In all honesty, I had never heard of the Wolfstein ruins until the other night. My husband had helped another soldier move a piece of furniture to his home in Neumarkt, and during the ride there my husband spotted a castle on a hill, as well as some other places of interest on the road. His mistake for telling me about it.
We now had to go to this off-the-grid, mysterious castle. In some ways, I'd like to think my husband enjoys the castle monster I have become! Don't think he'd admit that, though.
They are everywhere. The map was freckled with red dots.
Travelers are quick to short change themselves. Seeing is often believing. You grow up with images of Neuschwanstein, Windsor, and other namely famous castles, not realizing there are more. You want to see all of the things that you have already seen in Nat Geo magazines, encyclopedias, history books or on sites like Pinterest. But what about the things you have never heard of?
Visiting lesser known destinations is thrilling. We have been to some of them already, and I get this wave of discovery that overcomes me when seeing such places. I feel like Columbus, well...without the ships of slaves and other terrible jazz. Uncharted territory makes for fun photos, and a sense of "wow" that is yours and isn't shared among millions of other Instagram users. This takes me back to seeing Neuschwanstein not too long ago. I posted my Insta photo, and instantly realized (with the help of the hashtag) that thousands of other users had just done the same. It becomes a 'meh' moment after that.
We jumped in our swagger wagon this morning and headed out. First we hit a small town called Kastl. It's seriously a blip on the map of Germany. I noticed a rather large church/castle tower on top of the hill and asked the husband if this was the castle he spoke of, but he said "nope". We pulled over anyway, parked, and I jumped on my phone to figure out what this building is. Turns out it's an old monastery by the name of St. Peter. Of course, I had to explore it.
We now had to go to this off-the-grid, mysterious castle. In some ways, I'd like to think my husband enjoys the castle monster I have become! Don't think he'd admit that, though.
Last night, I had looked up the route, and for the life of me could not find a castle along it during the first half hour of my research. I asked my husband over and over "Are you sure that's the road you were on?". He started to just stare at me, rather than providing a redundant answer.
I uncovered a valuable tip, that's probably not a secret, but was unbeknownst to me until I tried...on google maps, enter in "schloss" or "castle" or "burg" or "burgruine" to your search bar (this may work better if you're in Europe, haha). Suddenly a million red dots will pop up. I have always tried to find a name to a castle and then it's location. Wrong. If you know the vicinity of where it is, but no name, just enter "castle". Easy. I was discovering castles everywhere around me that I have never read about, never seen on pinterest, or wouldn't have otherwise known existed!They are everywhere. The map was freckled with red dots.
Travelers are quick to short change themselves. Seeing is often believing. You grow up with images of Neuschwanstein, Windsor, and other namely famous castles, not realizing there are more. You want to see all of the things that you have already seen in Nat Geo magazines, encyclopedias, history books or on sites like Pinterest. But what about the things you have never heard of?
Visiting lesser known destinations is thrilling. We have been to some of them already, and I get this wave of discovery that overcomes me when seeing such places. I feel like Columbus, well...without the ships of slaves and other terrible jazz. Uncharted territory makes for fun photos, and a sense of "wow" that is yours and isn't shared among millions of other Instagram users. This takes me back to seeing Neuschwanstein not too long ago. I posted my Insta photo, and instantly realized (with the help of the hashtag) that thousands of other users had just done the same. It becomes a 'meh' moment after that.
We jumped in our swagger wagon this morning and headed out. First we hit a small town called Kastl. It's seriously a blip on the map of Germany. I noticed a rather large church/castle tower on top of the hill and asked the husband if this was the castle he spoke of, but he said "nope". We pulled over anyway, parked, and I jumped on my phone to figure out what this building is. Turns out it's an old monastery by the name of St. Peter. Of course, I had to explore it.
The monastery is pretty, and very quiet. We had encountered one person while up there, who was walking his dog. Other than that, we had it to ourselves. I'd like to go back maybe in spring, when wall ivy is green and flowers are blooming, though.
We really didn't know what to look at next in the town of Kastl without having done some research before our visit, so we set off to find the mysterious hilltop castle along the 299 (the road we were driving along). We finally found it. Now in the vicinity of it, the name appears on street signs: Wolfstein.
It was a pretty cool place. Not very big, but quiet and peaceful. I didn't realize it was in ruins, but that made me love it even more. I dig sites like this because they are self guided, and I can take my time enjoying the area.
From here, we headed to a city called Regensburg, just because we were already in the area. We have heard a lot about Regensberg from Army folks. Many folks rave about it. From what I saw during my short visit to this city, I can see why. There's much to look at! Unfortunately, being a busy Saturday afternoon, we could only find 30 minute parking, and German meter maids are no joke. We explored a little of Regensberg on foot, but definitely need to go back in order to fairly write about it.
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