Ehrenburg is here partly because it provides an interesting... and irritating... object lesson: the lack of good signage. I have a pretty good sense of direction when it comes to finding castles, but this time my sense of direction failed me, and the lack of good signs made it worse. To get to the castle you must take a winding mountain-type road out of the hamlet of Brodenbach and climb out of the Mosel valley. Brodenbach is on the south side of the Mosel, to the northeast of Treis.
Finding the parking lot was easy, but that's where the trouble started. Unless you walk down a gentle slope to the very end of the parking lot, you will not see the sign for the castle. Moreover, the trail is not obvious from the top or middle part of the lot, but another asphalt trail going in the opposite direction IS obvious from the parking lot! If you see the sign below for a local Christmas tree farm, you've gone in the WRONG direction! Once I discovered my error, I had wasted a good fifteen minutes. By the time I hiked to the castle, lo and behold!... it was now CLOSED for the day. Uggghhh!
Ehrenburg was started in the 1100s, but its actual purpose is difficult to discern, due to its out of the way location. Nevertheless, having looked at other's photos of this place, it appears to be well worth the visit, as the owners have been restoring it in medieval style since 1991. Just beware of the trickery regarding the trails, and think of it more like some type of quest that you must achieve to stake your claim to a great reward worthy of a battle knight!
