all charged up. We took off under brilliantly blue skies filled with enormous, fluffy white clouds, on our way to the Rhine River where our destination was Koblenz, nearly two hours away. Steven had planned our destination so that we could see some of the many castles along the Rhine, first on the west side and then, once we'd crossed the river in Koblenz, on the east side as well. Between the two of us, we took 336 pictures. Okay...Steven took probably 36 ...I took 300. Relax...I have gone through and erased 71 of them. It's hard to get good shots while on the highway. A lot of those pictures were of trees, a pole, a guardrail...so those all got tossed. I have picked some of my favorites...Still a lot, but far less than what I sorted through this morning.

I found an excellent map to include here. Let's start with this. I will try my best to label the photos...no promises, but I think I got everything right.

This map is actually perfect because I started taking pictures just as we hit Bingen. Ready for your Rhine Castle Tour? Alright...here we go!

The village of Bingen.

Summer is insanely beautiful here...so many flowers blooming, window boxes overflowing with color and green everywhere you look.

Burg Ehrenfels

 

 

The Ehrenfels castle above is in a village called Rudesheim and there is a grape variety, the Ehrenfelser, named after it. In Trechtingshausen, we saw the Burg Rheinstein.

There's our little Audi down there...and a train. There are a lot of trains that run up and down the river.

See that little wire ball hanging off the the tower on the left? A torture device? Yikes.

Mylee on the drawbridge...with some very bright sunlight in her eyes.

Hydrangeas. So pretty.

Burg Sooneck in Niederheimbach.

Burg Furstenberg in Rheindiebach.

We don't know what this building is, but both Steven and I thought it was cool.

Burg Stahlek in Bacharach. The name means "impregnable castle on a crag". It has a water filled partial moat which is a rarity in Germany.

Burg Gutenfels

Burg Schonburg in Oberwesal. I thought this village was wonderful.

Have I mentioned lately that I have a thing for churches? Well...this is a Catholic church called Church of our Lady. It sits beneath the castle Schonburg which is now a hotel and a restaurant. They do that with many, many castles.

This is what I looked like for a good portion of our trip.

Tunnels.

This is the Ochsenturm, or Ox Tower in Oberwesal. We went into this village, (to take pictures of the church) and got chased up a steep, winding road by a UPS truck. We almost made it all the way up to the castle, however we didn't realize the castle was up that particular road. UPS drivers are pretty much the same in any country...they have a schedule to keep and they will not be slowed down.

Burg Katz. This is across the river from a village called St. Goar where we all decided we were going to stop and eat our picnic lunch. The castle itself is in St. Goarshausen and it was built in 1371 by the Katzenelnbogen's. It was bombarded by Napoleon in 1806, then rebuilt between the years of 1896 and 1898. It's privately owned now and not open to visitors. The Counts of Katzenelnbogen were the first to plant Reisling in their vineyards.

St. Goar.

Hey, look! Old Glory!

This was a bustling little village.

Scotty and Mylee with Burg Katz.

A river cruise on the water. Elfie says that they call these the white ships. There are many of them on the river with sunbathing tourists soaking up the beautiful sights of the Rhine.

Burg Katz sits in the Lorelei Valley.

While we were eating, an American Hercky Bird flew down the valley.

So, we just saw Burg Katz...and here is Burg Maus. (Pronounced mouse.) Is it a surprise that these two castles had a disagreement? It's true...they fought over the Rhine toll rights for a good number of years. This castle suffered damage from shelling in World War II but has since been repaired. It hosts an aviary that is home to falcons, owls and eagles. Guests can come and see flight demonstrations here.

On the left is Burg Sterrenberg and on the right is Burg Liebenstein. They are both located in Kamp-Bornhofen and are called the Hostile Brothers. There are a couple different stories that I read about these castles and I have no idea which one of them, if either of them, is true. Both stories are about two brothers, sons of a Count, whose names were von Sterrenberg and von Liebenstein. One tale tells of the boys' greed when upon their father's death, they tried to trick their blind sister out of her share of the inheritance. Another is a tale of two brothers raised with an orphaned relative, a beautiful girl named Hildegard, whom both of the brothers fell in love with. The first one ends when one brother accidentally shoots the other in the heart with an arrow, and the second one ends with a sword fight that is halted when Hildegard says she will not come between the brothers and enters a convent. I suppose you can choose which tale suits you and leave it at that.

