Arnstein to Rieneck

Schloss brewery at Thungen

Castle at Thungen

Gate across moat into castle

Part of Castle from in the courtyard

Moat that goes completely around castle

Johanna at the schloss brewery patio

Homberg ruins

In the ruins

Some of the remaining walls of the ruins

Guard tower and wall of ruins

Spahgetti eis at plaza in Gemungen.  Mine was kiwi and J's was wildberry

Backyard of the pension at Rienck

Burg Rieneck

Since above Schweinfurt we have been on the Wern trail which follows the Wern "river".  Its not very wide but bike trail is nice, quiet and low key.   We will follow the Wern until we get to the Main about 5ks above Gemunden                                                                                                                             We left Arnstein and rode to Thungen where there is a famous castle that J wanted to see.   The castle is still privately owned so no tours.  But there was a place where you could sit and have a beer that was made on site.  The caslte is well preserved, part of which  has been turned in to 4 apartments.  The moat is best preserved that I have seen yet.  The beer wasn't that good. 
We rode on to the Homberg ruins, one of the largest ruins in germany.  There's a steep trail up to it so J made me walk up there.  It was a very large caslte at one time, first built around 1100 but was abandoned in the late 1700s.  Nothing has been done to it since.  There was a way to drive up there and by the parking lot there was a beer concession but I had already started down the trail from Hell. 
When I finally made it to the bottom we rode on to Gemungen and stopped for our daily ice cream.  All the gellato are owned by Italians it looks like.  I guess Germans can't make gellato.  After the eis we rode on to Rienck which is on the Sinn River.                                                                                   In the small towns it's getting harder to find a place to stay.  The gesthauses have closed or stopped taking guests.  J says the freeway and better roads bypass the small town and they now end up bedroom communities for the larger cities.  Anyway we were lucky to get the last room in a pension.  Rieneck has it's castle that was built around 1150.  It has since been turned into a place for youth gatherings, boy scouts etc.