'Rosentage' in Eltville
The rose garden was established in the castle moat. We walked down to the moat via the upper courtyard and entered the magical wonderful garden...
Many pots of roses were on sale. In fact the day we visited Eltville was one of two 'Rosentage' or Rose Days by chance. It's an annual festival that the town celebrates the queen of the flowers. Some vendors were setting up stores to sell plants, arts and crafts, foods, etc at the castle courtyards and gardens as well as in the town and on the riverbank. Eltville is one of the official German rose towns, in which the rose gardens characterize the townscape. In the 19th century, a rose nursery was founded in the town and more than half a million roses grew. Numerous other gardeners in the town also grew roses and won prizes. Today more than 300 different varieties of roses are cultivated in Eltville and tens of thousands of rose bushes bloom throughout the town each year in late spring. We were very fortunate to be there on the special day.
The District Court Garden, which was located across the moat from the castle tower (the left side on the photo above), was also filled with roses. We arrived the town in the early morning. Luckily we had both gardens to ourselves.
After we were thoroughly enchanted with the sea of colorful roses and took hundreds of photos, we explored the Old Town of Eltville for a while. It was small but adorable.
Like the castle tower, the spire of the Catholic parish church of St. Peter and Paul was noticeable in the town. We stopped by at the 14th century church. The interior was as simple as those of the other churches we have visited in Germany.
The riverside street was getting busy with pop-up stores and visitors for the rose day. The Rhine was calm and beautiful.
The Sebastian Tower, the preserved south-western corner tower of the former town fortifications, was also surrounded by roses.
While we were walking on Leergasse, I saw something cute approaching us.
A duck family! A parent and eight babies ran super fast. They quickly passed by us. Probably they were going to the Rhine for swimming. It was a hot summer day.
Funny, we found the fountain with duck sculptures on the street where we just ran into the ducky family. What a coincidence.
It was still too early to find a restaurant that was already open for lunch. We decided to go up to the castle tower. The lower courtyard was also filled with roses, of course.
We bought tickets at the ground floor and climbed up the tower. No elevator but a stair case only. The 1st floor was Count's Hall, which was used as a living room/work room. With the 14th century paintings, it is known as the most elegant room in the castle although several rows of chairs dominated the room when we were there. It looked that the room is used as a conference room today.
The 2nd floor was Gutenberg Memorial, an exhibition about Johannes Gutenberg and his legacy. He was the 15th century inventor of modern book printing with movable type, which made it possible to produce large quantities of books faster and cheaper. He was born near the city of Mainz but lived in Eltville a few years in his childhood, and spent the last years of his life in the town. I have never heard about him. It was a nice chance to know his work.
The 3rd floor was called Capitular Chamber. It's the only room with a vaulted ceiling in the tower. There were several panels that showed the history of Eltville, which dates back to the Stone Age.
The 4th floor was the tower platform that gave us a nice view of the rest of the castle, the town of Eltville, mountains, vineyards, and the Rhine.
It was almost noon. Time for lunch!
We tried a restaurant called Zur Weinpump. We were seated at the courtyard. Many tables had a reservation sign; the rest of the tables were quickly taken only by people who jumped into the restaurant right at noon like us. The place must be popular. I found later there were more tables available in the restaurant building, but I guess almost all people want to eat outside during summer.
J had a glass of white wine. That was so-so according to him.
My lunch was white asparagus and potatoes with melted butter. I wanted to taste white asparagus one more time before the end of the season. They were nicely cooked. Yum!
J had the same. However, as a big boy, he added a schnitzel.
We didn't have a dessert at the restaurant. Instead, we went back to a cafe, where we saw rose cakes earlier.
These were the rose cakes! 'Original Eltviller Rosentörtchen' is the formal name. According to the Cafe Glockenhof, the special cake is dedicated to the particular type of rose named 'Beautiful Eltville', which the well-known Japanese rose breeder Kazuzo Tagashira gave to Eltville as a gift. Very interesting! I had no idea that the cake was created based on such a lovely story. We bought one piece of the rose cake, one slice of cheese cake with poppy seeds and one slice of raspberry cake to take away.
This was our rose cake. It looked so cute! I halved the rose cake to share with J.
The cake was coated with marzipan. The lovely Beautiful Eltville rose pedals and leaves were also made from marzipan. The structure of the cake was much more sophisticated that I expected - rose jelly at the center, summery fresh apple butter cream with the sent of the rose, a delicate spongecake layer, and a light biscuit base. The cake was delightful. We should buy two next time.
We also bought a handmade rose mustard and a Eltville riesling gelé at a local delicatessen in the town.
We tried our first rose mustard with scrambled egg on toast next day. It was sweet and savory, like a caramelized onion chutney. It contained onion actually. The flavor of rose was natural and pleasant.
A Happy Rose Day!
