Getting from Berg Eltz from train station

It was really easy to walk. Half was on pavement and half was on a path in the forest. You can't really call it a trail it was wider than that, but it was dirt. It's a lovely walk that I did by myself no hiking shoes required-I went in Toms, so that shows you how easy it is. It was also easy to find and I was also a bit worried about this. I think the walking directions were in the Germany book, but there were also many signs along the way pointing in the direction of the castle. I really enjoyed the walk and the castle. It was a nice change from the regular pace of my trip. Enjoy.

mel,

I've never done the hike to Burg Eltz but there are lots of signs when you disembark in Moselkern. You may find it helpful to have a look at THIS website, which has lots of photos. The hike leads to the valley below the Castle, and you'll have to cross a small bridge and then climb a flight of stairs to get up to the entrance. There are English-language tours available, and information on the times for those should be on the Castle website. NOTE that they don't allow any photos during the tour, however photos are allowed in the Treasury which you can visit after the tour.

If you'd prefer not to make the hike, I believe there are Buses available from one of the other nearby towns. I'd have to check on the details. The buses drop passengers at the car park above the Castle, and you'll either have to walk down the hill (very steep), or take the small Shuttle Van (~€1.50 PP each way). If you travel that route, I'd suggest taking the Shuttle one way, and walking the other direction as there's a great vantage point for photos about half way up the hill.

If money is no object, you can also take a Taxi each way from Löf. As I recall, the driver doesn't speak much / any English, so it would be best to have your transportation information written in German (ie: what time you want to be picked up for the return trip).

Just to clarify because I have seen this (little) mistake many times: Berg is a hill, Burg is a castle.

Buses from the Mosel River towns of Moselkern, Müden, Hatzenport or Treis-Karden are a good choice in bad weather. But there are just 4 per day and they run only on Saturday and Sunday.

It's good to combine a visit to Eltz with a visit to Cochem. It's a full day but a very worthwhile town. Reichsburg Castle (walk uphill from the town center) has a terrific falconry show 6 days a week, 4 times per day. Poor Saarbrücken is surely envious.

Cochem, Market Square
Cochem, view from chairlift
Cochem riverfront
Falconry photos

Are you aware of the German WW II bunker you can visit in Merzig, not far from Saarbrücken, on Sunday afternoons? You can probably walk there most easily from the Besseringen station (40 min. train ride from S'brücken on the way toward Trier and the Mosel towns.)
B-Werk Besseringen
B-Werk, Wikipedia

ü - keyboard code - hold "alt" and punch in 0252

mel,

If you're using a Mac, the umlaut is very easy.....

Press "Alt./Option" + "U" together, then release keys and type the letter that you want the umlaut to appear with.

Thank you, everyone - so much useful information! Thank you also on the berg vs. burg - I keep confusing them - my high school German teacher would be disappointed in me!!

I will have to check out the WWII bunker - sounds interesting. I'm basically going to be based in Saarbrücken (figured out the umlaut for PCs - it's a pain!) and will have roughly 4 to 5 days during which I can plan day trips, always returning to Saarbrücken to sleep. So, I'm trying to come up with places that are worth seeing and can be reached by train in 1 to 2 hours. I was looking at Heidelberg and then read in Steve's book that it is very touristy and not really worth a visit. Definitely want to go to Baden-Baden one day and Cochem/Burg Eltz another.

Thanks again everyone!!

Melissa

For German vowels on a PC, hold down the key and type a number on the numeric keypad:

0196 for Ä

0228 for ä

0214 for Ö

0246 for ö

0220 for Ü

0252 for ü

Note: the lower case letter is 32 (4 bits) higher than the capital letter.

In most cases, like the Bahn Query website, adding an 'e' (i.e., ue for ü, Fuessen for Füssen) will suffice.

One weekends when the castle is open, there is a bus starting in Tries-Karden and going to Burg Eltz. The last stop on the bus route is Hatzenport, a stop on the regional trains on the Mosel.

I really don't know why Rick Steves dismisses Heidelberg. It is a charming little city with a great castle. If you walk along the Philosopher's Way, you get a beautiful view of the town. There are several very good restaurants. I think it's definitely worth a visit.

"It is a charming little city with a great castle."

Where is Russ when we need him? I think he would point out that the structure in Heidelberg is a Schloss (palace) not a Burg (castle).

