Everyone should know by now that I LOVE castles.
I will almost always go out of my way for a castle, and being the navigator in the car has it's perks.
My husband will ask "Is this castle on the way home?" and I will answer "Yeah!"
Sometimes it's not on the way home, and because I'm the navigator, sometimes he doesn't realize it wasn't on the way home until we're already halfway there.
Yes, I am a jerk.
Hohenzollern castle was one of the few castles that was not necessarily on the way home, but it was 110% worth the fib!
We only went about 45 minutes off course to reach Hohenzollern. I promise.
I have been patiently waiting to visit this this particular castle since we arrived in Germany. I'll be honest, I didn't know much about this castle before moving here. I was forced to stare at a photo of it in my hotel for a month upon arrival, so I decided to learn and research a bit about it!
Knowledge is power.
Anyway, we had arrived at the castle around 10:00am. We came from the Black Forest area, so the drive to it was about an hour and a half long. I typically have a 'thing' regarding our arrival times at tourist sites; I try to be there early or right at opening time. Usually our timing is planned, but on this day it wasn't and I am grateful that our opening time arrival worked out in our favor ( I wouldn't know that it did until later).
We paid €28 for the family admission. Most castles have a few different types of tickets to choose from, but this one did not: You pay, or you don't.
You can walk around the grounds for free, or you can pay to not only to walk the grounds, but to tour the inside as well. Whenever possible, I choose to tour the inside. I don't want any regrets when I leave this country, and regrets include royal interiors.
Once tickets are in hand, one climbs up the insufferable hill (more like a mountain), gasps for air, and finally arrives at the castle gate.
All six of us were winded, and so were the folks behind us as well. We stopped to catch our breath and then entered through the gate.
We walked through another gate, and were greeted with another sunken garden before hitting the top level of the castle. Once at the top, you can see for miles and miles. One of my favorite photos of the day was of the church being swallowed by the surrounding forest. Pretty neat, and no, it was not photoshopped.
Before hitting the courtyard, I found this little iron gate door. It was locked, but I wanted inside for a reason: Through the door, there is a small cemetery.
The grave markers and headstones are visible from a distance, but the grave hunter in me wasn't satisfied with looking from afar. The folks who are buried here are a mixture of different families. According to Find-a-Grave (yes, I am actively on there), there are three royals buried here, but from what I could see there looked to be four if not five graves. From my research, I can tell you that the confirmed graves belong to Russian and German royals.
By the way, I never did get in, although I looked for another entry way later in the tour. I'm still sad.
On the left side of the courtyard, there is a tiny chapel (see door below). There isn't much to the inside of it, but I thought the light coming through the window that shines on the knight statue was pretty. I've seen majestic cathedrals and this wasn't one of them. It was, as I said, more like a chapel.
We finally decided to tour the inside of Hohenzollern. Unfortunately, photos are not allowed in the tour and there are castle employees through every curve of the tour to enforce the no photo rule.
Before we started walking through the castle, the woman who greeted us at the entry asked the kids if they wanted to wear royal robes for the tour. Before they could answer, she laid one on each of them anyway. In her soft, friendly German accent, she excitedly said "There! Prince and princesses in der castle!"
My kids looked amused and sort of confused. We had never been on a castle tour that robed our prince and princesses before. Even though the "no photography" sign was posted, the lady asked if I wanted to take a quick picture, and of course, I did.
I will almost always go out of my way for a castle, and being the navigator in the car has it's perks.
My husband will ask "Is this castle on the way home?" and I will answer "Yeah!"
Sometimes it's not on the way home, and because I'm the navigator, sometimes he doesn't realize it wasn't on the way home until we're already halfway there.
Yes, I am a jerk.
Hohenzollern castle was one of the few castles that was not necessarily on the way home, but it was 110% worth the fib!
We only went about 45 minutes off course to reach Hohenzollern. I promise.
I have been patiently waiting to visit this this particular castle since we arrived in Germany. I'll be honest, I didn't know much about this castle before moving here. I was forced to stare at a photo of it in my hotel for a month upon arrival, so I decided to learn and research a bit about it!
Knowledge is power.
Anyway, we had arrived at the castle around 10:00am. We came from the Black Forest area, so the drive to it was about an hour and a half long. I typically have a 'thing' regarding our arrival times at tourist sites; I try to be there early or right at opening time. Usually our timing is planned, but on this day it wasn't and I am grateful that our opening time arrival worked out in our favor ( I wouldn't know that it did until later).
We paid €28 for the family admission. Most castles have a few different types of tickets to choose from, but this one did not: You pay, or you don't.
You can walk around the grounds for free, or you can pay to not only to walk the grounds, but to tour the inside as well. Whenever possible, I choose to tour the inside. I don't want any regrets when I leave this country, and regrets include royal interiors.
Once tickets are in hand, one climbs up the insufferable hill (more like a mountain), gasps for air, and finally arrives at the castle gate.
