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Bargain Travel Europe guide to Europe on a budget for vacation destinations, travel ideas and secret spots missed by travel tours.

THE MICE WHO ATE THE BISHOP
Burg Ehrenfels and the Mausen Tower Rhine Castles

One of the more impressive castle ruins along the wine region of the middle Rhine River is Castle Ehrenfels. Destroyed by the French in 1689, the lookout tower jutting from a small island at Binger Loch in the river’s flow, the Mauseturm has been kept up and used for navigation, even visible in heavy fogs along the Rhine. The main castle rests on the east shore of the river across from Burg Rheinstein (See Burg Reinstein) surrounded by an impressively mighty stone curtain wall stretching along the wine vineyard slope and down to the river. But impressive as the fortress is and it’s wall as medieval architecture it wasn’t strong enough to withstand cannon fire of first the Swedes then the French.

The Mauseturm gets it’s name either from the word mausen, meaning mouse hunting as in being on the lookout for mice for it’s use as a lookout tower, or more intriguingly because of the local legend of the cruel Bishop who tried to escape a mob of mice that swam across the river and gnawed him to death, as he had gnawed the gold from the parishioners under his care. © Bargain Travel Europe

CASTLE SOONECK

Just to the north of Trechtingshausen and Burg Reichenstein (See Burg Reichenstein) is the ruin of Burg Sooneck. Another impressive medieval edifice built originally in the early 11th century and destroyed on two separate occasions, first when it was a fortress of Robber Knights in the 13th Century, like it’s neighbor Reichenstein, then again by the French in their march through Germany in 1689. (see also Europe Back Roads). The castle was rebuilt in the 1800’s, during the romantic period of gothic revival by Prussian Kronprinz Frederich Wilhelm.

Castle Sooneck can only be reached by foot, a walk of about one kilometer with conducted tours from January through November. The road along the western shore of the Rhine passes through Trechtingshausen where there is also a station on the Deutschbahn rail line between Mainz and Koblenz. © Bargain Travel Europe

Reviews and travel deals on the Rhine River at TripAdvisor

Get a German Rail Pass

Rhine Castle Map

Rhine River Cruises

SEE ALSO:

Rhine Villages and Towns by Train
THE MIDDLE RHINE TRAIN

Frankenstein's Castle near Kaiserslautern
GRAB YOUR PITCHFORK

The German Wine Road
WINE AND WURST

Legendary German knights on the "Castle Road"
BURG HORNBERG

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