On Wednesday we went to a castle! And not like the one in the Disney theme parks (not to discount them because that would be amazing too) but an authentic, really old, castle. It is called Burg Eltz, which we decided meant Castle of the Eltz family. It was in a small town about 20 minutes outside of Koblenz and it was a little bit of a journey to get there. We had to take the bus from our hotel to the train station and then ride the train for about 2 hours to the little town and then hike about an hour through what I guess you could call a forest to the castle. And although our route wasn’t perfect, we got on the wrong bus, almost missed a train and then, when we got to our final stop, absolutely could not get the door open, because it was apparently nailed shut with steel rods, and had to get off and the next stop and then ride the other train back. Eric welcomed me to being on a “Watkins Vacation.” But overall we had a great day, travel included. The train ride was through the German countryside and it was so amazing to see all the little churches and houses and castle remains. The pictures that are blurry were taken on the train so they are not the best pictures but I just couldn’t resist. The hike was also beautiful. We hiked a little through the town and took pictures of cute little houses and an adorable hotel/restaurant until we got to our main hike. The greenery reminded us of the Oregon Coast or Seattle area being so lush and green.
Once we rounded the hill and the castle was in sight it was absolutely remarkable. It was made of stone and we decided it was built around the 1500’s. It has been reworked a bit, of course, to include little cafes and a restroom but the Eltz family still lives in parts of the castle! We couldn’t take pictures inside but we did take one before we realized so the picture of armor is from inside. The castle was decorated with family portraits and filled with original furniture. Eric’s favorite room had beautiful paintings all over the wall, I imagine it like painted wallpaper and that, I think, is the best way to describe it. This room also had a beautiful chapel that could be opened or closed like a little window. There is nothing built above it because it is believed that building something above a chapel assumes that people are “above God” and out of respect nothing is ever built above. However, Eric couldn’t have stayed in this room because the bed was only slightly longer than 5 feet to accommodate the typical height of the day. Even I would be tall! My favorite room had a beautiful dome ceiling and we later found that it was the old house chapel that had been converted to a living room when a new one was built. It also had this colorful and intricately decorated porcelain box that we later found out was a stove!
A few other interesting things about the castle are some of the decorations. Many of the walls were decorated with tapestries made many centuries ago. They were filled with interesting and imagined animals. As we were told during our tour, the men of the family would come back after travels or wars and describe what they had seen. However, since the artists had never seen many of these animals, they had to imagine what they would look like. Also, in one living room there was a “fools mask” and this meant that anyone who entered, not matter their class, could say what they please in this room and it would be respected. However, as you leave there is a “peace rose” which reminds the people that they must go back to respectfully keep quiet and to leave anything heard in the room to secret.
It was obviously difficult to get pictures of the entire outside of the castle but I did remember to buy a postcard, as my G.G. recommended. We did get some pictures of this astounding castle and some of the grounds and hike.
XOXO Cassi
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