Bill&Theresa: Day 1-Castles and Fortresses

One of many vineyard covered hillsides near the Rhine Valley.

We landed in Germany, and headed as quickly as possible to pick up our rental car. Getting in, Bill noticed the gear selector looked…somehow…different. Trying to start the car, it balked, saying the clutch needed to be engaged first. Ohhh!! Evidently, I've been driving automatics a bit too long when a six speed manual gear knob does not look right! I have to say, six speeds is a little more busy than the 4 speeds 15+ years ago. But, the autobahn did provide a few stretches with no speed limit, so I kept it mostly between 140-160 kph (85-100MPH). And the speed was NOT the scariest part of those drives!! There were a lot of trucks/trailers on the road and they seem to signal as they change lanes and don’t seem to bother looking. So, when you see an indicator, it’s already too late…you better be halfway through your lane change!

Entrance into Ehrenbreitstein Fortress.
The little blue and white placard at the top indicates it is a
"Cultural Property" which is supposed to exempt it from
being damaged in armed conflict. (I want one for my house!)

We headed Ehrenbreitstein Fortress just outside of Koblenz. Initially, Theresa wondered why the directions to the fortress were not the same as to the city. But it is on a high plateau over the city and across the river. Anyway, that area had been a fortress of some sort for 3000 years (prior to the Romans) and had people living there for about 5000 years. We walked all over the fortress grounds, from deep in the basement to high in the towers. It was fun, but it was COLD!! But, it is November, so… We enjoyed having the place nearly to ourselves, though!

Quite the "hallway"!

Curious structural support for stairs.

Some of the Sentries were happy!

Tomb of an Unknown Solder (at least we guessed).

A quaint group of houses.

Koblenz and the Rhine River.

Schonburg.

After a few hours at the fortress, we headed to our night’s lodging. Although we typically try to stay at Hilton brand hotels, we did a little departure this time. We are staying tonight at…Schonburg, a castle on the Rhine River. Yep. A CASTLE!!!! In fact, it's a beautiful castle!!! (Schon is German for Beautiful, and Burg means Castle) It was kind of exciting thinking about it and planning for it, but when we parked the car and started walking up to this huge castle…well, we were pretty stoked!! Except the VERY LONG cobblestone walk was not ideal for our roller suitcases. Oh, well. It’s a CASTLE!

Our little room in the castle keep.

We checked in and Theresa was prepared to say in German “We have a reservation” and Bill was ready with “One room please” (in German). But he spoke English, asking if we had a reservation and what our last name is. He led us up to the third floor, and opened a rustic door to our little room in the castle. OK, clearly not the King’s chambers, but maybe nicer than the tower prison cell, too (albeit perhaps not larger).

Sherry, anyone?

We sampled some of the “welcome sherry”, and then took a little walk around the property before it became dark. It was something wandering around both inside (stairs, halls, rooms, etc) and outside (pathways, bridges, courtyards and even battlements). But, being November, it was rather cold!

We came back to start the blog, with a little more sherry, and putting on some Beethoven on the stereo in our room.