The Tale of Schloss Weissenstein

It started out a sad story, but in the end the Tale of Schloss Weissenstein is a happy little story about three adventurers in Germany. 

We left the house on a mission to find some ruins to wander through...  2 hours later we were discouraged and a little grumpy.  (I wasn't grumpy...JOHN was grumpy.)  Ok...I was grumpy...  We had made it to our destination via GPS coordinates and alas...it was the middle of a town and there were zero castle ruins to be found.  So we got out the map and plotted how we might get to the "red triangle" from where we were.  I suggested just 4 wheeling it...but John didn't think our little Subaru could handle the uphill wooded terrain. 

Wimpy.

Instead we just kept driving...and just when we were about to give up and turn around we saw THE SIGN.

Schloss Weissenstein!

It was rainy and super humid.  Yucky combination for those of us accustomed to Pacific Northwest rain with no humidity.  We hopped out at the trailhead to see how far the ruins were from the parking area and Bella and I did a little happy dance when we discovered it was only 1.5 Kilometers!  That's less than a mile. 

I think their measuring was wrong...we walked much more than a mile...but then again it might have been the paths we took...that is one bad thing about living in Germany and speaking German as badly as I speak it.  I can't read the signs...unless they say things like, "W.C.", Toilletten, Gasthaus...  But if it says, Castle is this way....  I can essentially read the word castle and thats about it.

Anyhow...we started off...and would you believe it when I saw this...

Here we are spending family time walking down a gorgeous wooded German trail and he's texting?  There is something very wrong with this picture.  He put it away quickly...I think I shamed him into it.

Part of the trail was incredibly fun to walk on...roots, rocks, dips...it reminded me of the kinds of woods I imagine in the Little Red Riding Hood story...

We were just getting to the point of thinking we must have made a wrong turn when we turned a corner and saw this...

Taduum!  The ruins of Schloss Weissenstein....aren't they amazing.  Essentially it was a castle built into those giant granite rock structures.  It wasn't very big, but it was incredibly interesting and beautiful....

We explored around the bottom first...it was mostly tumbled rock wall, overgrown vegetation (with WAY too much stinging nettle for my liking) and little dirt trails down to the lower walls...and then we found her...

She was just sitting there in a little clearing...with some German inscription I couldn't read, but I thought she was beautiful...she reminds me a little bit of my sister, Emma.  Its the hair and the face...  Beautiful.

We found some hidden nooks and crannies and I had to examine the precarious nature of the overhangs.  Huge holes where there must have been rock at some point.  It was just amazing to me how much work went into shaping this castle home.

And then it was time to go up...

All the way to the top structure and then up the scariest stares ever that were about 5 inches deep to the tippity top of the castle...

But the view was amazing and totally worth the climb...

And then we looked down....

And then we WALKED down...and took a picture of our humid trip to the ruins...

 
And went home happy and satisfied.  :)

The end.