Marksburg Castle

Our last Friday in Bonn, before we left for Berlin, we took an all day excursion with the students to Marksburg Castle.  The boys were very excited about this.  Andrew and I had read a book about Knights and Castles and he was particularly interested in the dungeon.

The entire day was wonderful. It began at 8:00 with a 2 hour train ride to Bacharach.  Bacharach is a medieval wine producing town.  It was considered a very large town by medieval standards.

After a much too quick walk through Bacharach, we boarded a the Koln-Dusseldorf boat for a 2.5 trip along the Rhine.  What an experience.  We lounged in the beautiful sun on the deck and took in the gorgeous sites of the Rhine Valley.  The weather was perfect and what made it particularly wonderful for Bruce and I was this........

Playground ON the deck of the boat!!

 playground, yes, playground ON the deck of the boat.  FAbulous!!  The boys played on the slide and rides the ENTIRE 2.5 hours.


Some sites along the Rhine.

The Students enjoying the nice ride and weather.

Beautiful hills and towns.

There are about 8 castles along the Rhine.

Those are vineyards on the hillside to the right of the castle.  This is the Rhine wine country. 

Finally, Marksburg Castle. 

I know what you are thinking because right about now, I'm thinking the same thing.  How on earth am I, a middle-aged plump woman, going to get up to that castle.  Well, I'll tell you.  It wasn't easy. It was pretty steep.

Cute little town of Baruch.  I can't get enough of the cute little medieval German towns.  Again, no where near enough time in this little town.  Ariane was on a tight schedule that day.

 A little lunch of schnitzel and pommes frittes (french fries) before the big hike.

Actually, the hike was only about 20 minutes and I was the only one who appeared to be on the verge of a heart attack.  Andrew was great.  I didn't even hear him panting while I was having trouble catching my breath.    He kept wanting to hold my hand, but I was afraid I would pull him down the hill.  He was better off without me dragging him back.  Bruce was fabulous.  He had Mark on his back.  The students and Ariane practically ran up the hill.   After lunch, Arianne led us (quickly) through the town to the small sign that pointed to the little pathway.  It was so cute.  I wish I would have taken a photo.  Of course, the little path was very mislead because once you stepped onto it, it was almost directly uphill for the next 20 minutes.  I had to stop twice.

OK, enough complaining about the hike.  Here we are, the castle. 

Here is a little history about Marksburg Castle.  It is the best-preserved castle on the Rhine.  Invaders were apparently intimidated by it's formidable defense (and that hike with weapons, I"m sure).  The first record of ownership of the castle dates to the year 1283, but it's not known when the castle was built.

 On what was originally the drawbridge, but what is now just a bridge into the castle.

 Coat of Arms of ownership of the castle, dating to 1283.

Cannons, obviously.

 View of the Rhine from the Castle

One of the castle towers.

Informal dining area in the kitchen.  There was a more formal dining area, but the photo didn't come out.

Kitchen area.  There was a fireplace for cooking.  It was large enough to roast an ox whole.  Again, photo was too dark.

The bedroom wall.

They had a really cool armor museum with original armor dating back to Celtic times.

And that concludes the Boat cruise and Castle Day.  There were many more rooms to the castle including a wine cellar, chapel, and dungeon with blacksmith area and room which featured medieval torture methods, but I didn't include those, sorry.  Mostly b/c I didn't have good photos.  

We ended the day with a train ride back to Bonn and bought a roasted chicken from a man in a truck parked near our tram stop.  It was safe!  What a glorious day and wonderful memories.