Or Eltz

Once upon a time, two merry squires went off in search of an adventure. One soggy day, as they were wandering through the magic Moselle valley, these two brave gallants encountered a simple road sign with the words "Berg Eltz." Intrigued, our noble heroes took a detour, winding their way over green rolling hills, along burbling streams, and finally reaching a trailhead marked as before. The footpath led through a wooded hillside, which dropped off steeply into a ravine on one side. After ambling down the path for a few kilometres, and just as our fair adventurers were wondering if Berg Eltz was in fact a mystery ne'er to be solved, they rounded a corner and... BA-DOW!!

Best castle e'er. Built patchwork style over 33 generations on a rocky outcropping at a horseshoe bend in the river. Still owned by the original family--well, collectively by the three branches of the Eltz family, who are now known as (ahem!) the White Lions, the Silver Lions, and the Buffalo Horns. This castle has stood for 850 years, never destroyed--although once conquered via siege tower by the villainous Balduin of Luxembourg; the tower and the cannon balls it flung are still there.

During another era, when Les Francaise were destroying many a German castle, Berg Eltz was saved by one regally-named French captain Hans Anton zu ELTZ-Üttingen, who managed to delete the castle from the official list of buildings to be destroyed. Shortly thereafter, the castle's history states, "An 'unofficial' French raid of Eltz Castle was only prevented by brave intervention of the people of Müden, who lured the marauders into a ripe cornfield and then set fire to the field with their unwanted visitors." Nice.

Definitely ogle-worthy. (Her too.) Also, the brats and apple streudel are delicious, as one might reasonably expect from any medieval German knight's castle worth its salt-peter.

#russ #travel #castles