Burg Eltz

Edit: I forgot to link my Flickr set: here.

Burg Eltz is a castle. A Real castle, that sits on it's hill with an "Go on, try and invade me, just try" look on it's massive stone face. It's in a valley, with excellent vantages over the castle, which confused me at first as to how it could be a useful fortification, until my host father told me that it was beyond the effective range of most medieval weaponry. Which is apparently pathetic. That didn't stop someone from trying, though. On a commanding promontory above the castle is a
crumbling wall-all that remains of a fortress built as part of an unsucessful seige of Burg Eltz.

This reminds me. German students take note: "Schloss" is only the right word for fancy-schmancy "castles" like Neuschwanstein. The word, at least where I am, for real, medieval fortresses is "Burg". Frau Bird, is this not true in Peine?

I have some photos of the outside, but they wouldn't let us take pictures inside. This was really a tragedy, because the inside was amazing. There was all kinds of original furniture, and the celing and walls were painted in most wonderful ways.

But the craziest thing was that the castle is still in family ownership. That's right. The family Eltz, which built the castle, and lived in it through all the sieges and stuff, still exists and owns it thirty-three generations later. Longer than the history of the US, than even of western presence in America. Insane.