Marksburg Castle with scaffolding that was all too common that day.
I must have travel on the Brain lately. I spent some wonderful procrastination time this morning looking through old pictures, and found a couple from when I went castle-watching on the Rhine River in 2004.
It’s a fun time if you’re ever in the neighborhood. I walked from my hotel in Koblenz to the river in the rain, but by the time the boat left the sun had come out. If memory serves, the trip by boat to Boppard lasted around three hours, but I could be mistaken. This stretch of the river is lined with vineyards, and castles (or ruins thereof) sit up on the cliffs.
The first pic is Marksburg. It isn’t (as far as I know) but it always reminds me of one of the castles from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. It must just be the style.
It’s great that several of the castles were being restored, but they should have finished before I got there.
The second pic is Burg Katz. I remember hearing about this castle (and its historical counterpart Burg Maus) in some documentary (possibly an episode of Connections 2) years ago. The builders of this castle in the 1300s were apparently the first to plant Riesling in their vineyards.
Burg Katz which was, happily, not under construction.
By the time I got to Boppard, the rain was threatening again. I spent some time walking around the small town and stopped in a local wine shop. After tasting several, I bought a case which I shipped home plus a couple bottles to take back to my friends in Holland. The proprietor also threw in a bottle of their excellent peach brandy.
Before long the boat was heading back, and I got to see everything again in a slightly different light. Although if I had it to do over, I would have just taken the train back to Koblenz to save time.
The next day I toured castle Rheinfels and then headed back to Holland by train in the evening.
Photos (taken with a Sony Cybershot DSC-P5) copyright © 2004 Gregory B. Ingersoll.
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