In the clouds - Burg Hohenzollern

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The post cards show Hohenzollern Castle as this beautiful gothic-style castle high on a hill (http://www.preussen.de/de/heute/burg_hohenzollern.html) We didn't have that view going up as snow was predicted. So for me it was a castle in the clouds. But it was one of the coolest castles I have been to. The first room we got to go in had the whole family tree on the walls, Prussian Kings, Kaisers and all! Even the members of the family who are still living. It is one of the pictures on the official site above. We couldn't take pictures inside, so you might as well check it out. For all the single ladies, one of the living is a bachelor (and attractive)!

The next room reminded me that I should never go the cheap route and skip having a tour guide. Not only was he entertaining & a good story-teller, I realized that I would have walked through the next room The Count's Room and thought "oh pretty" and never would have learned about the style of the room being pulled for four other famous middle age castles (Hampton Court, for example) or understood why there were 48 candles in each chandelier (12 x4...12 being an important number in Germany...after the 12 apostles, 12 meaning harmony...etc). And THAT was before I got to learn about Fredreich the Great and his dogs. Did you know that only the dogs were allowed to live in the castle with him (not his wife) and he had 11 or 13 (can't remembe) dogs. The last one was named Hassenfuss (rabbit foot) which essentially means "coward". He wanted to be buried in the castle with his dogs, but no one listened to his last wishes until 200 years later (after he had literally been unburied several times and traipsed around Germany...east and west). But even MORE interesting was the fact that George Washington (yes the one you are thinking about) admired Fred the Great and as a result, when they were trying to figure out what kind of leadership America should have during the fight for independence, at some point they asked Henriech, his favourite brother, to be the King of America. Apparently Henry said he would have to visit and see what it was like, so he did and when he got back to Germany he said he would do it, but by then there had been a change of plans and the US had decided to be a democracy. Who knew there was an almost-king of America?? Not me. Much more interesting story if you ask me! Also in the castle was the last letter ever written by George Washington in his role as president. It was written to Steuben (don't know the title), but he was involved in the military fighting on the US' behalf. Good history-tellers remind me that I like history. Speaking of which we totally got talking about the Romanov's in Russia over dinner tonight (clearly my favourite period of Russian history!).

I managed to avoid raw meat today in my German feasting. Although I may gain 20 lbs in a week if we keep getting such good, but huge portions of food! We got to have schnitzel and spatzle and fladlessuppe....mmm...oh and German-style breakfast with deli-meat, cheese, yummy bread and nutella.

So all in all, my day of hanging out in the clouds was fun, and I got to practice using my second-language brain, and at least talking with a German accent, if not always actual German words. I can usually ask the question I want to ask in Deutsch, but often find that I don't understand the answer.

Off to eliminate the reminents of jetlag 😊

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