Fairytale Castle Eltz

in #walkwithme5 years ago (edited)

We've already heard about the Eltz Castle before but it's so far away from our home that we kept postponing our visit.

My husband was celebrating his birthday two weeks ago and as we were supposed to go to The Netherlands to visit his family, I planned our visit of this castle as well. It might not sound like a great birthday surprise but I combined it with lunch at a vegan hotel nearby as I knew he wanted to go there for ages. It wasn't exactly on our way to The Netherlands but it was worth two more hours in the car.

We left home at 7 AM to arrive at the hotel at lunchtime. We had delicious lunch, got to meet the chef and bought 6 bottles of local grape juice and 6 bottle of local sparkling wine.

It was raining and we were not sure if we should go to the castle or not. At the end we decided to go as we traveled so far already.

We arrived at the castle at 3 PM and had plenty of time left for our visit.

The Castle Eltz is located in the valley of the Moselle which is very interesting as most of the castles are on top of hills because it was more difficult for enemies to attack them.

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We parked the car on top of the hill and took a shuttle bus to the valley as it was raining and the road looked slippery. It was a 5 minutes roller-coaster ride. The shuttle bus parked right in front of the castle.

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We went inside and purchased our tickets (EUR 10 per person). The tour starts every 15 minutes and takes approximately 45 minutes. Our tour guide asked us not to take any pictures, so I will have to tell you everything about the interior and you will have no choice but to rely on my words 😊

He was a funny young guy who also told us some tips and tricks that were used in the medieval times.

If you have ever been to a castle you have noticed that the circular stairs are always built from the right side to the left side. This is not a coincidence and it appears in literally all castles (that's what he said). The reason is that if the castle was attacked, people on the castle would have an advantage during the fight on the stairs. As the enemy came from downstairs it would be difficult for him to manipulate with his sword as the stairs would be blocking him during the fight. It was assumed that everyone was right handed though.

Another interesting thing is the Rose of Silence. It's a decoration on the wall of the Knights Hall as well as on the bed in the bedroom. It symbolized the promise that the spoken word would not leave the room. The Knights Hall was used for the most important negotiations and it was important that all confidential information stays inside of the room. And the bedroom - I think you can guess...

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The medieval castle Eltz was built in the 12th century and stands on a 70 m high rock. It's one of the three castles on the left bank of the river Rhine that haven't been destroyed over the centuries. The construction of the castle started in 1157 and lasted for over 500 years.

It has been owned by the Eltz family for over 850 years. The word 'Eltz' probably originates in the old German 'Els' or 'Else', which are names for the black alder, a tree that is commonly found along rivers.

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There are over 100 rooms in the castle but only a few of them are accessible to the public. There are 4 main houses and we will visit the house of the Eltz-Rübenach family. Recently, there was a large maintenance of the castle and all furniture and artifacts that were found were added to this house.

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The furniture that was found in the castle was put in each room to show how it might have looked in the past. But it's not the exact copy as there are no (or not enough) historical pictures showing the rooms.

The rooms are large and decorated with wood. There are decorative carpets on the walls that also have their practical function. It was difficult to warm up the castle and those carpets helped to keep the rooms warm during cold months. We saw more clever tricks to keep warm during the medieval times.

One example would be that the bed is not placed on the floor but it's build on some kind of a platform high above the floor. Do you know why? It's because the warm air goes up to the ceiling. And if this wasn't enough, the bed had some kind of doors which could be closed as well. It looked like a cubicle once closed. I would probably get claustrophobic inside 😊

There is a small chapel built in that room too. Actually, it's built outside of the room and it looks like a small tower attached to one side of the main building. Why is it like this? The chapel couldn't be built inside of the room as in the medieval times it was said that there is nothing between God and earth, so there couldn't be any part of the building above and below the chapel.

It's a pity that I couldn't take any photos but I can definitely recommend you to visit the castle Eltz if you happen to be in that part of Germany.

The tour was interesting and it didn't feel like 45 minutes. I think it's because of the tour guide who entertained us with many stories from the history of the castle.

