Along the Rhine river in Germany are many castles and we’ve visited several of them, one of the most memorable was Rheinstein Castle, or as it’s affectionately known by the locals, Romantik-Schloß Burg Rheinstein.
Rheinstein was such a memorable visit for good reasons, first and foremost being that the lady in the gift shop entrance area, just after the drawbridge, was so very nice and she gave us full run of the castle, allowing us to go where we liked for as long as we liked.
The second reason is that the small, modern restaurant attached next to the castle was wonderful and gave us a brilliant view of the Rhine River as we ate lunch. The picture above was taken while we sat and ate lunch on the patio. The people working in the restaurant were equally as nice. Everyone really seemed to enjoy being there.
The third reason was that I think I saw a phantom!
There’s another reason Joan and I remember this trip so well, but I’ll get to that in a moment. The castle itself is really a pleasure to explore and has been virtually fully restored upwards since the 19th-century. The castle, though, dates back to the 14th-century, 1316, to be exact.
The castle has changed hands several times through the centuries and many members of royal families have visited there.
There’s also a small crypt at the castle. It’s gothic and creepy, but super fascinating. It’s worth the visit on its own. From what I understand there are 3 people entombed.
The crypt may be the reason the castle is haunted.
While we visited the castle, we were fortunate to have the entire place to ourselves. Let me give you a tip, visit during an early weekday, such as Monday—Wednesday for the most privacy. That goes for most of the castles on the Rhein because that’s when the fewest visitors are touring them. Weekends are not as enjoyable with too many people.
It was while we were sitting out on the restaurant’s patio that I saw the phantom!
I was looking up at the tower determining whether I could climb up the narrow stairs or if it was too high for me. Because, mind you, in the picture it might not look that high, but there’s a cliff over the other side that you have to consider.
While I was looking up there, I saw a gray shadow figure moving in an odd way up the stairs–seemingly floating.
s/he wasn’t there just a moment before, and I don’t know where it came from suddenly. It was almost as if it appeared out of thin air, like a phantom, but that was impossible!
Joan’s back was to where I was looking, so I looked away for a split second to ask her to take a look and by the time we both looked back up, whatever or whoever it was, was gone. I circled the area in the photo where it had been.
Since we had already finished eating, we got up and went to the inside courtyard to where we could get to the stairs just to see if someone was there. I thought for sure someone would be there! But as you can see from the below photo, there’s no one.
Unfortunately, I failed to climb the stairs. It was just too high, and my fear of heights kept me from achieving it. Even Joan had trouble going up since when you’re finally on those stairs you can see down on the other side, and the stairs are made of iron and you can see through them, it’s a jarring sight. However, she got up there, and she confirmed no one was there.
She came back down, and we decided to explore the castle and see if we found anyone who matched the description. Well, it was pretty easy because no one was in the castle except for us!
It was really a delight to explore the castle. If you ever get the opportunity this is one of the very best castles on the Rhein to visit. Few, if any, of the other castles that are not in ruins allow you to roam around so freely.
Some parts of the castle, even in the summer, were chilly, but nothing uncomfortable. Except for one room. You just knew there was going to be that one room.
Yup. One room had a weird, uneasy vibe and the cold in it was bone-chilling.
The picture below does a good job of capturing the atmosphere. It had such an unwelcoming vibe. Take a look at the photo and let me know if you feel anything from merely viewing it. (The lady gave us permission to take photos. Many privately owned restored castles don’t allow you to take photos, which I think is a mistake.
The next photo is even stranger, still.
Although we didn’t feel anything in the next room with the armor, I did notice something strange with the light around the armor suit to the right. At first, I thought it was a reflection. In the photo, it turns out it was an orb! An odd orb.
Take a look. Photo one is without it marked:
In the second photo, it’s circled:
Strange, indeed, eh? Here’s the thing, the white mist/orb is not just in front of the armor, if you look close you can see it’s also in front of the door’s frame and the wall. It’s one of the oddest orbs I’ve ever seen in a photo.
It’s a still photo, but I get the impression that the orb is moving. Another thing you might take notice of is that there is clearly reflective light on parts of the armor, but it’s entirely different and shiny as you’d expect it to be.
Even the photo on the wall has a shiny reflection. Quite in contrast to the orb. Really odd. I hate to say this, but I love it! I love finding these rare, unexplainable anomalies in our photos. They help make sense of what we saw and felt in some of these locations. I can’t say it’s absolutely paranormal, but I can say it’s definitely weird.
Next, we came to another room that was glassed off, which had an interesting writing table in it, pictured below, and it was there that Joan and I experienced something for the first and only time, so far.
On our phones, we have apps that supposedly spirits can use to form words. We had played with the apps many times and gotten some interesting words, but we had never, up until that point, received the same word at the same time. However, while we were viewing this particular little room, I got the word “King” in the app and a moment later Joan received the same word, “King!”
I can’t tell you how exciting that was for us. Mind you, we both have different apps, and furthermore, I have an Android phone and Joan has an iPhone. We were absolutely blown away! We were like a couple of kids in a candy store. You would think that we would have been frightened or something, but this castle had such a friendly overall feel to it, that we were not frightened at all.
Rheinstein Castle is a must-visit for anyone touring the Rhine. I mean, there are countless castles along the Rhine river, but few, if any, allow you to explore so much and are so well maintained.
When we finally decided to leave, we once again talked to the very nice lady at the entrance/exit, and she explained that there are also night tours available for those who prefer to visit the castle late at night.
“Because,” she said, “the castle is haunted!”
Ha! She could have told us that before we explored it, but then that information would have probably influenced our visit.
I think someday I’ll go back for that night tour, though.
TidBit: The Ghost Hunters International TV show filmed at the neighboring castle, Reichenstein (Season 1 Episode 6), which we also visited, but we did not have any such experiences there of note. Reichenstein is a beauitiful castle, though, but they’re much stricter on their visiter rules.
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UPDATE: I did return and was able to video the entire tour, including the crypt. Will post soon so stay tuned!
