Burg Hohenzollern

Today Stewart and I took off to go site seeing. We had a date!! The kids were all in school and Stewart had the day off. We drove about an hour south to the Hohenzollern castle. The kids and I had been there two Christmas' ago with my niece Liz who was visiting. But we didn't go on the tour and well last time it was freezing. Today was perfect, not too hot, not too cool. We even took the stairs. It has been a long time since we could actually take the stairs up anywhere. We usually have a stroller and have to take the long way around. The aerial view of the castle was taken off the internet, because you just can't imagine magnificence without it.

We had a great day out, reading plaques and walking as slow or as fast as we wanted. I didn't even have to pull out water bottles or snacks for anyone.

This is actually the third Hohenzollern castle. The first one was completely destroyed in 1423. The second was neglected and mostly demolished with only the chapel being saved. The current castle was constructed in 1846.

We took the tour of the castle. The tour was in German, so we listened a little and caught a few things. But the guide mostly talked about the Hohenzollern family, something we didn't mind missing. We did enjoy the tour. Near the end of the tour, Stewart mentioned that he wished castle tours included the actual working parts of the castles, like the servants quarters, kitchens and the armories. Then we were directed under the castle and into the easements. I took a picture on yet another winding stair case and it started getting cold. This stuff is much better than the fancy bedrooms and dining rooms.

This plaque caught Stewart's eye. I didn't even think twice about it until Stewart pointed out the Freemason's symbol. I was a bit curious about it and thought it was quite intriguing to see it here. Perhaps it is because I had just read Dan Brown's novel, The Lost Symbol.































On our way out of the chapel Stewart took notice of the big door pulls, as well as what looked like bullet holes on the front of the door. We walked back down to our car and drove home to pick up the boys from school. We enjoyed our few hours of freedom.