Castles, castles and a bit of wine

Burg Eltz

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We took a 48 hour trip to Germany.  It was a last minute trip and we didn't really have much of a plan - which I've discovered can make for a really fun holiday.  We got a cheap Ryan Air flight from Stansted to Frankfurt Hahn Airport early Saturday morning and returned late Sunday night.  The airport, although it says Frankfurt in the name, is actually 2 and a half hours outside of Frankfurt and situated in the wine region.

Instead of seeing a boring city, we decided to rent a car and see as much as possible.  On Saturday we drove up the Mosel River to Koblenz, spent the night in Koblenz and then drove down the Rhine to Bingen and then back to the airport.

The plan was initially to stop at a few vineyards and do some wine tasting, but due to our lack of research and poor planning all of the vineyards were closed for the season.  As were most things actually.  So as a fall back plan we decided to drive around and see castles.  At least when they are closed you can see the outside, which is usually the most impressive part anyway.

Reichburg

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In the two days we saw 20 castles!  It was a lot of fun, driving into all these villages and towns trying to get up to the castle.  And generally the direction of the castle was up.  They are mostly built on hills above the cities.  All with the exception of one, Burg Eltz, which was our favourite.  It is actually in a valley and you drive down to find it.  On your way down you get some amazing vistas of the castle.  It was like stepping into a Disney movie at Burg Eltz.  It really reminded me of Beauty and the Beast - remote, ornate and it was foggy when we were there. 

Burg Eltz was near Moselkern along the Mosel River.  The next day along the Rhine it was super foggy and we couldn't see much of anything early in the day.  Once the fog cleared, though, we had some amazing sites.  We went to Loreley and hiked along the cliff.  Beautiful views and its so neat to see so many vineyards sprinkled all over the landscape.  We then went to St Goar, which is a small town that I have actually visited before.  I hardly remember stopping there on my European tour years ago, but it was kind of neat to go back and see it again.

Mosel

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The whole weekend was really lovely.  We thoroughly enjoyed each others company, because we haven't seen much of each other since Sweden.  And just getting to do a trip for ourselves was fun.  No plan at all, just doing what we like to do - castleing!