Today we wanted to explore the best maintained of all the castles in the region, Burg Eltz on the Mosel river. We caught the train to Koblenz, then caught the train on the western side of the Mosel to Moselkern. We started looking for a taxi, but there was none, so we started walking toward the castle. The road was fairly flat for 2 and half kilometers to the carpark at Landhotel Ringelsteiner Muhle. We stopped for a coffee and toilet break, then started on the path to Burg Eltz. From here the path was in the forest, following the Elzbach river for another 2.4 km to the castle. All in all, we walked for about 70 minutes. The castle was definitely worth it!
The castle is beautifully preserved, and is still in the hands of the original family. We bought tickets for the tour inside, and had an enjoyable visit through the many rooms in one of the wings. It was wonderful, and quite educational.
At the end of the tour we considered our options, then not wanting to walk again chose to catch the shuttle to the carpark then phoned for a taxi to take us back to Moselkern.
From there we caught the train to Cochem, another beautiful town on the Mosel. It was getting on in the afternoon, and we were hungry, but because it was raining, all the restaurants were full. We finally found a seat at the Alt-Cochem with a view of the Mosel.
The meal was delicious, and the drinks went down well after an exhausting morning.
Unfortunately, the weather was getting worse. We were able to get some photos of Cochem, but we really didn’t spend enough time to enjoy it.
We decided to catch a taxi to the train station, then caught the train to Koblenz and transfered to the train back to Koln. By this time the weather had cleared up a little so we were able to explore Koln some more.
We went back to our rooms to pack and get ready for the last transfer – Amsterdam.