After the tour, we didn't have much time to walk around as it was quite late and we still had to drive for about 3 hours to The Netherlands.

It was still drizzling but we wanted to walk up the hill to enjoy the views of the castle as we didn't have a chance to do so on the way down.

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And it was worth it! Look at how beautiful it is!

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My husband loved his birthday present and already told me about other places that he would like to visit. I guess it's in the hope of another birthday surprise 😊

Thank you for reading!

Cheers!

Martina

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Great photos of a very beautiful castle - I’ve never heard the logic of the staircase construction before, interesting!

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Thanks a lot for stopping by! I was also surprised with the logic but it somehow does make sense :)

I was blown away by this castle! It was a beautiful birthday present to visit this castle.
Hug @delishtreats

Wow, wonderful castle. After what you write it seems that this trip was worth your time.

Almost like from the Rapunzel:)

Exactly, like from the Rapunzel :)

I'm glad that you like it! Thank you for stopping by!

Holy smokes Your Royal Highness that type of castle is made for you! That's what you should be living in. That's amazing, I love that one. Did they explain why they didn't want pictures taken?

Hahaha, I wish I had money for such a castle :D Well, it's simply because they don't want those photos on internet. There are private things from the former owners, also their photos, etc.. plus very often you can take pictures without flash but people don't listen and use flash anyway. As a result they ask people not to take photos at all..

Howdy again Martina! That's true, people are idiots. lol. I understand, the family has owned that castle for hundreds of years, I'm still trying to get my head around that! It is truly a great classic. I'm sure it will never be for sale but if it was the price would probably be a hundred million!
The photos were perfect, in case I didn't say that. lol.

omg how beautiful- this is my perfect sort of adventure. This has to be one of the most beautiful castles I have seen so far. Your hubby is a lucky man. Resteemed

Thank you my dear Sallybeth! :) I'll have to remind him of that fact! :) Not that he forgets it ;)

ohhh wow, that is awesome! I think that is the prettiest castle you've ever shown... Better than Disney's castle for sure :P ... Every time I think you have shown us the "best" out there, you always manage to find something more incredible Martina! wowowowowow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hahaha, you are so funny! You make it hard for me to post as I'm afraid of your expectations ;)

lol... never worry about my expectations... you have surpassed the levels that I thought they would ever go to as it is.... So you get a permanent A++++++++++ :D

A perfect birthday gift, and a wonderful story! One more place to add to my list after reading your post :)
The location of castle is similar to Neuschwanstein Castle, is it? I've never been there (so far), just saw photos.

You should definitely go there!! No, no, it's on the other side of Germany. It's actually close to Koblenz. To give you some better perspective I can say that it's close to the border with Luxembourg...

I've never been to Neuschwanstein castle as it's a new castle so I don't find it that exciting.. but maybe one day I'll go there too :)

Thank you for stopping by!

The pleasure was mine! It was very interesting reading

Thanks for sharing your experience with us!
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That's a really pretty one! It looks more palace-ish than defensive in a lot of ways, which is interesting for a 12th century castle. Most of the ones I've seen from that time only have arrow slits at the lower levels. That one looks like it makes ample use of the terrain to prevent window access.

I would absolutely love to see that castle in person, especially if I could plan the trip around weather and lighting. I wonder if they ever get dense fog around the castle...

I agree, it indeed looks more like a palace and it's different to the castles from that period. I think that the reason is that it was built over 500 years so various architectural style and purposes..

I think there definitely can be dense fog. It's next to the river, in a valley, so it's an ideal combination for fog :)

It's a pity that when we travel I cannot really choose the weather and light conditions so very often it's not exactly what I hoped for..

Thank you for stopping by!

Yeah. I know how that goes. You would almost have to live nearby to be able to pull that off. It would be amazing, though!

I was fortunate enough to live in Ronda, Spain, for a year and got to see the beautiful stone bridges cloaked in fog. It's something I likely would never have gotten to see as a visitor.