Europe trip day 3: Koblenz, Burg Eltz

We woke up in St. Goarshousen to find a beautiful little town on the eastern shore of the Rhine River, Overlooking the village on the mountainside just behind us was Burg Katze.

 (not my picture-- I didn't have a good enough angle to get a picture of the castle and the town)

And directly across the Rhine from us was Rheinfels castle-- we could see this one from right outside our hotel-- our first real look at a German castle.

After breakfast, our first order of business was to figure out what to do with my wheelchair.  The best plan seemed to be to drive up to Koblenz, a larger city, find a bike shop and try to get an inner tube that would fit my wheel.  We had planned a Rhine River cruise and a tour of a couple of castles, but we had to make do with the beautiful drive up the Rhine River, craning our necks to see the castles lining both sides of the river gorge.

The first we came across was Burg Maus, also on the eastern side of the river. (None of the following pictures are my own-- I was driving)  Notice the name-- Mouse Castle, named in reference to Burg Katze-- Cats castle!  :-)

Next was Marksburg Castle, also on the east side of the river.

Next we drove by Sterrenberg and Liebenstein castles-- mostly ruins, also on the east side of the river.

Then on the west side again was Stolzenfels Castle:

Finally, we came around the bend to the city of Koblenz.

So we made the drive, a pretty drive along the east bank of the Rhine river, with picturesque castles and ruins on the hillsides, to Koblenz.  We found a bike shop, but they would have to special-order the innertube.  But, as luck would have it, there happened to be a wheelchair store in Koblenz!  So we went over there and they fitted my wheel with a new innertube and tires.  

Finally we were on our way again, driving about an hour or so to Burg Eltz, on the Mosel river southwest of Koblenz.  Burg Eltz is one of the best castles to tour in Germany.  It is a medieval castle built in the 1100's, that is still owned and lived in and maintained by the Burg family today.  The tour was well-done and made me realize how happy I am to have been born in the modern age. :-)

Here are some pictures from the tour:

From up near the parking lot where we hopped on a shuttle bus:

Closer:

Some more exterior shots:

We walked across the bridge to the castle and bought tickets for our tour.  While we were waiting, guess what happened?  My wheelchair tire popped again.  Ugggghhhh!!!!  At least I had brought my crutches, so we stashed my wheelchair away and I did the rest of the tour on crutches and/or on Ben's back.  Not easy, but worth it.  Thank goodness Ben had the foresight to buy more than one inner tube!  We planned to fix it later that evening.  Meanwhile, the tour was really cool.

This is inside the castle courtyard.

And this one is the view from the castle itself, looking down on the walls surrounding it.

Handsome Brigham.

Finally it was our turn for the tour.  We couldn't take pictures inside, so I'm borrowing a few from Google images.  

After the tour we ate some German sausages and then headed back up the hill.  While Ben and I waited for the shuttle bus, the boys hiked up to the top.  Mosey found this cute little critter as he was walking.

It was an awesome afternoon.  We finished up the last few Pimsleur German lessons on the way there and back, so Joseph and I were now officially legal on the trip!
We drove on to Bonn, Germany where we stayed the night at the Mercure Hotel Bonn Hardtberg.