On my last post about my Viking River Cruise I told you about Assmannshausen and Burg Rheinstein. My friends and I were spending an afternoon going through the Upper Middle Rhine Gorge in Germany and had spent hours viewing the romantic scenery, full of castles, churches and sweet little villages.
We were now approaching Bingen and the southern end of this passage. And, what would be our final castle of the day, Burg Ehrenfels.
As with other castles we saw, many had outlying defensive walls and towers. We think that this must have at one time been part of Ehrenfels’ defensive system.
It was just a tiny little tower way up on the hill above Burg Ehrenfels.
I liked the green and orange shutters. It was almost overlooked. That is why zoom lenses are nice.
But back to Ehrenfels…
It sits on a hillside, a steep hillside, surrounded by vineyards.
And it is a ruin. It dates to 1212 and was a toll station, just like the other castles along this section of the Rhine.
It was a great time to be sailing by.
The clouds were just amazing.
You can see how steep the hillside is here. I would hate to have to work those vines!
But the clouds…it looks like the castle is sitting in the clouds. They really were spectacular!
Sigh!
It was another casualty of the Thirty Years’ War.
And for some reason, this castle was never rebuilt like so many of the others during the Romantic Reconstruction period.
But it sure is pretty just the way it is!
You can visit by a hiking trail and explore the grounds. And you can explore the inside with a guided tour they say.
In some of my pictures you can see what appears to be some kind of metal structure inside. Not sure what that is, our Viking guide did not know for sure.
Across from Burg Ehrenfels is the city of Bingen. Above you can see the city with Rochuskapelle, or St. Rochus Chapel, on Rochusberg Peak. That is also part of the Bingen Forest that we have been traveling by.
And here is a wider view of the castle and Bingen. There is another castle on an island in the middle of the Rhine, the Mäuseturm Toll Tower, but I didn’t get a picture of it. If I remember, it was covered in scaffolding of some sort. It was not as big or impressive as Burg Pfalzgrafenstein, but now I wish I had taken a picture of it, scaffolding and all!
But thank goodness for Wikipedia, which is where I pulled this picture from. There is a story with this castle about the Bishop of Mainz being eaten by mice, which is the reason it is called the Mouse Tower. Not a fun way to die I would think. Ew!
This was also a part of the Rhine known as a Rhine Knee, where the river changes flow from west to north. So you can imagine, there was quite a curve here where Ehrenfels was.
Which afforded me the opportunity for a lot of pictures.
And Mr. Sunshine was helping out quite a bit with some gorgeous blue skies.
This really was a big castle at some point. I wonder what it would have looked like in its prime.
Not much remains except some of the retaining walls and the outer shell along with a few towers.
Amazing that those walls are still standing after all this time, though.
Oh, and look at those vineyards behind the castle…steep!
And here is the base that the castle is built on. A huge chunk of rock!
It is such a pretty castle.
Here we were pretty much right in front of it looking up the hillside. So impressive.
And here is a closer view of Bingen. Notice my km marker…number 529! Bingen was originally a Celtic village and later it became a Roman settlement. This was an important trade city along their route through Germany.
And this is the Basilica of St. Martin, which dates to about 793.
And this is Klopp Castle, a restored castle from 1240. It was restored in the late 1800’s and today is a municipal building in the city.
And you notice there is a lot of modern architecture in Bingen. Some of the first we had seen in a while. A sign that we were in a much larger city than the previous villages along the Rhine.
And it was time to say good bye to Eherenfels Castle!
And the beautiful Binger Wald and vineyards of Bingen. Oh, and my other little km marker in the bottom right above!
We were about to dock in Rudesheim, where we would explore the famous Drosselgasse and enjoy dinner in a local beer garden.
This is not a sponsored post. This is my experience from my trip with Viking River Cruises. Email me to find out how you can save $100 when you book your first cruise with Viking through their referral program.
Leave a Reply