Mosel River Valley, Burg Eltz and Reichburg in Cochem

I spent two days in the Mosel River Valley this past week, enjoying some downtime with friends after our big high school camp last week. 

Burg Etlz has been on my list of things to see for awhile now, so I was happy to finally make it there. Rick Steeve's said it was his favorite German castle. The castle has been owned by the same family for 33 generations. It was originally 3 separate castles, but eventually one of the families consolidated them. I thought it was really pretty. It's literally in the middle of nowhere, and it sits in a valley, so you don't see it until you park and hike for about 2 kilometers. Still don't understand how it survived for so many years at the base of a valley... seems like most castles are built higher up for defense purpose. 

Picture stop on our walk down from the parking lot. 

 The main entrance into the castle. 

Inside the castle courtyard. 

A close up of the outer wall. 

After our afternoon at Burg Eltz, we drove about a half an hour to Cochem. It's a super cute little town on the Mosel and it's surrounded by vineyards. It'd been there once before, but only for a short time. We checked into our Guesthouse and then walked into town. For dinner and gelato!

We toured the inside of the Cochem castle... after making the hike up through the vineyard. The castle was destroyed in the 1800s but was restored. It had a lot of quarks... secret passageways, fake doors, etc. It was an interesting tour.

 The castle entrance. 

 

Looking over the Mosel from the entrance gate. It's actually a lion statue, but the knight's helmet makes it look like a frog. 

 We could actually take pictures inside this castle! 

(Above) a view of the Mosel and courtyard entrance and 

(Below) a knight's armor - a really tall, 7' knight. 

(Above) An odd pedestal on a bench 

(Below) A hanging mermaid hunter, that is good luck - you can touch the circle on his belly for good luck. Our guide said that things of beauty don't need to be useful! 

This key hole was designed so people who've had a "little" too much to drink and can't see straight, can have help trying to get their key in the hole!