Our ride through the vineyards today (Nov 13) along the "Route des Vins d'Alsace" has led us to a site very common in this region. A Castle! High above the vineyards sits "Chateau du Haute-Koenigsbourg" . And lucky for us, the Castle is open today!
However, it is 12 noon and when we arrive we discover that the Castle is closed during the lunch hour and the ticket office will reopen at 1:00pm. Perfect!
Without a ticket we are allowed to walk just inside the walls of the Castle and get a glimpse of what's in store for us after lunch. And as luck would have it, there is a cafe just inside these walls!
After a nice warm bowl of soup, we purchase our tickets at only 7.50 euros each and start our tour of this 12th century Castle with a climb up the stone staircase.
Restoration was done from the period of 1900 to 1908. The Castle was then fully restored again in 1993 and classified as a historical monument. So as we walk through all the different rooms and hallways we can see the changes made to the Castle through the centuries.One interesting piece we see in almost every room is the massive ceramic fireplaces.
And of course what is a Castle without a room full of armory?
Or a draw bridge.....though this one was quite small.
The views from here are magnificent, looking out over the Alsace plain as far as the Black Forest and even the Alps.
Well we have spent about 2 hours roaming around this Castle admiring the history that is evident throughout with it's stone walls, displays of cannons and armory and ancient gardens.
So we say good-bye and head out the door to finish our day of driving along the "Route des Vins d'Alsace."
There are so many more pictures to see of this fabulous Castle~ Just click here "Where's Debbie" and then click on the album "Chateau du Haut Koenigsbourg"
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI've been reading your blog for awhile...love the pictures and destinations! Anyway...I have a question.
I recently started noticing that some of your blog posts say "today" in the text but then refer to other dates that are different from the posting date (and are not the "today" timeframe either?). So I was just wondering what's the reason behind writing it that way? Just curious...
--Meliha
Hi Meliha,
ReplyDeleteI am so glad to hear that you are enjoying my blog!
Good question! I've never really thought about that to hard so let's see if I can explain it here.
I guess I feel that telling the story in the moment puts the readers there with me. But because I am so behind I had decided to add the date that coincides with the story. Example: today (Nov 13) we....... I used to change the posting date to the date of the event, but it just didn't look right to me. Posted let's say November 13, 2009, when in fact the day it finally shows up on my blog is January 28th. So I've left the posting date alone and let it be the day I post the story.
I think I was thinking more of current readers rather than someone who would come to my blog, say through a google search. They of course wouldn't know that I was so late in posting my story...:)
You have really got me thinking now on the best way to post my stories. Ultimately, it would be to write them immediately. But as an example, I am back in Europe right now and i have been here since Dec 28th. So of course these stories are late! I am trying to catch up now so that when I head down to Portugal on Feb 11 I will be caught up! And I would love to be completely caught up by the time I go back home to the States on Feb 27th because we have a great road trip planned through the Northwest!
One can hope! :)
I really appreciate your comment and I am going to run this past my boyfriend and get his input.
Thank you again,
Debbie