Euro Day 8 - Castles and Cable Cars

Karen had a list of things that she wanted to see during this trip and high on that list was a castle.  So we got up relatively early and head down to check out Eltz castle.  The castle construction was started prior to 1157 and is still in the same family (33rd generation !).   There is about 1 km walk through forest to get there from the parking lot but it was a great visit.

The castle is near the city of Koblenz - which is situated right at the intersection of the Rhine and Moselle rivers.  There is another great fort situated high above the rivers and they have cable cars. that take you from the city up to the fort.

At the point at the confluence of the rivers - there is an enourmous statue that Jake and Brett climbed.

We decided to pack in one more stop on the way home for dinner.  Valkenburg is a very cute village close to Maastricht and is similar to other cities in the region - full of nice restaurants with outdoor seating and people that did not get the memo that smoking is really bad for you.  Of course we ended our night with more gelato !