German Castles That We Visited, Part 3

Woo hoo!  This is the final post about German castles that we visited.

Neuschwanstein.  One of the best tours we took was at Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Bavaria, which the beautiful part of Germany.  We had an excellent tour guide who told us all about King Ludwig II of Bavaria.  He built three castles--Neuschwanstein, Herrenchiemsee, and Lindenhof.  We toured Neuschwanstein on a cold, snowy day.  The Disneyland Castle was fashioned after Neuschwanstein.  We drove to the castle on a narrow winding road up a steep hill.  It was gorgeous from a distance.  It was a very ornate castle, but the room I remember the most was the kitchen.  In the kitchen were huge granite fish tanks where live fish were kept so that the King and his guests could have fresh fish whenever they wanted.  King Ludwig was a very smart man.  Neuschwanstein was centrally heated by warm air from the cellar and the ground floor.  Hot air flowed through air shafts to the rooms on the upper floors.  The heat from the big stove in the middle of the kitchen warmed the dishes in the plate-warmer, which is in the wall beside the baking oven.  In Lindenhof and Herrenchiemsee castles, the dining rooms had "magic tables."  The kitchen was below the dining room, so the dining table was lowered to the kitchen with some type of pulley.  The table would be set, including the food, then pulled up to the dining room again all ready for the King and his guests to eat.  I bet that saved the servants a lot of steps, and the food was nice and hot.

Rothenburg.  Rothenburg is very old, medieval town.  Construction of the town hall began around 1250.  There is an old wall (fortification) around part of the town that was neat to walk on and look down onto the streets and buildings.  We went inside the Saint Jacobus' Church (Gothic house of God), which was built about 1400.  It was beautiful.  I'm including Rothenburg on my list because at one time there was a castle, but it was destroyed by an earthquake in 1356, and the wall around the town gives it that castle feeling.

Medieval castle ruins at Idar-Oberstein.  Idar-Oberstein started out as two towns--Idar and Oberstein.  It is close to Baumholder, so we went there a lot to shop.  It is known for its gem and jewelry trade.  Also there is the Church of the Rock, a small chapel built into the side of a mountain.  We visited the castle ruins at least twice, climbing around the walls and through the doorways.  As a side note, when my husband and I visited the National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C. in 2004, we saw a big topaz that was cut in Idar-Oberstein.  See photo below and click to enlarge.  I hope that you can read what is written at the bottom.  If not, it says, "Topaz, 12,555 carats.  Minas Gerais, Brazil.  This pale golden topaz has more than a thousand facets.  It was cut in Idar-Oberstein, Germany, which has been a noted gem-cutting center since the 15th century."

That's all, folks....unless I've forgotten any other German castles we visited.  And you know what that means.  You'll be hearing about them too!