About Castles

There are two kinds of castles. The kind hidden in the mountainside, hardly visible from the river, and the kind that sit like monuments on the top of the hillsides saying “Here I am, just try and conquer me!” We saw lots of both kinds today. I have named the Rhine castles myself, since the real names have far too many letters and sounds for me to remember.

The first we saw was “Camouflage Castle” can you find it among the green?

This next one is “Cabana Castle”, it is occupied by it’s current owners and has colorful cabanas on the patios, so un-castle like.

Then there was “Canon Castle”, (see the ruined castle below), we explored the ruins of this one. Canon balls were piled in the abandoned courtyard. Apparently, canon balls were so valuable, after the battle, they would send scavengers out to retrieve the canon balls from the battle field.

Further up the river was “Cat Castle and Mouse Castle” not my names. These two were perched on the river and apparently had fought like cats and mice for centuries. The little one on the right is the mouse.

The other thing about castles that we learned is that nearly all of them can be seen by their neighbors. Most are less than 6 miles apart. So becoming allies with your neighbors was critical to keeping the peace. Some were better at this than others.

The last one on this tour is the fighting brothers castles. These two brothers placed their castles side-by-side to be able to protect each other and then proceeded to fight viciously between themselves for generations. Sounds like brothers.

So much for castle lore. Three days of castles has been plenty. Certainly, they represent a time and history that you don't see everyday. The Rhine has treated us well, with only a few hours of rain and a couple of castle stops that turned out to be perfect.

On to the Mosel River tomorrow.