Burg Eltz and Burg Thurant

This is the Burg Eltz...which means Castle Eltz.  It located on the River which flows into the River.  This is Rick Steve's favorite castle, so we thought it worth a visit.  It is in an amazing location in a valley instead of a on a hill..... looks amazing here.

Below is the way it looked when we were there because of reconstruction going on.

It was really old!!  The tour inside was wonderful, very detailed of how the three families lived that had lived there.  We couldn't take pictures, but it was amazing!

View from a castle balcony.

We were always drawn to the doors....they were so cool.

We had a little lunch there before heading back down the valley road to explore some more.

Leaves were just starting to turn....so beautiful.

Beautiful  town  on the  Moselle River.  All over the steep hills were vineyards which had just been picked.

 Across the river we could see an interesting looking chateau or castle on the hill that we didn't know what it was, so went to find out if we could go inside.

It is the Castle Thurant.  The fortress was built between 1198 and 1206.

 Doesn't look too welcoming.

This structure above,  part of the castle, can be rented like a bed and breakfast.  The rest of the old castle we just wandered around.   Awesome.

 Quite a view from the castle windows.

 The dungeon below.....freaky.

We were so glad we stopped there.  It was really a fun explore.  It was a marvelous day.

Rothenberg

I was really looking forward to going to Rothenburg because of all the amazing pictures I'd seen on other's blogs.  It is an amazingly quaint, cute, and fun place to visit.  Way too many fantastic photo opportunities and every street is awesome.   It was just David, Lisa, the little boys and me that drove the two hours to get there.  Unfortunately this was not a good day for David....bad headache.  You will notice he is not in many pictures.  Poor guy.

 Every street was wonderful...so much take in.

Lisa, Luke and I climbed the tower to get a good view of the town and countryside.  David watched Matt.

Beautiful views from the city walls too.

 The walkway around the town was fun.  The boys loved it too.

I wanted to try one of those pastry balls covered in caramel and chocolate.  It was interesting.

Everyone was getting tired so we had to say goodbye to Rothenburg.....what a great place.

 This is the way we found David when we met up to leave....one of the many benches he tried out.