All six of us were winded, and so were the folks behind us as well. We stopped to catch our breath and then entered through the gate.
 |
| What did Miley Cyrus say? "There's always gonna be another mountain. I'm always gonna wanna make it move". Skip a line, skip a line..."It's the climb!" |
Once through the main gate, there's a whole lot of walking, again.
I always expect as much, and with Hohenzollern being our 24th castle, I would be dumb not to assume that my legs would be doing some major work.
This castle was different than all of the others, though. One is led through two main gates, around and around through an up hill spiral road (similar to the spiral airport parking garage roads I've seen in the United States) and then through one more gate. Once there, you can view the 'eye' of the spiral road you came from. In it sits a little garden. I was so glad I brought my fisheye lens to give y'all a better understanding.
I know from photos that the bottom of the garden doesn't look too far down, and it isn't. But most of the "spiral road" is built into the side of the mountain this castle sits on. The garden is not ground (or base) level to the initial castle gate, if that makes sense?
We walked through another gate, and were greeted with another sunken garden before hitting the top level of the castle. Once at the top, you can see for miles and miles. One of my favorite photos of the day was of the church being swallowed by the surrounding forest. Pretty neat, and no, it was not photoshopped.
Before hitting the courtyard, I found this little iron gate door. It was locked, but I wanted inside for a reason: Through the door, there is a small cemetery.
The grave markers and headstones are visible from a distance, but the grave hunter in me wasn't satisfied with looking from afar. The folks who are buried here are a mixture of different families. According to Find-a-Grave (yes, I am actively on there), there are three royals buried here, but from what I could see there looked to be four if not five graves. From my research, I can tell you that the confirmed graves belong to Russian and German royals.
By the way, I never did get in, although I looked for another entry way later in the tour. I'm still sad.
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| One of the guard statues that overlooks the land below. |
We had finally reached the courtyard. I have seen a gazillion photos of the courtyard, and they do not do it any justice. I felt tiny standing next to these castle walls!
Beautiful ivy has taken over parts of the brick, turrets standing tall, ornate doors, and statues of dead regal men all around.
I was told that visiting this castle gives you a better sense of being in a fairy tale than others, and in some ways, people were right.
On the left side of the courtyard, there is a tiny chapel (see door below). There isn't much to the inside of it, but I thought the light coming through the window that shines on the knight statue was pretty. I've seen majestic cathedrals and this wasn't one of them. It was, as I said, more like a chapel.
We finally decided to tour the inside of Hohenzollern. Unfortunately, photos are not allowed in the tour and there are castle employees through every curve of the tour to enforce the no photo rule.
Before we started walking through the castle, the woman who greeted us at the entry asked the kids if they wanted to wear royal robes for the tour. Before they could answer, she laid one on each of them anyway. In her soft, friendly German accent, she excitedly said "There! Prince and princesses in der castle!"
My kids looked amused and sort of confused. We had never been on a castle tour that robed our prince and princesses before. Even though the "no photography" sign was posted, the lady asked if I wanted to take a quick picture, and of course, I did.
Interesting history:
I had mentioned a connection between Hohenzollern and Hampton Court Palace in my London: Day One blog post. Well, here it is!
Queen Caroline (of Ansbach) was married to the king of Great Britain, King George II.
She hailed from Germany, and belonged to the House of Hohenzollern. Now, she never did live in Hohenzollern castle according to my research (the castle serves as a memorial for the family name. It has never been an official royal residence), but she did have a large connection to it because of her family ties.
A last note about the indoor tour: You are required to wear jumbo sized wool slippers over your shoes. It was kind of funny to watch young and old people sliding and gliding around the inside of a castle.
The tour was pretty short, but interesting. My two favorite rooms were the Great Hall and the 'Blue Room'. I wasn't able to take photos inside, but anyone can google this castle to see professional shots of the interior. It is pretty gorgeous.
We exited the castle tour and decided to explore the back side of Hohenzollern.
There wasn't much to the back of the castle. A few more statues of old Prussian and German kings, and a couple of rose bushes. I finally came up on the other side of the little cemetery, and once again, no possible entry into the cemetery. Oh well.
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| He reminds me of Mayor Augustus Maywho. Yep. |
Little did we know that an afternoon orchestra would be playing music in the courtyard. I am all for live music, but glad that we had arrived before the orchestra did. On top of the orchestra, a bubble posse had shown up. We see bubble people while touring cities often, but never have we seen them in a castle. So if you see a few pictures below with bubbles floating around, you now know why.
We had seen everything the castle had to offer. Toured in, out, up, down and around it's entirety. Structurally, it looks super huge, but it really isn't
Google an aerial photo of Hohenzollern castle, and be amazed. I don't own a helicopter, but if I did, I would've provided a photo for you, here.
Schloss Hohenzollern is not my favorite castle to date, but it's currently on my top ten list. Definitely worth a visit if you are ever in the area.
We waived goodbye to castle #24, and hit the road to castle #25, Burg Lichtenstein.
And if you are wondering, castle #25 was actually on the way home...
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