Heidelberg was one of the first towns I visited when I started going to Germany (1987), and I visited the palace. I don't ever plan to go back. It's interesting, but there are a lot of (more) interesting places in Germany.

Lee--interesting comment. However, in the Langenscheidt German-English dictionary, the first definition of Schloss is castle. Palace is number two.
Also when I lived in Tuebingen in Germany, I lived on the Schlossbergstrasse. (the castle hill street) The edifice at the end of the street for which it was named was always referred to by English-speaking Germans as the castle, never the palace.
The same holds true for the big building in Heidelberg--All English-speaking Germans, and all the American military personnel stationed there always called it the castle.

There's a pretty big grey area between Burg and Schloss. German also has the word Palast, for palace.

I don't disagree with the idea that Heidelberg is a pleasant place to be. But I tend to agree with Lee that it's not all that unique - there are lots of places in Germany that are similarly charming and some that are even more so.

As for the castle/palace distinction... What distinction do you make between these 2 English words?

Allow me to empty my windbag here just a bit...

Americans, military or otherwise, never built castles or palaces (with the possible exception of those in Disney theme parks.) We generally lack an awareness of the distinction, and our use of the language reflects this ignorance - everything is a "castle" in our eyes. Look up "castle" in most English-only dictionaries, and you will find an expanded definition of "castle" that reads something like this... "A very large strong building built in past times to protect the people from attack." It's a building constructed primarily for defense. A "palace" has a different purpose and different construction. But don't ask your average American what's what - we just don't care much about such distinctions.

One-word results from a German-English dictionary are insufficient to capture the distinction. German-English dictionaries tend to describe actual usage. That is, if you want to know which English word the average (under-informed) American English-speaker actually uses for "Schloß", the first entry IS "castle" - and I'm sure your Langenscheidt also shows "castle" as the #1 entry for "Burg." Why? Your Langenscheidt correctly captures American usage - there is no distinction at all. For Americans, Cinderella's home at Disneyland is a castle, a man's home is his castle... And it is probably for this same reason that Germans refer to their "Schloßes" in their English-language brochures as "castles" - Foreign folks like us don't know the difference, so they might as well just use the words we are most familiar with.

Since there are something like 25,000 castles and palaces in Germany, Germans tend to distinguish clearly between the two in their own language. The use of "Schloß" or "Burg" is rarely arbitrary. Tübingen and Heidelberg each have a "Schloß." That's because these structures were most recently palaces. A lot of castles were destroyed by invaders and rebuilt in later centuries as palaces. So you COULD call these places "castles" if you are referring to the former structures, but that's not what German residents call the buildings there today. And Schloßbergstraße is Palace-Mountain-Street to Germans, no matter what visitors call it.

Calling Heidelberg's present-day Schloß a "castle" is certainly acceptable mainstream, everyday, monolingual, mono-cultural Anglo usage. But since most tourists to Germany want to absorb a bit of the culture, I think it's better to stick with the castle/palace distinction that Germans make - the same distinction our own English-only dictionaries normally make.

Thanks for the lengthy reply--some interesting points.
However, I must respectfully disagree with your interpretation of the Schlossbergstrasse--either that or my German-born husband and his parents, also born in Germany, were just stupid when they referred to the castle hill (or mountain) street. not the palace mountain street.

I think you maybe missed one point - if your family was speaking English to you using the words "castle-hill-street", it's likely that, like most Germans who speak good English would do, they were using the word "castle" in the vernacular - in the way the average English-speaker would use it. But that doesn't mean they think of it as the road to the Burg (castle.) They're being thoughtful about choosing the words you and your fellow English speakers would use, that's all That does not make them stupid at all, only considerate.

Google "Burg Hohentübingen" vs. "Schloß Hohentübingen" and you'll find that "Schloß" is completely dominant - by a factor of 500 to 1.

Ok--I'm done. You stick to your palace and I'll stick to my castle. It's been fun.

Russ,

I tend to agree with Christian, that there is a pretty big grey area between Burg and Schloss.

While no one would argue that Schloss Nymphenburg, Schloss Karlsruhe, and Schloss Herrenchiemsee are palaces, not castles, and the Marksburg is or Rheinfels was definitely a castle, beyond those places, the distinction is not so clear.

I think I can see where the building at Harburg is a Burg.

