So Many Castles. So Much Wine. So Little Time

The Rhine and Moselle River Valleys

Question: Name a place where you can point your iPhone at any given time and make it look like you've got a photographic career with National Geographic?

Oberwessel, Rhine gorge

That would be the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Middle Rhine Valley.  We've been told that this is called "Father Rhine," and that the company partner is "Mother Moselle." Traveling through this medieval, romantic countryside is nothing short of a wonder.  

So many castles!  We've been on fairytale overload floating by these stunning fortresses – even though they have long lost their military significance.  Some have been repurposed as event facilities, some have been turned into "family adventure castles."  Some have even stayed in, or been passed on to, members of a particular tribe or family unit for generations.

Burg Eltz

For instance, let's take a peek at Eltz Castle. To put some perspective on the place, it has a wall clock (still operating) that came into the family's possession and was mounted in their drawing room in 1502 – yes, that is not a typo.  They were decorating their place ten years after Columbus laid his little European claim to fame on the North American continent.

Eltz Castle has been in the same family for 34 generations.  Do the math, and compare it to our adolescent timeline of the United States.  The fortress (for that's what it was originally designed to be) was built in the 11th and 12th centuries, and is one of a very small handful of castles that was never destroyed by any of the never-ending wars that were hatched in Europe over the last millennium.  

Bernkastel

Then there is this wonderful little hamlet called Bernkastel.  I say "hamlet" because that is, indeed, what it is: it has a population of about 800 people. In addition to castle ruins, it also has some of the most extraordinary Riesling wines in the world, as was evidenced by our sampling them.  (Bonus: on the day of our wine tour, the temperatures soared to about 94 degrees, so it made a great deal of sense to take shelter deep in the coolness of the wine cellars!). This shot includes both the vineyard cellar's sign and the cliffside remains of Burgruine-Landshut, hundreds of meters above.

This is the kind of town that you'd love to just hang around in, especially when it comes to harvest time. You could get a sense of just how intimate and appealing the place could be, populated with stalls from the dozens of vineyards all offering their wines for the tasting, the reward of a hard years' worth of work on the valley hillsides.

And finally, as a sort of surprise gift deep within the wrapping paper of this little town, I offer this picture.  Rumor had it among the locals that it was used as a model for the home of Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter books.  But then again, I had heard rumors of similar things regarding South Dining Hall at Notre Dame, which of course was pure Hog(wash).  Regardless of whomever created this wonderful fantasy: never, as the Irish would say, let the truth interfere with a good story!

So now, saturated and glowing with the white wines of these glorious valleys, we move on toward Paris tomorrow.  Please God the temperatures will be forgiving....