Burg Eltz, Reichsburg Castle & Mosel River

Up and at ’em. Good sleep last night. Temps down a bit. Clear blue sky today, surely unusual in these parts so making the most of it. Today we’ll take Hermann up the road to Burg Eltz. We have a few castles to visit on this trip, but this is one of the best, way better than the likes of fairytale castles like Neuschwanstein.  But first, let’s see what Cochem looks like this morning.  Ahh perfect again!!  🙂

Oh and some late mail… 4 bottles of carry over wine.  Don’t panic they won’t last long.

Up the road from Cochem we turn off at Moselkern. Great view looking back at the Mosel River as a boat slowly slides by.

It’s a casual 30 minute drive to Burg Eltz which is a very unique German castle.  First, it’s the only castle to appear on a German bank note (and no doubt won’t be challenged).  It featured on the reverse side of the 500 Deutsche Mark note from 1965 to the 1990s.

Second, it has never been destroyed and has been in the Eltz family for 850 years!
Upon arriving at the car park nice and early at about 9:30am (to beat the buses), we parked up and walked down the steep hill towards the castle. The temp this morning is 20C in the shade so very comfortable compared with recent days. BUT.. it will warm up!  Here’s our first glimpse. Very impressive.

Magnificent.  The Elzbach River flows 80% of the way around Burg Eltz and down into the Mosel River.

And because we were here at a sensible time we got the privilege of a ‘free’ photo on the approach before the crowds came in to ruin it. So here’s one of each of us.  Perfect timing!


Burg Eltz has passed down from generation to generation for more than eight centuries, and has been left intact for 700 years and still furnished throughout much as it was 500 years ago.  By 1490 this castle got to the state that we see it in today.  Just the 80 rooms, 40 fireplaces and 20 toilets (automatically flushed by a rain drain. Sheesh, you wouldn’t want a drought!).  No photos allowed inside the rooms (which are still used by members of the Eltz family when they’re not at one of their other shacks).  We learned today that in 3 days time it is set to be passed on to the next generation of the Eltz family.  Inside the castle grounds this set of well worn ‘steps’ caught my eye.

The entry to the treasury and inner courtyard.

Looking around the Treasury (3 floors) will gobble up bout 30 minutes. There’s some nice exhibits in here so worth a look. Photos ok in here but not once inside the rooms of the castle.  First the weapons on display.




The suits of armour were typically small, but then so were those who wore them back in the day!

Plenty of valued items like this on display.

Ok enough of that. Into the inner courtyard.

They must’ve been short!!

Ok… tour done, and what a treat it was. As I said, no pics allowed inside, but sheesh plenty of interest. Well worth the €9ea and €2 for the car park, and €2ea for the shuttle back up the steep hill to the car park.  Our English tour was very well presented (and we only had an ‘elite’ group of 7 on the journey!). 🙂  Time for  drink before we go. It’s warmed up to about 28C so we’re ready!

One last shot from down below. Spectacular!

On the way back. The usual signs in the vines!

It’s all go. Train, car, barge.

And a very crooked house!!

We stopped off at the supermarket to get some lunch and other supplies.  Back at our room – the view across the river. Police car!

We decided to head up to the Reichsburg Castle, which was originally built around the year 1000 by Count Palatine Ezzo and was first been mentioned in a document in 1051. In 1689, during the War of Succession of the Palatinate, the castle (and the town) got almost completely destroyed by the troops of the French “Sun King” Louis XIV.  The French did a fairly good job of wrecking most of the castles along the Mosel and the Rhine and this castle was no exception.  Reichsburg remained ruined for almost 200 years until, in 1868, the influential businessman from Berlin, Louis Ravené bought the ruin and reconstructed it in the neo-Gothic style that was popular in Germany in the 19th century (so it’s not really that old).  In 1942 the descendants of Louis Ravene were forced to sell the castle to Reich (as happened back then).  Since 1978 it has belonged to the town of Cochem. Guided tours are in German and are approx 40 mins (with an translation sheet for us and other languages). Tours depart on the hour and are busy, so it was very cramped in some rooms. Worth a look but although it looks good from the outside, the inside was nowhere near up to the standard of all the other castles we’ve visited on this trip.  Photos permitted so I’ve included a few. Temp was about 29C when we visited so quite ok.  Heading across the bridge.

The entry gate.

Kath is still looking for her knight in shining armour. Over here for god’s sake!!

They say this is a lion with armour on.  I’ll call it Kermit!

Zooming in on our accommodation. It’s the unit at the back/middle with the sun umbrella outside.

Meanwhile, castle art.

Inside one of the rooms – the painted ceiling.

Nice dining room chairs.

Apparently the monks were allowed to drink one of these tankards full of wine per day – just the 5 litres!!  Not so bad being a monk after all!!  Mind you, apart from the wine, what else was there??!!  You’d need 5 litres to take your mind off what you’re missing out on.  🙂

Dining room.

Wall art. What? Fighting with the pants down??

Borrowed from Peter Jackson???

Stuff in the dining room.

Dining room again after our group had moved to the next room. The bizarre naked guy statue on the table might put you off your meat and two vege.

So here’s a very rare armour set.  This was used by a 7 foot Austrian dude back in the day at some other castle.  Somehow it found it’s way here.  Bronwyn, is Regan missing some armour?? He’d look stunning in this!  🙂

Staircase art.

From an inner courtyard.

Last shot of the tour.

The obligatory pose with Cochem down below.

It was too hot to walk up to the castle so we purchased a return bus/shuttle trip €4ea return.  Here we were waiting for the bus when this big dude fronted wearing his lycra bike pants and bright lime green knee high socks.  Who didn’t dress me properly this morning!?

We still had time to kill so stepped over to the boat jetty area and discovered there was a 1 hour Mosel River cruise available – €10ea.  Sounds like a good way to kill an hour, and a beer or two. Very relaxing!
Ok so I forgot the green socks and Kath left her boots and hot pants behind…  man do we need sorting out!

Muzza at the back of the Maria von Belstein.

We found some covered seating outside. Beers please!

A Dutch couple came and sat beside us so we struck up a conversation (as you do). Turns out that his English is so-so, but hers is fine, so we had a good chin wag about this and that. She was a real hard case.  Made the trip fly by.  here’s a couple of snaps along the way. First… how to cool off at the Mosel River!

We passed a couple of these.

Around the bend we go.

Plenty of vineyards on show. Steep!!



A church built in 1200 at Valwig.

Not a bad riverside shack.

Back at Cochem – Martinstor (1352) – a former shipping toll house and link in the city gate. It’s on Obererweg.  We’ll walk there tomorrow.

Nearly docked.

Kath and her dutch friend haven’t seen a thing!

We disembark, say our goodbyes, and head over the bridge to base camp for more wine and nibbles before dinner.

Wine bottle 1.  Carried over from France.  A beautiful drop Emile!

Let’s have the Pinot Blanc!  Awesome!

Now we’re primed to go out for dinner at a nearby restaurant. Didn’t take the camera so no pics. We both enjoyed our meals.  For the record I went for the Schweineruckensteak mit Zwiebeln und Krauterbutter pommes frites, Salatteller.  Lovely.  Yes we had more wine, yes I had dessert (Kath behaved).  Totally satiated!!
Guten nacht! <burp>