Enchanting Eltz

We took our leave from Tante Anny and Oom Wim and headed for Germany. We had had three days of sunny warm weather and I guess we were bound to have a cloudy rainy day.

It rained hard all the way to Germany, but as we got closer to our destination the rain stopped. This is a view of the German scenery that I thought looked like the Van Gough painting of the wheat field if it just had some crows in it.
Our destination was Berg-Eltz or Eltz Castle. Walt Disney received his inspiration for the castle in Disneyland from this castle and we could see why once we got there. It is over 830 years old and still owned by the same family. It is way out in the woods and surrounded by a small river. We had to walk close to a mile down a really steep hill and were worried about having to walk back up it. As we rounded a bend and finally got a glimpse of the castle we were amazed.
A tour guide Rick Steves (who has videos and guide books that I watched and read before we left) said it was the best castle in all of Europe, and as we approached it we were in agreement.
Check out the novel way they used the bathroom in the picture below. They had small rooms that hung out away from the castle and they had rain gutters from the roof that ran down to the bathrooms and cleaned them out and washed everything away when it rained.
Every time we turned a corner, the views were amazing and I wanted to take another picture. I drove Preston crazy. The family that owns the castle now are the 33rd generation to do so. All the furnishings are original from the 14th and 15th centuries. Of course, we couldn't take pictures inside.

We had to stop and have a drink and something to eat and we needed a picture because it's not every day that you eat in a castle.

After we left Berg-Eltz we drove up the Mossel River and then down to Bingen on the Rhine River. We passed one picturesque village after another. I couldn't believe that there could be so many. It was really interesting that while Luxembourg and the Netherlands were only a few miles away, each country had developed so differently - language, architecture and food. Here is a view of a village on the Mossel River.
We decided to stop at Bacharach, another small village to eat and the spend the night. We couldn't have chosen better. Each way you turned there was another amazing building. The streets were pretty deserted and we wondered if there was anyone there.
One of the many gates into the city.
More amazing streets and the church. We found a little bed and breakfast to stay in and thought we were the only ones there. The next morning though we were surprised to see how many other guests there; it was so quite we thought we were all alone.
We had dinner in a small restaurant and realized how many Americans there were around. There was a family from Massachusetts and one from San Diego. This building was said to be one of the best examples of this wood architecture in Germany and was the setting for lots of movies. I don't remember Jason Borne running by it though.

There is a huge difference in the way the German churches are compared to the ones we have seen in other countries. Preston has declared that he has seen enough churches already, that he will look at them from the outside but doesn't need to go in them, and we still have 2 1/2 weeks left!
After dinner we did some window shopping, the stores close at 5 or 6, so we weren't able to shop then. But we planned where we were going to shop in the morning and what we were going to get. We didn't want to spend much time shopping so we could make the early boat on the Rhine River tour. After window shopping, we just walked around. We found a tall tower up on a hill and climbed about 9 flights of stairs to the top and the views were definitely worth it.
View of the Rhine River, the church, the bombed out church ruins and the village of Bacharach.
Preston doing a Hitler impression. No he isn't smoking, that is the way Anita said the Dutch imitate Hitler,
One of the main sources of income are the vineyards that cover the hills along the Rhine. They are only planted on the sunniest sides of the river so they alternate between which sides are planted on. Preston thought this picture would be cool looking off the tower down at his feet, and he was right.This is the castle for Bacharach that has been turned into a youth hostel. You can see just a few of the grape vineyards.
Just another gate into this amazing village.
This beautiful building is just a painting shop. There are quotes and sayings written all over the building - tidbits of wisdom.