Germany's Mississippi-The Rhine

• Sasaharty's Profile
• About this blog
• Entry from Bacharach

Trip Start Jun 14, 2009 Previous
Entry Trip End Jul 14, 2009 Next
Entry

  Bacharach, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany
Tuesday, June 30, 2009

We've been lost in Norway without internet so are catching up a bit since our return to Denmark

We’ve encountered the Rhine River (think Mississippi River) and its surrounding valley. It’s a beautiful, green ancient area with castle-dotted banks and villages full of narrow streets and medieval towers and walls. I could tell we were going to like this place. We drove into Bacharach pointing out castle after castle until finally we saw one that looked like the internet pictures of our hostel called Burg (Burg means castle) Stahleck. Yes, we stayed in an ancient castle at the top of a steep hill overlooking the Rhine, but more on that later.

After settling in we drove another hour to a Castle called Burg Eltz to tour. Our GPS took us over the hills and down switchbacks on tiny roads, the back way to the freeway and Eltz

The Rhine from our hostel

. It was a little out of the way, but the pastoral villages above the river valley were worth it. At Burg Eltz, we toured the 13th century castle that has been owned and occupied by the same family for 850 years. It was furnished with items that actually resided in the castle all those years ago and even included a picture of the current owners, 35-generation grandchildren of the original owners. The tour also included the treasury holding 17th century “drinking vessels”, gold decorations, jewelry, and weapons from jousting sticks and suits of armor to hand held canons and more hunting rifles for them bears that used to live in Germany, but don’t any longer. The castle was very unique for many reasons: it wasn’t destroyed by Napolean due to connections, the bathrooms  were flushed by rain to keep from stinking, and it had a lasting contract forbidding swearing inside the walls and protecting the place for the future. The family had great foresight from its beginning that we got to benefit from. We had a great guide and all agree it’s the best castle we’ve ever toured (I don’t know how many we’ve toured though so that may not mean much).

Hostel-Castle Burgh Stalech-Back at our own castle, we discovered we were staying with about 110 loud middle-schoolers in their last week of school survival camp. We thought it was funny that they were still in school and that they all go on a survival camp at a castle for the last week of school (maybe better than wandering the halls which is what we do)

Burg Eltz

. We picnicked in the courtyard with a view of the river and the sound of eight million bugs. Quick exploration of the castled revealed a pond, ramparts, a tower with more rooms, Huge dorm rooms for all those kids, and the rock that the castle was built on sticking out of the walls all over the place. We had chosen an excellent hostel for our stay on the Rhine. We met several of the Youth groups’ leaders and after a long chat, we were invited to play Phase Ten with them. We knew the game better than they did and didn’t have a problem with the phase cards being in German. They were surprised we had even heard of it and I, Annalisa, won. Finally, after two kids went home and one fight broke out, at ten  in the evening they made all the kids go to sleep and we left the courtyard too. Our room was the only one in that area of the castle and small with bunk beds. We fell asleep quickly to the sound of passenger trains on one side of the river and  cargo trains on the other.

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

in our hostel-Burg Stalech

Slideshow Print this entry Share Bacharach hotels

Previous Entry Next Entry