In August I left off on my Viking River Cruise, telling you about Burg Maus, or Mouse Castle. The next castle that we viewed while cruising down the Rhine was Rheinfels Castle.
As we came upon it sitting on a hilltop above Sankt Goar, it appeared to be a lot larger than the others we had already seen: Maus Castle, Liebeneck Castle, The Hostile Brothers and Marksburg Castle.
Rheinfels Castle dates to 1245 and it soon became the largest castle in this section of the Rhine.
Now it is mainly in ruins, but it houses a luxury hotel, restaurant and museum.
It looked very impressive overlooking the village. For a few moments it started to rain on us while we were on the upper deck of our longship, the Viking Ingvi. Luckily it was just a sprinkling and we just kept snapping pictures as we sailed on by.
There were of course cute little cottages along the way.
Like this little half timber cottage or chalet. Not sure if that is what it really is, but June and I figured it was a nice summer cottage.
Doesn’t it just look charming? I love all the trim on that double decker back porch. I could easily stay there for a holiday!
And it had a pretty view not only of the river but of the castle as well.
And as suddenly as the rain started it stopped. The clouds behind the castle were just amazing that Spring day.
I believe this might be where the Gründelbach River flows into the Rhine. Sankt Goar is on a narrow gap of the Rhine in the middle of the Rhenish Massif on the side named the Hunsrück. Across the river is the Taunus, where Sankt Goarshausen and it’s two castles lie. Remember how I told you that all of the castles were within eyesight of each other?
Here you can see straight on how impressive this castle is. It was destroyed by Napoleon and his troops in 1797. Supposedly it was five times larger that what you see here.
The tower is the present day entrance. There is a museum and you can tour the ruins. We saw several people milling through as we sailed by.
The restaurant looked like it would have amazing views – just look at the glass enclosed side and the roof top patio.
And there was a luxury hotel on site. Sankt Goar is known for tourism and wine making. I am sure you would be pampered to your heart’s desire if you stayed here.
And we were still amazed at how they grew grapes on the tops of the hilltops here. Sankt Goar and Rheinfels Castle definitely looked like a place to spend more time in. But we were headed on to Burg Katz and then the famed Loreley Rocks.
This is not a sponsored post. This is my experience from my trip with Viking River Cruises. Email me to find out how you can save $100 when you book your first cruise with Viking through their referral program.
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