What I do know about these castles is that the Liebenstein is a hotel and a restaurant and that the ghost of the Baroness of Liebenstein has been known to come out at night to haunt the stairway to the guestrooms.

I've also heard that Burg Sterrenberg is supposedly the oldest castle on the Rhine and also houses a restaurant.

The tower down on the right is called the Sauerlingsturm and is located in a village called Boppard. Both names, in my opinion, are awesome.

Okay...here comes one of my favorite shots of the day...

We turned a corner in the twisting road and saw this sight ahead of us.

This church is in a little village named Rhens. It's called St. Lambert's Church. The castle behind it is called Burg Marksburg and it is actually located in Braubach...which sits on the other side of the Rhine River. How awesome is that?

The Marksburg Castle. It was once used as a prison and in 1945, it was heavily damaged by American artillery fired from the opposite side of the Rhine. It's the most original castle in the Lorelei Valley, (meaning it has not been destroyed or rebuilt,) and has been lived in for more than 700 years.

I used to think that Disney was over the top in it's portrayals of European cities...in the Magic Kingdom and at Epcot. In truth, Disney is all about drama, but they got the European cities just right.

Beauty and the Beast...Pinocchio...it's really true...many of the villages we've seen really do look like that.

Koblenz...ah, well...Koblenz was a bit scary.

It looks relatively calm and peaceful here as we arrive into this big city.

That didn't last. Of course, it could have something to do with the fact that we showed up at about 12:30 on a Friday afternoon...

Traffic, people...more traffic and more people.

While we were stopped and an extremely long light, Steven did get this shot of a another great church, however. Multi-tasking. He says he can't do it. I say he's wrong.

This intersection doesn't look like a big deal...but we got stuck in it twice and couldn't get through the light because the traffic coming the other way had everything pretty much blocked.

We couldn't get out of Koblenz fast enough...but they do have some pretty flowers.

Crossing the Rhine...

...and on the other side sits the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress.

It was the backbone of the regional fortification system put into place between 1817 and 1832. Its job was to guard the middle Rhine region which was invaded repeatedly by French troops. The fortress has never been attacked.

In World War I, it was used as a military headquarters and in World War II, it served as a safe house for archives and cultural objects. It's now a youth hostel, restaurant and museum.

Burg Lahneck in Lahnstein has a sad history. In 1851, a 17 year old girl named Idilia Dubb from Scotland visited Germany with her family. She went to the abandoned castle on her own, taking a sketchpad with her. When she didn't return to her hotel for supper, police were called and a search was begun. After many days, she still had not been found and her grieving family returned to Scotland without her.

In 1860, the tower of the castle was to be repaired and the workmen came across her skeleton inside the top of the tower. Along with her remains they found her sketchpad in which she wrote that she had managed to climb to the top of the tower but fell when the rotted wooden steps collapsed and she was trapped. Idilia slowly starved to death.

The Marksburg Castle again, this time on the east side of the river.

A view of St. Goar, where we ate our lunch, from the opposite bank.

Burg Schonburg and Church of our Lady from a distance. I may like churches...but I really like churches and castles together.

This castle sits in the middle of the river with Burg Gutenfels high above it on the east bank. It's called Pfalzgrafenstein Castle and it was a toll collecting castle. A chain across the river forced ships to submit and uncooperative traders were kept in the dungeon until ransom was delivered. The dungeon was a wooden float that sat in the well.

Burg Stahlek, (up on the left) and the town of Bacharach from a distance.

Burg Reichenstein.

An awesome view of the second castle we saw at the beginning of our trip, Burg Rheinstein.

The building to the right is called the Mausturm, or Mouse Tower in Bingen.

Also in Bingen is Burg Klopp.

From there we headed toward Wiesbaden, (pronounced Veesbotten). Look at all the beautiful flowers. Busy, busy little town and we were all very tired...especially our driver. He's an awesome trip planner. This adventure was one of my most favorites.