Castles on the Rhine

300 year old crane

This was to celebrate the victory over the French and Napoleon in a war during the early 1800s.

Most of these castles were ruins.  Some were being fixed up to be made into something else... a hotel, restaurant, a couple were museums.  All of them were surrounded by trees and vineyards.  None of them were more than a hilltop or two away from each other.

This is the Mouse Tower. It was originally built by the Romans and rebuilt several times after. It's named the Mouse Tower because of a cautionary tale about a ruler that hoarder grain and killed many of the peasants to be besieged by and eaten by mice in this tower.

 

They almost devour me with kisses,

Their arms about me entwine,

Till I think of the Bishop of Bingen

In his Mouse Tower on the Rhine!

-Longfellow

Ehrenfels Castle

This one looked like it's lower areas were all restaurants, but it's far away from any towns so it might have a hotel up in the upper floors.

This one looked very intact and not really restored too much.

A family crest on the mountain.

It was interesting all through Germany in particular to see the very old with the very new.  Here's a Roman styled castle with a mine.

Another view of the mine

Pretty houses

This one shows about how far apart the castles are.  There's one on the right and left of the picture here.

Another example of old and new.... old castle with wind turbines in the background.

Every town had one to five different church spires.  Some old, some new. 

Germany is well known for it's vineyards.

This castle wall was really neat.  I would have liked to know more about this one.

Pfalz Island Toll Castle.  They would pull up chains across the river and refuse passage until a toll was paid.  It reminded me of how Robin Hood met Little John.

Loreley rocks... kind of like the siren's island.  There was an opera, poems, and other musical works written about the siren on the rock.  There's even a story of dwarves in the mountain.  They think it's because before all the modern day construction, you could hear the water murmur around the base of the rock. 

I think this one is Katz Castle.  Napoleon bombarded and destroyed most of these castles in his quest for expansion.  There was almost nothing left of this one.  The first time this one was rebuilt was in the 1300s... then again in the 1890s... it's privately owned.

Katz Castle