Stuck in Limburg

So I guess this is probably where Limburger cheese comes from.  We’re stuck here on our way to Rothenburg.  We got a ticket for what we thought was a 10 hour train ride from Koblenz to Rothenburg.  It turned out to be 5 trains (meaning we have to change trains 4 times).  We were planning to sleep on the 10 hour ride (leaving just after 11pm and arriving around 9:30am).  Instead we have to deal with a 4 hour layover in Limburg.  Worse, when we got to Limburg the station was closed and locked up tight so we couldn’t go sleep inside the station which was plan B.  On to plan C, we found a gross smoky casino across the street from the train station that doubles as an internet cafe and is open all night.  We’re waiting here for the station to open up again and let us onto our train.

But it’s not all bad.  Our day started out fantastic.  We took the train from Koblenz to Münden which is the closest town to Burg Eltz (which for all you non-Rick Steves fans, is Rick Steves’ favorite castle in all of Europe).  From Münden we had quite a hike to get to the castle.  It was over 2 kilometers, mostly uphill.  It took us about an hour and a half to get there.  Along the way we got some great views of the surrounding area which is covered with vineyards and forest covered hills.

Burg Eltz was really cool – I mean come on, it’s a real life castle!  It was really built hundreds of years ago (completed in the 1500s), it was really defended by knights in suits of armor and it really housed nobility.  How cool is that?  We weren’t allowed to take pictures on the tour but we could (and did) take pictures in the treasury.  On the tour we got to see rooms with ornately painted walls and ceilings, art from several different artistic periods, and real weapons from the castle’s armory (swords, guns, battle axes, morning stars and cannons).  In the treasury there were all sorts of artistic pieces in gold, jewelry, religious objects and more weapons.

The castle is in a really beautiful area surrounded by forest and big hills that aren’t quite big enough to be mountains.  It was a great place to see from high up on the hill where Burg Eltz sits and a great place to hike through.  We got our exercise today!  We figure that we walked at least 7 kilometers total today.

If there are z’s where there should be y’s for vice versa, forgive me.  I am using a German keyboard which has the y in the spot the z should be and vice versa.

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