Both Basteibruke and Konigstein proved to be much more, or less, than Pinterest leads someone to believe!
After parking and taking the trail, we had arrived at Basteibrücke.
There are all kinds of interesting pathways to roam about. Some on dirt trails, and others are paved. There was also a stairway tour, too. Since we arrived early in the day, around 8am-ish, we experienced the stairway tour for free (there wasn't an attendant on site). The only other people around us were an Asian family, so it was nice to have the place basically to ourselves.
Festung Konigstein (Konigstein Fortress) is HUGE. It doesn't look too intimidating from afar, or even from the parking lot, but once you are standing next to the fortress walls, this place will make anyone feel small. Just looking at the tops of the watch towers from below makes you feel a nose bleed coming on!
There's a connection at Konigstein to Heidelberg: At one point Konigstein had a larger wine cask than Heidelberg's famous "Heidelberg Tun". I can't find a wealth of info, however, I do know that this big boy wine cask of all wine casks is no longer here. Possibly moved or destroyed? I'm not sure. In remembrance of the great Konigstein wine barrel, they made a barrel out of wine bottles, to represent it's size, in the Magdalene castle within Konigstein grounds. We only saw a peek into the room, as the exhibit is only displayed on certain guided tours. They weren't doing that particular tour that day. Bummer.
I really thought I would love Basteibruke more than Konigstein, but Konigstein was the winner of the day! Basteibruke is pretty, and worth seeing once, but the husband and I agree: If we had to pick between these two places, Konigstein wins, hands down.
After parking and taking the trail, we had arrived at Basteibrücke.
There are all kinds of interesting pathways to roam about. Some on dirt trails, and others are paved. There was also a stairway tour, too. Since we arrived early in the day, around 8am-ish, we experienced the stairway tour for free (there wasn't an attendant on site). The only other people around us were an Asian family, so it was nice to have the place basically to ourselves.
Depending on what trails you take depends on what you will see. Of course, there is the main attraction (the bridge), but there are also amazing views of the Danube River, the sandstone formations, and the valley below Basteibruke. We traveled along almost every pathway visible. The only thing we didn't do was hike to the area below the bridge.
The bridge was pretty neat, but I am satisfied enough by seeing it only once. I actually enjoyed the views from Basteibruke more than I enjoyed the bridge itself! All in all, we only spent about two hours in the general area. I don't think I could kill a day there, at all. Maybe if I planned to hike down into the sandstones, more time would be needed, but hiking in Germany is not on my personal Euro bucket list.
After visiting the bridge, we headed to a nearby fortress. I spend a lot of time on Pinterest gathering odd places to visit, and this random tower pops into my Pinterest feed often. It never has an accurate description when I see it, so I made a point to look it up awhile ago. After much searching, I found that this semi-famous Pinterest tower is not attached to a castle; it's attached to this fortress! If you follow pinners from around the world like I do, or hoards of travel pinners (like I do), you've probably seen this before...and most likely, it was captioned wrong.
Anyway, I was super excited to see this in person after seeing it for the past few years on Pinterest. If you have seen it before on that website, now you know that it's not a castle or Rapunzel's Tower. Nope. Just a simple watch tower is all.
Festung Konigstein (Konigstein Fortress) is HUGE. It doesn't look too intimidating from afar, or even from the parking lot, but once you are standing next to the fortress walls, this place will make anyone feel small. Just looking at the tops of the watch towers from below makes you feel a nose bleed coming on!
History note: This is one of the few fortresses in the world that has never been captured by enemies.
After my visit, I know why!
What's interesting about the fortress is that it was more than what some people imagine a fortress to be. Not only was this structure used for keep people out, it also has a working small city on the top of it: Soldier barracks, prison cells, a chapel, and more. This fortress also contains the second deepest well in all of Europe.
There's a connection at Konigstein to Heidelberg: At one point Konigstein had a larger wine cask than Heidelberg's famous "Heidelberg Tun". I can't find a wealth of info, however, I do know that this big boy wine cask of all wine casks is no longer here. Possibly moved or destroyed? I'm not sure. In remembrance of the great Konigstein wine barrel, they made a barrel out of wine bottles, to represent it's size, in the Magdalene castle within Konigstein grounds. We only saw a peek into the room, as the exhibit is only displayed on certain guided tours. They weren't doing that particular tour that day. Bummer.
We wandered in and out of the buildings atop the fortress. Some buildings look closed and had no signs, but we tried almost every door anyway only to find museum rooms and what not. I also bumped into the same Asian family that we saw at the bridge. The man in the group smiled at me, and said "Great minds" as we passed each other. We both laughed, and went on our way.
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