Ladee's Travels

Fortress Ehrenbreitstein - open for tours year round.  There are steps or a chair lift to get up to the fortress. There are two restaurants on the terraces that provide an excellent view. http://www.loreley-info.com/eng/rhein-rhine/castles/ehrenbreitstein.php

Burg Marksburg - This castle has never been destroyed.  It survived through several attacks.  You can take tours!  http://www.loreley-info.com/eng/rhein-rhine/castles/marksburg.php  Stolzenfels Palace - Open for tours. It went through a renovation in 1840s and has become one of the most outstanding examples of German romanticism. http://www.loreley-info.com/eng/rhein-rhine/castles/stolzenfels.php If you enjoyed seeing the Rhine Castles and Ruins, take a half hour and watch these three videos describing the Rhine and its castles.  The page will open the first of three videos and there are icons for numbers 2 and 3.  Click the link below to begin. http://www.loreley-info.com/eng/rhein-rhine/videos/middle-ages-europe-1-3.php In review, here is a map of the castles, most of them discussed in the last few blog posts.  We traveled from bottom to top.  A little repeats and then continues south on the Rhine/Rhein. This has been a gra...

To start this post, here are two things: notice the rocks in the middle of the river, and then the boat is a ferry with cars that we talked about earlier.  I was shocked that it (the boat and the rocks) was so huge.  Rock cliffs approaching "Lorelei".  This is it. The Lorelei is a 433 foot high slate cliff.  The Rhein is about 82 feet deep here and only 371 feet wide. Because it is so deep and narrow, it is one of the most dangerous places on the river.  There is an 1801 romantic ballad about this place.  Lorelei is a beauty from Bacharach (we saw that town earlier) who wants to take her life because her true love is unfaithful.  The bishop, fascinated by her loveliness and humility, decides to take her to a convent. When she is on the cliff, she looks and sees her true love riding away and in despair throws herself in to the turbulent water below. Story #2 is written in 1810 as a fairytale.  The woman is distraught Lurley ...

Ruin Fürstenberg - Built by order from the archbishop of Cologne to provide protection and levy tolls. It is privately owned and there are no tours.  Bacharach, a town on the river. Berg Stahleck - Built on orders of the archbishop of Cologne, it was destroyed in the late 17th century and rebuilt in the 20th.  It is now a hostel.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stahleck_Castle  Town of Bacharach.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacharach  Toll Station Pfalzgrafenstein.   Built by Ludwig the Bavarian.  Take a river ferry trip and get a guided tour once you are there.   http://www.loreley-info.com/eng/rhein-rhine/castles/pfalzgrafenstein.php   Burg Gutenfels  on the top of the hill is not open to visitors but it is a hotel.  The town along the river is Kaub .  This shows the Gutenfels on the hill and the toll station in the river.   Berg Schönburg sits on top of the hill....

The next part of the river is pretty exciting.  I took some photos from inside and then bundled up and went to the top desk to take the rest.  I have a map in hand and each time they name the castle, ruin, town, I point and photograph the map.  I will do the first one but will leave the rest out and use them only for my reference with posting.  This leg of the trip will run in several posts and will include the wine fields on the hills and pretty towns. I think that if they are marked "Burg", they are visitable.  Burg is a castle or fortress (in German).  Towns grew up around them and the whole thing soon became known as Burgs (in some places. The first castle is Burg Rheinstein.   It was important for it's strategic location, constructed around 1316, fell in to decline, was purchased by Prince Frederick of Prussia and rebuilt.  It has a working drawbridge (STOP, let's go see this) and defense. It is open to the public March through November. ...

This gives a view of the Outer Courtyard.  From left to right, you see the Deep Well, the round Sinwell Tower, the lower building in the background is the gate entrance to the Imperial Castle. Behind the castle gate is the Walburgis Chapel (part of the other castle Burgrafenburg - Belgrave Castle) and on the path that drops sharply down on the right side of the photo are the Himmelsstallung (Celestial Stables). Some school children take a morning snack break. I followed the road alongside the stables. This is a map of the castle complex.  Any details that I used in the blog posts are taken from the website  http://www.kaiserburg-nuernberg.de/englisch/castle/plan.htm .  The website has more details about touring the castle.