Visiting Germany’s Hohenzollern Castle

It was only after my visit and when I started writing this blog post that I realized I had written about Hohenzollern Castle not once but twice before on Sparkles and Shoes – once in 2015 in the post 16 Beautiful European Castles and the second time at the start of last year in the post Seven of My Dream Destinations.  And do you know what?  It was worth inclusion on those lists and then some! 

Getting to Hohenzollern Castle is tricky if you attempt to go via public transport but since I rented a car it was an easy hour drive down from Stuttgart, Germany.  Before visiting this castle high on the hill  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:

Drove down from the lookout point and then back up the hill, roughly 2/3 of the way to the castle.  Because of the rain and photo stop I did not make it there as early as I wanted, roughly about 11am and was one of the first cars that had to park in the second parking lot lower down the hill as the first was full.  The walk was 20 minutes nearly straight up hill but it was definitely worth it by the time I scanned my ticket, crossed the drawbridge, and began winding my way up the spiral ramp past the dungeons into the castle.  And to make it even better about 15 minutes after I arrived at the top of the castle the clouds parted and the blue sky began to emerge. 

On most days tickets are € 7 to visit the castle grounds or € 12 to visit the grounds and see the interior via a guided tour.  However, there are handful of days a year where the castle expects so many visitors you can visit the interior rooms without a tour, days called a Royal Castle Stroll, and as I visited on a busy Saturday in August, it was one of the later.  I was quite sad when I found out pictures were not allowed inside but I borrowed a guide book from the Hohenzollern Castle information center and dutifully donned a pair of grey oversized slippers over my shoes to shuffle / slide around the main rooms of castle.  And I do not want to bore you here but if you ever want to take a read of the full castle history it is quite fascinating! 

On my way out someone pointed out that the family flag was flying which meant that the current owner, Prince George Frederick of Prussia, which just made all of my castle dreams that much more real – and it is clear why more than 300,000 people visit this beauty on the top of Mount Hohenzollern every year. 

Would you visit Hohenzollern Castle ?