Burg Eltz

Saturday morning we headed out for Burg Eltz. I wanted to go there b/c it was only 45 min-1 hour away according to a website I frequent. Um, no. We encountered a stau ("autobahn traffic jam") and an umleitung (detour) in a small town and the drive ended up taking us 3 hours. The drive was actually about an hour and 40 minutes.

Anyway, the fog was really bad from our house and I was worried that we wouldn't be able to enjoy the scenery. But the fog lifted about 30 min before we got to the castle and the day was gorgeous! The drive along the Mosel River was very scenic. The castle is right outside a small German town (Munstermaifeld). It's a beautiful walk down to the castle in the valley. And what is remarkable is that the castle is still owned by the same family(ies) (Kampenich, Rodendorf, and Rubenach families) that lived in the castle in the 12th c, 33 generations ago. It is a very luxurious castle compared to other castles this old...every room in the Kampenich section could be heated where as most castles only had one room that could be heated. All the windows have glass. We did take the guided tour, but we were not allowed to take pics. Visit the official Burg Eltz website (Burg Eltz)and select the "Castle Tours" tab and click on the links to see some of the rooms:

Stations of the Cross along the walk down to the castle from the parking lot



Entrance



In the Courtyard




During tour



We had a bite to eat at the cafe on the castle grounds.

I had wurst (sausage) and German potato salad.



Cory had goulash




Pictures along the walk to castle:






We headed home and had no traffic problems. ;)