Boy, were we in for a treat!
We settled on meeting at the train station at 6:30 am. I quickly found out that no trains run at such an hour from my house to the main train station, so I had to sprint on my borrowed bike in 30 minutes to make it. After that obstacle, a friend of ours who promised to come didn't make it in time, so we missed the early train.
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| With an hour to wait for the next train, there was plenty of time for pictures. But when isn't there time for pictures? |
But no worries, taking the later train turned out to be a blessing in disguise - on the later train we took, we met Annette, a super nice German woman who did our very exchange program 28 years ago! We talked with her and she invited us to visit her place in Münster the next weekend, which we actually did! But back to the train ride.
We rode deep into the extraordinarily picturesque Mosel Valley along the Mosel River. Every bend of the river revealed to us a new postcard-worthy pastoral scene.
We hopped off the train and hiked for an hour and a half straight up a hill and out of the valley, meeting two USC students while we were at it. What were the chances? Fight On!
Then we actually came upon the castle itself, which is perched upon a massive rock and was built from 1472 to 1615. The Eltz family still owns the castle today! Burg Eltz (Eltz Castle) was never destroyed since the family managed to wield their influence throughout history in such a way that whatever army was occupying the region had no qualms with the Eltzes. Keep in mind this information is from the official castle info brochure, so that factoid could just be a bit of self-glorification. But it is undeniable that the castle, its interior, and its interior furnishings are in remarkable shape. No pictures were allowed to be taken inside, though. Foiled again, twice in one weekend.
And now, for pictures of Europe's most amazing castle:
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| This is what we first saw of the castle after our 1.5 hour hike |
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| At least photos were allowed in the treasury |
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| A bowl dating to 1680 |
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| Sir please remove yourself from the picture |
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| Time to wander and seek out some other views |
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| Here you can see the River Elz snaking its way around the castle |
We were in awe the whole time we were there. It was amazing! We had some time before we had to head back down though, so decided to hike around a bit.
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| See something out of the ordinary? |
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| John found a geocache! Completely by accident |
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| A somewhat less exciting and less unusual (in Germany) find was this enormous slug. Eugh |
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| Surrounded by nothing but green |
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| Aftermath of hiking |
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| After the hike, we ran into a stand where we were given... FREE WINE! Could this day get any better? |
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| On the way down from the castle |
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| Cool scenery on the way to Cochem |
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| Cochem |
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| Cochem has a pretty good castle of its own, Reichsburg Cochem |
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| With all those traditionally dressed Germans running around we had to take a picture |
Finally, we were out of time to explore the Mosel Valley. Back up north we went to a city called Koblenz, and looked around even more there.
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| More neat scenery while on the train |
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| Koblenz |
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| Florinskirche dates to the 12th century |
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| The monument we're about to see is enormous |
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| The monument is of Emperor Wilhelm I, who led the reunification of Germany after 3 wars in the 19th century. The original statue was destroyed by American artillery in WWII |
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| This is the Deutsches Eck, where the Rhine (on the right) and Mosel (on the left) Rivers meet |
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| My current home |
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| Koblenz's palace |
After finally taking a night train back to Cologne after seeing so many sights, and then taking the train from the main train station to my host dad's place, I was exhausted. And with good reason - I had been away from home for over 17 hours!
But what a day it was. The pictures alone made it worth it. More to come from future adventures!