Castles! Castles! Castles!

Another great day! The secretary of the middle school and her husband offered to take us for a tour down the Rhine River to see castles. They picked us up at our apartment and drove the hour or so it takes to get to the River. We immediately crossed the river on a ferry boat and then went into a tourist information center to get individual maps of the castles. Laura, the secretary even bought a book on the castles of the Rhine and read the information on each castle as we passed it. I was amazed by how many castles there are! They are just a couple minute drive apart so we saw about 10 castles and then we stopped and actually got to tour around Castle Rheinfels. We didn't have enough time to investigate but we were told that there are miles of tunnels underneath this castle and you are allowed to crawl around with a flash light to explore any area. After our tour of the castle we went into the local town to look around at the local shops and to eat lunch at an Italian resturant. The resturant was built underground in an old wine storage cellar. After lunch our "tour guides" surprised us by taking us on this great mountain road and coming out at a look out above the Mosel River. This was a beautiful area with in my opinion, the best castle of the day. We weren't able to go into this castle because it was the locals villages wine festival so it was very busy but we got some great pictures!