Marksburg Castle

Marksburg Castle is another great Castle on the Rhine that has an awesome kid-friendly tour! It's hard to say which castles are my favorite, but I did really like this one. It was difficult to get a great picture of the castle because of the steep hill leading up to it, but what makes it unique was that none of it has been destroyed at any point in history. We all liked the tour and visiting Assmanhausen on the way home.

View from the top of the Castle:

Most people drank jugs of wine every night instead of water back in the day!

There was a neat room with soldiers/knights from the Ancient Greeks to the Middle Ages, kids loved it!

Best view of the castle I could manage:

Loved this door in Assmanhausen:

Cochem

We haven't done much exploring on the Mosul River as much as we've explored the Rhine. I am hoping to spend the next year seeing more of this beautiful area! We took the kids to see a town I've been wanting to visit for awhile, Cochem. I wish we had done it sooner; it's the cutest town ever! Maybe the cutest in Germany. And that is saying ALOT. The cute town has a really neat castle that sits on a hill about the city. We took a great tour in English (very interactive for the kids) with some fellow Wiesbaden Homeschoolers. Everyone really enjoyed it and the views of the Mosul were spectacular! We also walked the town a bit, and headed over to another side of of the town to take a chair lift ride for more spectacular views. From there you had a gorgeous view of the Mosul and the Castle. Great day trip and I'm super excited to go back for there Christmas Market!

Bacharach and Castle Rheinstein Ruins

Out of the 6 or so castles we visited during the Tillotson visit, all 5 kids said that Castle Rheinstein was their favorite! It was a little surprising to me, but I can see how it is so cool for kids. The castle does not have any pretty rooms, but only ruins with an explanation of where everything once was. The kids really loved some of the passage ways that were completely dark. We had to use flashlights to get through (they of course loved this part!) Another castle with fantastic views of the Rhine. Before the castle, we spent some time in the town of Bacharach. Surprisingly, we had never been. It was really cute and we found a great little shop that had wooden swords for the boys that were personalized by the owner. A big hit for the kids!

Each of the swords has there name written on them. The woman used a fire gun to burn them in the wood. She was so nice, which isn't always the case in tourist towns:

Castle Rheinstein Ruins:

Rudesheim Ring Tour and Castle Rheinfels

Eric, Devon, and the kids came to visit us for 3 weeks! We loved having them here to show them beautiful Germany and some of our other favorite places in Europe. We spent over a week doing lots of Germany and places around our house. Our first day trip was to Rudesheim, one of my favorites in all of Germany. We did the Ring Tour which involved a chair lift to the Niederwald Monument, a chair lift down to Assmanhausen, a boat ride to Rheinfels Castle, and finally back on the boat to Rudesheim. A very full day, with lots of beautiful sites! 

On top of Rudesheim with views of the Rhine River:

The Tillotson clan:

Luke and Dominic stoked they got to ride in the special 100 Gondola that is decorated for Christmas:

Niederwald Monument (notice our photo bomber):

Chair lift down into Assmanhausen:

Entrance to Castle Rheinfels:

Gorgeous views of the Rhine:

Castle Messpelbrunn

This neat little castle was a fun day trip for me and the kids with their friends! Castle Messpelbrunn it situated on a small moat and was built in the 1500's. We had a great day with a picnic, a tour of all the rooms (in German), and a chance to feed all of the creatures in the pond. 

Hunawihr Parc des Cigognes

One of our favorite things about the Alsace (besides the wine) was the unexpected presence of storks. Apparently, African storks fly to the region in the spring and stay until fall. Addy and I had just finished reading a book called, "The Wheel on the School," which was about a Dutch school putting a wagon wheel on there roof to attract storks to town. It was so neat to see the town of Riquewihr have wheels on there roofs where storks would make a nest! We went to a little park that actually created an environment for storks to reproduce so they won't become extinct. It was awesome to see them up close!