For today’s adventure, we decided it would be good to take in a few castle tours. There are quite a number of them here and in really good shape, surprisingly. There is a castle association here that has been around since 1900 and it is their job to be sure the preservation of all of these castles are done properly and often. Apparently, this is the year several castles in the area we went to today were being renovated. Because of this, we encountered a lot of scaffolding, cranes, etc. It’s okay by me…as long as they continue to preserve what is here. Such amazing stuff! We had time to visit 2 castles today. The first one is Burg Eltz. You can find more information here on it (if you so desire). The first thing we encountered before even getting to the castle was the guard house:
It looks like it’s also being renovated at the moment. From here, you’re taken down a very steep hill down to the castle. As you get out of the vehicle, this is what you see:
Notice the cranes and scaffolding. It’s nuts, but still an amazing structure nonetheless.
Through the “windows” in the wall, you get this view. Gorgeous in any season!
This is the view up while standing in the Courtyard. These walls are about 6 feet thick!
Here is a typical door. They were very short at the time! After this, we went on a tour of the inside. I wasn’t allowed to take any pictures inside because the items inside were all original…some from the 900’s! I can tell you that it was just so neat to see things like that.
This is part of the Armor collection at Burg Eltz. Notice the joust stick above the armor.
This was part of the Burg Eltz “treasury”. This lovely item was 1 of a set of 2 there and what’s interesting about this (and all of the other pieces) was that this was pure silver with gold overlay. Lord knows how much this collection of items are worth today. Eeep!
One of the many ornate doors at Burg Eltz.
We looked at the time and figured we’d be able to get in one more Castle. This time we went to Marksburg Castle. On the way there, we went through several tiny towns that you’d imagine to see in Old Germany. I almost thought we were driving through a movie set…but no…there are tons of people that live and work there. Anyway, we made it to Marksburg Castle just in time for the last tour. By this time, it was pouring down rain on us and my picture taking ability was very limited. You can find out more about the castle here along with some other pictures since mine doesn’t do it justice.
This is the entry to the main castle through a peephole while we were taking cover from the rain.
And lastly, here’s Keith at the gate to the stable. The interesting thing about the tours today was seeing the differences between a castle made for a pretty weathly family that just wanted to live there (Burg Eltz) and a castle built for purspose for a more modest family…and to defend their place on the Rhine River. Very neat. Not sure what we’ve decided to do tomorrow…but I think there may be some WWII history coming up. 🙂