Castle Hohenzollern

Karma….you gotta watch out for karma.  I tell myself everyday that I will be easy going, considerate, and patient (and not a pain in the rear to everyone around me).  But I rarely am.

I told the children we were going to see a real castle on our first day in Germany. That first morning (after the farmer's market) our hosts recommended another activity but I insisted on going to visit Castle Hohenzollern. I had been told it was awesome, better than Neuschwanstein, and I thought it would be the perfect activity to begin our trip. I paid for my stubbornness. From now on I will take the advice of my hosts.

The Castle we went to see is the third built on this site.  In case you wanted to know more...

The castle was rebuilt by Crown-Prince (and later King) Frederick William IV of Prussia. In 1819 during a trip to Italy, he travelled through southern Germany. During the trip, he wished to learn about his family's roots and climbed to the top of Mount Hohenzollern.

Because the castle was built as a family memorial, no member of the Hohenzollern family took residence in this third castle until 1945, when it became home to the last Prussian Crown Prince Wilhelm; he and his wife, Crown Princess Cecilie, are buried there.

First of all there are a lot of stairs to get up the hill to Hohenzollern.  LOTS.  And I hadn’t worked out, or even walked since the beginning of summer.  I was also recovering from some mystery virus (I think it was West Nile but I tend to be a hypochondriac so...) what I am getting at was the hike up the hill nearly killed me.  I wanted to leave before we even got there. 

While everyone was waiting for me to drag my rear-end up the mountain they took some cute photos.

This one ran, skipped, and jumped up the hill.

"J" and her only cousin.  I love these photos!
"T" is not in the photos...as he was having almost as much
trouble as me going up the hill.

I love this photo.  I hate the fact that my husband had
no difficulty with all the stairs. 
We are supposed to be old, fat, and out-of-shape together.

Auntie and cousin.

How cute are they?

There was a wedding at the castle that day.

The slow-pokes finally caught up.

 

 

They have regal robes for the children to wear.

 

"T" loves anything having to do with weapons. 

To cheer him up I told him you could still see blood on one of the swords.

This trip was my least favorite of the entire vacation.  The castle was pretty but I was sad to learn no one ever lived there; rather it was built as sort of a museum for the family.  The castle was relatively new and we only got to see a small portion of it.  The guide was interesting but a bit long winded for the children.  I think the most disappointing thing was the location of the castle.  It was perched on the tippy top of the hill and there was no location from which you could get a good view of it in its entirety.  As you walked up and around you could only see bits and pieces of the whole castle.