Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Dining at a castle on the Rhine

(click on image to enlarge)

Marksburg Castle
Watercolour and crayon sketch
©2011 Charlene Brown

After a day of cruising through the spectacular Rhine Gorge with castles and precipitous vineyards lining both sides of the river, we arrived at the stunning white Marksburg Castle. This 12th century structure looms over the rose garden town of Braubach, where we boarded buses that got us to within 800 m. of the castle. After that the road was too narrow and we hiked the rest of the way to a fantastic medieval banquet, complete with an amazingly gymnastic jester.  As we were not going to return from the castle until quite late, our cruise ship left without us (can’t go losing your slot in the tightly packed Rhine traffic schedule!) and the buses took us several kilometers downriver to catch up.