Firsts are an important event in ones life. For me, a history geek, my first castle was something I will always remember.
Many people associate castles with the British Isles. Rightfully so, England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and Northern Ireland all are home to some pretty amazing castles. However, those fantastical creations that we associate with fairy tales and whimsy. Those castles are in places like Bavaria in Germany.
That’s when I found myself 10 years ago, a day after my flight to London was cancelled because of another world disaster, a volcano in Iceland. This meant a change to my travel plans, but it also allowed me some alternative experiences I didn’t even plan to have.
April 19th 2010
Stuttgart, Germany
Yesterday after a later start Carol took myself, Fallon and McKenna to see a castle in the area. I already was aware that my flight to London was canceled so why not make the very best of the rest of the time I’m here in Germany? So we took a lovely drive through Germany through quaint little towns to this hill that had a beautiful castle on top.It was in fact the very first castle I have ever been to! As Carol put it it was more or less a “fairy tale” castle of Germany and truly that’s the best was to describe it. It’s not quite like the castle in Bavaria that the Disney castle was fashioned after but still beautiful and charming. Hohenzollern castle has this magnificent view of the surrounding area with great forests and hiking trails. We also took a tour in German (which I didn’t understand ANY of) of the interior of the castle.I had a lot of fun photographing the grounds, and McKenna simply ate up the sort of fairy tale idea behind the castle and we bought her a princess hat to walk around in. Everyone there kept telling her how adorable she was and some remarked “look at the princess!” or “she must be the princess”.
It was truly interesting to see the difference on styles and rooms, for this castle was inhabited by the royal family for many years. The architecture was not nearly as grandiose as that in France but had a different beauty. It was a little more simple yet very beautiful and calming, honestly it felt more homely than it did like a palace, and really I could see a preference for the German style to live in.
After exploring the castle the best we could we had some snacks and headed back to Stuttgart after a quick ice cream stop. We spent the evening eating carrot soup and watching “A Philadelphia story” with Katherine Hepburn, Carey Grant, and Jimmy Stewart.
No news on my flight out but I’m pretty content waiting it out here.
Peace and Love,
Rebecca
McKenna with her hat!
- forward
- chapter 1
- chapter 2
- chapter 3
- chapter 4
- chapter 5
- chapter 6
- chapter 7
- chapter 8
- chapter 9
- chapter 10
- chapter 11
- chapter 12
- chapter 13
- chapter 14
- chapter 15
- chapter 16
Leave a Reply