THE TREK (WALKABILITY) The castle is located DOWN a very…read moresteep hill from the parking lot, so be ready for a very long walk down and BACK up, unless you want to pay 2 euros (cash only, no cards) to take the shuttle, which comes and goes every 7-10 mins. Once you get down to the castle, getting into the castle is a bit tricky, as the steps are very worn out stone. Going up isn't as bad as going down when you leave the castle. THE CASTLE The Burge Eltz Castle is beautiful, from a far and up close, in person. You definitely get the vibe of fairytale castle from Burg Eltz! THE TOUR Upon entry, you get a 'gold coin' that bears the crest of the family on one side and a depiction of the castle on the other. The tour itself was well explained and well paced. Our guide did need to be told to slow down his speech rate, as he was speaking particularly fast in English, but it was otherwise fine. We were not allowed to take photos of the interior of the castle during the Castle, which was fine. I appreciated that they informed our group of this at the very beginning. MISC The only restroom is located just outside of the Castle, so you do need to completely exit the castle to access it. There is no ATM on site, and the gift shop cannot provide euros to tourists via credit cards. If you would like to use the shuttle to get back UP to the parking lot, go to the cafe and order a coffee or beer, they put a 5 euro hold on the cups. When the cups are returned, they will give patrons 5 euros in cash, in return. I do appreciate that they have a method for guests to obtain euros.

Nestled into the countryside and hidden from streetview is the storybook Burg Eltz…read more To start, visiting Burg Eltz takes a bit of planning. You'll want to either hire a tour company to drive you there from a bigger city like Frankfurt (about an hour drive), or rent a car. We went on a small tour and while it was really fun to hear the guide talk to us about the countryside and what we were seeing etc. I do think we could have handled the drive had we decided to rent a car. Once you arrive, if you are American and familiar with the National Parks here in the states, it's going to remind you a lot of US National Park Service parking lots. It's not a massive lot, but in general big enough for tourists and busses to offload people as they arrive. I'm not sure if it costs anything to park but my gut says it probably does as I think I saw some euros exchanged from our driver to the parking attendant. Once you are parked, you have two choices: to either walk directly to the castle along a street, or take the hiking path. I cannot stress how much I encourage everyone to take the hiking path. It's a very easy hike through meandering forest and once you can get the castle into view it's breathtaking. Kind of like how I imagine the castle from Beauty and the Beast to be hidden in the film, is how this is tucked away. It takes a while before it will come into view which adds to the general charm and mystique of the place. All of this being said, the road is great for the walk back if you don't want to hike uphill, there is a shuttle bus that will take you up the road if you are tired, and because of the shuttle and the fairly even path of the road, it makes this castle much more accessible to those who have mobility needs. While at the actual castle there are two lines for tours - one for a German speaking tour, and one for an English speaking tour. This is important to note because we were there on a German holiday and the German speaking line was over an hour wait, while the English speaking line was only about 20 minutes. So, make sure you inquire about which line you are in! The tour itself is very good. The tour guide we had clearly took his job very seriously and had a lot of interesting information to share. My biggest takeaways were that this is one of the most intact medieval castles in Europe, largely due to its remote location as it avoided many bombs that impacted other parts of the continent, and that it is still occupied by descendants of the original owners. Knowing that this is still in the family was really remarkable and added to the general uniqueness of this historic location. Overall, it was a gorgeous castle to visit, and as many others have noted it's well nestled into wine country, so make a day of it and sample some riesling at one of the nearby villages on your way back to the city!

Also known as the Cologne Cathedral, this UNESCO World Heritage site took 632 years to complete…read morebetween 1248-1880 with a 370 year gap for a variety of reasons - Napoleonic War, etc. It took so long to build that the gothic cathedral's original 13th century plans which were 4m tall were lost mid-construction and had to be pieced together from notes drawn up in the interim. The stained glass on the north side were created in the middle ages which the stained glass on the south side were created in the 19th century. Nevertheless, the construction was so solid that while bombs from WWII blew out some windows (the medieval ones had already been taken down for safekeeping), the structure remained standing while everything around it had been near flattened. A baptismal fount dating back to Roman times has been found outside the cathedral, which means that there has been a near continuous Christian services there, even when the building was not yet finished. I remember studying AP art history and looking at paintings of people justaposed against cathedrals from the Romantic period and thinking, they must be exaggerating the scale between the two. Nope, they were not. It is estimated that it takes EUR33,000/ day to maintain the Cathedral. Therefore, we entirely support the fact that it has begun charging admissions since earlier this year. You can see different parts of the exterior has been cleaned to a sparkling cream color. However, I imagine by the time one finishes cleaning the last part of the cathedral, it will be time to clean the parts that were first cleaned. It's that big. It is the 3rd largest spired cathedral in the world and the largest double spired cathedral. It is also the most visited attraction in Germany. We climbed up the north spire. "No joke, no elevators" a signed warned. No kidding, Everything in this cathedral was carried up by hand (and foot!). All the additions, such as safety nets and safety cages had to be brought up through the stairs. All the equipment and materials for the renovations in the south spire have to be carried up the same way. We would all be in better shape if we had to do this several times a day. We visited the Treasury, which was carved into the ground, at times abutting ruins of a Roman wall. A couple of the rooms date back to the earliest days of the cathedral's construction in the 13th century. A couple of tombs of Frankish nobles from the 6th century were uncovered in the 1950s and its contents documented and displayed. They are the 4th and 5th recorded tombs uncovered during the cathedral's construction. However, the first three were either relocated or lost/stolen without any proper record kept about them. Two events were devastating to the Treasury. The first was the secularization in 1803 when nearly 70 ecclesiastical states and 45 free imperial cities were abolished and absorbed by secular princes to compensate them for territories lost to revolutionary France. Many items were lost during this period. The second was the 1975 heist in which three men scaled the cathedral's buttresses and entered the Treasury through a ventilation shaft. Once inside, they violently pried off gemstones. A two year operation saw the return of many of the gems, but the settings had to be painstakingly recreated by master goldsmiths.

I was absolutely blown away by this cathedral and I consider it a must see for Cologne!! Seeing it…read morein the early morning with all the mist was gorgeous. I also loved the view of it from the Ludwig Museum! We took a tour around 2pm on a Saturday and it was definitely worth it. The architecture and stained glass windows were incredible. Definitely one of the most memorable cathedrals I've seen!!