But the "castle" at Burghausen is called a Burg, but the original building at the back end of the complex sure looks to me like a palace.

The Hohenzollern building at Sigmaringen is called a Schloss, but the original building, a thousand years ago would have been a Burg, and it was just gradually added on to over the centuries, and, in fact, the original fortified entrance to that old Burg is still the entrance to the Schloss. When (and why) did it stop becoming a castle and become a palace?

A little to the north, Hohenzollernburg was built between 1846 and 1867 by Fredrick Willhelm IV, father of Willhelm I, the first Kaiser, as an apartment. The similarities between Hohenzollernburg and Schloss Neuschwanstein, built less than 2 decades later, are striking. But one is a Burg, and the other is a Schloss. Why?

The Reichsburg, in Cochem, cannot possibly be called a Burg. It's not even a Schloss (palace); the owner was not royal. Reichsburg was build in the late 1800s by a wealthy Berlin businessman. It was built on the site of an earlier castle, probably using some of the same stones, outwardly resembling a castle, but inside it is just his home. BTW, the street leading up to the Reichsburg is called Schlossstrasse.

Russ, if you would, please, list the distinguishing feature make fortified building, a "Burg", without which it is just a Schloss.

Germans exhibit overwhelming uniformity on the CONCEPTS behind Burg and Schloß; in the same way that Americans understand a muffin from a cupcake, Germans have a conceptual prototype for both Burg and Schloß that is clear-cut. That's what I meant when I said "Germans tend to distinguish clearly between the two in their own language."

When I said, "the use of "Schloß" or "Burg" is rarely arbitrary," my point was that Germans generally agree on what is what, and they normally do so on the basis of these prototypes.

In the real world there is gray area, of course, as I pointed out... these places were ruined, rebuilt, expanded upon for different purposes... very few fit the prototype exactly. But Germans seem to reach a consensus and use one term or the other consistently - not in free variation. The primary criterion is the existence of defensive structures, like the Wehranlage at Burg Hohenzollern. In the previous post, I inserted this definition: "'A very large strong building built in past times to protect the people from attack.'" This explains why Burghausen is a Burg too. I don't know Sigmaringen but I would suspect that whatever fortifications it has are insufficient in the minds of Germans to call it a Burg. It's hard to say exactly how significant such defensive elements have to be to tip the scale. I suspect that a single fortified portal wouldn't do the trick.

If Burghausen looks like a palace to you it's likely a result of the linguistic preconditioning we all get from our home culture.

Cochem's Reichsburg too has fortifications - as you can see in this PHOTO. I suspect these flimsy add-ons put it close enough to the conceptual prototype to explain the Germans' very consistent use of the word "Burg" for this building. Surely it's one of the gray area places. But that doesn't mean we should call it a Schloß.

This kids' guide to Burg/Schloß confusion focuses on defensive elements as the critical factor.

Obviously, you can't.

Lots of fascinating information here, hope I didn't start any arguments. Thanks everyone! :-)

Glad you found this interesting, melxray. No argument here, however. Just a friendly chat. Lee is 100% correct when he says...
"Obviously, you can't."
Meaning, I presume, that I can't "...list the distinguishing feature make fortified building, a "Burg," as Lee put it.
No. I absolutely cannot cough up a list of specific, distinguishing features for you.

Dictionaries won't get that detailed, either. You probably ought to consult a castle expert of some sort for that list. But the fact remains that German speakers normally know in some mystic, holistic way what a Burg is and isn't. It's not something they disagree about much. Language is like that. Speakers of German and every human language share an understanding of word meanings, an understanding they acquire over time and use every day without creating or consulting lists of criteria...

What are the specific, distinguishing features of a muffin vs. a cupcake? Who the H knows? What would my list include? Hadn't thought about it. And any list I create I try to create will probably vary from someone else's, and anyway, a list probably won't capture what exactly goes on when I call baking good "X" a "muffin." Nonetheless, I think you and I as native speakers of English could pretty much separate a whole display case full of muffins and cupcakes into two groups with little to no disagreement and without a list of features. (A cultural outsider, however, may long for a list of distinguishing features so he can use the words as natives do. I certainly know that when I learned German, I was constantly wishing for lists like that for certain culture-specific vocabulary. Still do sometimes.)

The question was whether castle was an acceptable translation for Schloss.

Burg means castle, Palast means palace, and Schloss can be translated as both, like Château in French.