Burg Eltz and Koblenz

Yesterday, our little family took a day trip to Burg Eltz (a nearby castle) and the city Koblenz. This was a trip that has been on my to do list for a while, and yesterday definitely met all of my expectations. The day was beautiful and I was spending the whole day with my two favorite men.
One of the best parts of the trip was just driving through the quaint little towns along the river (I'm sorry and very embarrassed to say I don't remember if we were driving along the Rheine or the Mosel). Along the river through numerous towns were vineyards. They were so gorgeous and made me think how wonderful it must smell in the fall. I'll definitely have to come back for that! In this picture you can see a small vineyard to the right side of the river.

This is Burg Eltz. You have to experience this beautiful castle in person to understand the grandeur and fairy tail-ness of it. It really is very smart what the people in charge(whoever they may be) have done : you have to park maybe a mile away and hike in. In theory it doesn't sound so great, but in actuality when you experience it its fabulous. Hiking in allows you to see the valley open up and all of a sudden you see this fabulous castle nestled in between forests of lush green pine trees. There's a stream that flows at the base of the castle and a feeling of utter tranquility that goes along(minus the other tourists and the feeling would be hard to top).

I know I know this picture looks just like the previous one. This only supports my theory that when your in a beautiful place you don't realize how many pictures you take (of the SAME thing), because everywhere from every angle it looks so beautiful.

Here's my two traveling partners. Tristan (I think) enjoyed the trip, but unfortunately ended up with a face full of battle wounds(for some reason he buries his head in your chest and rubs his face on the carrier's clasps). So many of the pictures I took show him chewing on his carrier, I'm pretty sure he's ready to move on to solid foods.

Before leaving the castle we made sure to have a picnic lunch while exploring the stream and surrounding areas below. It really made for such a nice afternoon and I highly recommend it, for any of you travelers interested in Germany.

Our next leg of our trip took us to Koblenz, which was on Pauls to do list. He wanted to come because it is here that the Mosel and Rhein Rivers converge and create an absolutely fabulous river front (to one direction there's the Mosel, to another direction is the Rhein and then another is both).

This picture shows exactly what I was talking about (again I'm embarrassed to say I don't know which river is which, but you can see the two come together at the end of this beautiful slab of concrete).

I had to put these pictures in because I just love how they make the little man look so grown up.

Maybe I take that back, if he wasn't chewing on his carrier then he would look like such a big boy.

Koblenz was really a beautiful city with so much to see. We enjoyed just walking around the city and taking in the sights. One of our favorite and most impressive things was the massive rose gardens. Paul was astounded by them, as they were the largest we'd ever seen and they were grown so that they looked like forests of roses.

This was one of the greatest fountains I've ever seen (when I say great I don't mean beautiful, I mean crazy, detailed and absolutely humongous!). One of the greatest things about this fountain was what we saw along with it. Can you see that head to the left of the fountain?

This fountain was filled with kids playing in it! As you can see they were in their bathing suits(or underwear, I can't really tell) just frolicking in the water.

This city was full of cute little squares and plenty of gelato shops (ice cream Italian style) to go around. Everywhere we looked we saw people with ice cream, so we couldn't resist -we had to have some. We chose a triple scoop on a cone with lemon, strawberry, and melon. Now to many that may sound less than desirable, but you would be more than wrong. That gelato stood up to any that I have had in Italy, and it would take allot to surpass it. It really was the most fabulously smooth concoction I've ever had. I'm still thinking about it, and craving the next batch!

The city was old without feeling old, in fact it felt very clean and bright.

Koblenz was filled with flowers and cute little statues.

This is a painting on the side of a restaurant.

Some half timbered buildings...

and intricate art in the neatest places.

At the end of the day, it was nice just to sit down. This was the perfect place, along the river and across from the Koblenz castle.

Again I would recommend visiting Koblenz. Whether you drive here or come via a river boat, its a great city with plenty to see and do-or just come and enjoy not doing anything at all!