Eltville am Rhein

Today (June 24) after work I took the train to Eltville, a small town right on the Rhein River. It is only about a 15 minute train ride from the Wiesbaden Central Station (Hauptbahnhof). According to its website and several signs in the town, it is a city of wine, sekt (sparkling wine), and roses. And it is a good description.

It was a pretty cool city. A nice place to go for a relaxing evening. The historic city center is smallish, but very cool. there are cobblestone roads and old traditional half-timbered houses. It is fun to just walk around areas like that.

"The Yellow House". Aptly named.

And you have to walk through it to get to the main sight in the town, the Electoral Castle, which was built in the 1300s and was home to the Archbishop of the area (who was an elector of the church, hence the name).

You pay a few euros to climb up the castle tower, which has a different "exhibit" on each of the four floors.

 

I want one of these

On one of the floors is a memorial to Gutenberg, who opened up his first (I think) printing shop in Eltville (and was born in Mainz, which is across the river from Wiesbaden). Unfortunately, the door was closed today, but it is a glass door, so I could still see the old printing equipment and stuff.

At the top of the tower you get a good view of the town and the river.

When you exit the castle, you can go to the castle Rose Garden. It is both fragrant and beautiful. It was very relaxing just walking around looking at and smelling the flowers. Prepare for a million pictures of flowers. I will try to restrain myself.

Ok, I failed.

There is also Crass Castle (Berg Crass), but it has been turned into a hotel and restaurant, so mostly I just looked at it and then left.

At some point I would like to take another trip there and visit the former Monastery, which still makes wine today. There are also many other wineries in the surrounding area. So yeah, I would definitely like to come back, especially since it doesn't take long to get to, or to get around.