Hohenzollern

This afternoon, after Brad and Mark rented a van for us for the rest of the week -- a 9 passenger Opal van that takes the same parking space size as a car -- pictured here.  Able to get us all into a vehicle finally, since there was no way the six of us were going to fit into my five person Passat, we headed out to Hohenzollern castle to see our second castle of the week.  Brad and I've been there before so with the tour book telling us the hours were 10:00 - 4:30, we thought we had it covered.

Arriving a Hohenzollern, we drove up to the visitor parking lot - not a car to be seen, the tourist shop isn't open, snow covers the parking lot.  I was thinking that our plan had completely backfired.  But, since we were there, we thought we'd at least give it a try and hike up to the base of the castle and take some pictures.  The stairs were closed, and covered with snow, so we walked along the winding road.  A car drives down, and I get that nervous feeling in my stomach that they are going to stop and tell us we're trespassing since the Castle (or Burg in German) is closed.  Car drives by us.  Since I know people work at the castle, I figure that's who's coming by.    Keep hiking, breaking a sweat since it's a 100 m height increase in a mile of walking.  Next car approaches - nervous again I wait - nothing.  When the third car passes - A TAXI - I'm thinking - this could be fine.  We get to the base of the castle, the drawbridge is open but the place we've always paid to enter is closed and locked.  Since the gate is open, we keep going.  Next car...nothing...

Finally we're in the castle courtyard, freezing our butts off in spite of the hike up to the top.  Nothing is open - until we go into the area where the tourist store is - and it's OPEN!  Yay!  Maybe we're not trespassing after all!!!  We head into a new area, where a woman comes out.  When asked, she tells us it is still open, and yes, there's a tour in 20 minutes if we'd like.  Since us and 4 students were the only tourists, and we were all english speakers, we got an English tour.  It was great, since we've been here three times and never understood the guide.  I learned new things - the dress in the treasure room is covered in 20 lbs of silver thread, and was worn by the queen when talking terms with Napoleon.  The current king still owns the castle, though he's 33 years old.  Earthquakes affect the castle, the last one causing $18,000,000 in damages, and other interesting facts.  Altogether, our bravery in hiking up disregarding the below freezing weather and long hike, was time well spent.  Here's some pictures of our day for you to enjoy.