We welcomed the month of May with a cruising morning, enjoying a variety of castles along the Middle Rhine. There are 25,000 castles in Germany (more than any other country). We saw a lot, but we did not see all of them. Our program director, Billy Cruse (yes, his last name is really Cruse), narrated and shared information and stories about the various castles; a common theme was that most were destroyed by the French at some point in history. We sat on the top deck and enjoyed the scenery; it was a bit windy, but fortunately wasn’t particularly cold and it was NOT raining or it would have been a very different experience!
Ehrenfels Castle; 13th century 
Rheinstein Castle, 14th century 
Reichenstein Castle. Check out the campground along the water! 
Sooneck Castle, originally 13th century, rebuilt in 1834 
Cruising the Middle Rhine 
Heimburg Castle, 13th century 
Nollig Castle, 1300. Check out the hilly farmland! 
A colorful town along the Rhine 
Stahleck Castle, 12th century 
Pfalzgrafenstein Toll Station & Gutenfels Castle 
Schonburg Castle, built in 966 and burned by the French in 1689. Now houses a hotel and restaurant. 
Katz Castle, 14th century 
These German towns are definitely not boring! 
Rheinfels Castle, 13th century. Now a hotel and museum. 
Liebenstein (13th century) on the right, Sterrenberg (12th century) on the left
It’s worth noting that we saw all of these castles in a distance of about 54km (34 miles) – so they’re all pretty close together and this one section of the “Middle Rhine” is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
After lunch, the ship docked briefly in Braubach so that a group of us could disembark for an afternoon excursion to Medieval-era Marksburg Castle; the ship then continued on to Koblenz, Germany. This was one of the optional excursions that we chose to do – Marksburg is the only castle in the Middle Rhine that was never destroyed; it’s from the 12th century. We took a bus from the dock to the castle, which was really good because the castle was up very high on a hill. We might still be walking if the bus hadn’t delivered us to the parking lot!
We had done some research into this excursion because Viking labeled it “demanding” and we wanted to understand why before we paid to participate…it’s mostly because the tour takes you along very uneven surfaces and narrow, winding staircases, and like most of Europe, it’s not at all ‘accessible’. Mark and I had no issues, but we could imagine that anyone with difficulty walking or with balance issues would struggle a lot!
It was fascinating to tour the various areas of the castle and learn about the history. In the 1800s, somehow, they used the castle to house disabled soldiers. We cannot fathom how that was possible! It also served as a prison for a while.
Drawbridge Gate 
Upper section of the Keep 
Arrow Slit Gate. It was reduced in size in the 17th century, once horses no longer needed to pass through it. 
Riders’ Stairway, carved from bedrock. 
Cannon’s eye view from the battery 
Peonies, Irises, and one of my favorites, Lily of the Valley 
I guess they could keep watch over the Rhine pretty well from up here…
Castle Kitchen 
A peek at the original construction 
Bed chamber. Curtains kept the heat in and the spiders out. Hmmm, not a bad idea! Wood on the walls is not original; prisoners burned it 
Great Hall; Doorway in the middle leads to the medieval toilet. 
Upper right windows made from bottle glass. 
Stairs designed like this as a defensive measure – couldn’t hold sword in right hand 
Dome ceiling of 14th century chapel 
In the Armory; Crossbowman, circa 1450 
Torture exhibition in the former stables 
Blacksmith’s workshop 
The Rhine from Marksburg Castle
After our tour, the bus took us to Koblenz to meet up with the ship. We decided to take a cable car up to Ehrenbreitstein, Europe’s largest fortress. The fortress is 400 ft above the Rhine, overlooking where the Rhine and Moselle Rivers meet. The location was once the site of a Roman fortification (400-500 AD), and the current fortress was built starting in 1100. It was partially destroyed by Napoleon, after which the French ruled Koblenz for several years.
The fortress was massive and full of incredible stone work. It was a bit confusing to find our way around, but eventually we did make it out! The cable car ride was quick but offered a fantastic view of Koblenz, the fortress, and the Rivers (and our ship docked beneath!)
May 1st is actually a holiday in Germany (similar to our Labor Day), so there were huge crowds everywhere we went. For dinner, I enjoyed a delicious chateaubriand (Mark didn’t break his 30+-year streak of not eating red meat and had some sort of fish dish), and we sat with two couples from New Jersey including a woman named Rose Marie. We had a good laugh over that one…and her husband shared my brother’s name, Jay. Crazy coincidences! We met a lot of people and I do not remember most of their names…but those two, I absolutely remembered!
After dinner, we took a short walk through Koblenz (again, love that the ship is docked so close to town – and Koblenz was probably the closest of any port) and saw a little bit of the town. If we hadn’t toured Marksburg, we would have done a walking tour of Koblenz with a local guide – it’s a tough life, having to make these decisions and trade-offs – wish we could have done everything! We heard it was a really nice port and people enjoyed the walking tour.
