A Weekend of German Castles

International adventures two weekends in a row with recaps the following day on the blog?  This must be a record!  This weekend I went a little bit nuts, if you were following me on Instagram.  I had to be in the South of Germany for work on Friday so instead of flying back that evening, I had my flight moved to Sunday night and planned two days to explore the castles!  Granted, there are more than 2,000 spread throughout the country so there is no way I could have seen them all but I was able to see four on my German castle road trip.  (And you know, I have a thing for castles). 

On Saturday I took a car from the Stuttgart airport and drove down to Hohenzollern castle.   I had done some research and instead of driving straight to the castle I headed up a nearby mountain, parked at a small hotel, and took a 20 minute walk through the woods (albeit on a nice path) to the castle overlook.  Perhaps it was because it was raining or it was 9am on a Saturday morning but I was the only person there and got some great shots with my Tripod.  Then I headed to the actual castle for it’s 10am opening and realised the walk from parking lot 2 was no joke – literally straight up hill.   A wander around the grounds and a tour later it was off to Lichtenstein castle.   Since I arrived after mid day the only tours left were in Germany and since you need a tour to go in, German it was.  Even though I did not understand much it was still enjoyable and they had an English brochure so I could follow along.  Then I drove two hours down to Füssen and though I was exhausted went out for a bite to eat and wander.  And was rewarded with most glorious sunset. 

On Sunday,  the holy grail, Nueschwanstein.   My visit to this castle was actually the reason I stayed in Füssen, it was only a six minute drive and I was able to arrive just past 7am.   I was afraid it wouldn’t live up to it’s hype but it was worth it and enjoyed a wander around the neighbouring Hohenschwangau Castle as an added bonus.  Then took the very long way (i.e through Austria and Switzerland) back to Stuttgart with a quick trip to the beautiful lake city of Konstanz and then back to the airport.  All in all that was close to 40,000 steps, 728 kilometres driven, 517 photos taken, 98 flights climbed, 4 castles toured, and 2 busy days resulting in a very tired but happy Kelly.

Hope you enjoyed the few snapshots and get ready for a deep dive by castle with tips and recommendations on what I would have done differently! Let me know if there is anything from this German castle road trip summary you would like me to cover in more detail!