My parents have just come to visit us for 12 days and we took them on a little tour around southeastern Germany and all over Switzerland (including Zürich, of course). After they spent two days in Zürich with us we drove up into southern Germany and visited Hohenzollern castle:
Impressive, no? It sits on a 855m high hill kind of in the middle of nowhere in southern Germany (closest town is Hechingen). It is owned by the Hohenzollern family (currently by the Prince of Prussia) and is the ancestral seat of the Prussian Royal House. The original castle was burned down in 1423 and was rebuilt to be stronger and bigger but was neglected over the years and fell into ruins. The castle that stands there now was built in 1819 by Crown Prince Frederick William of Prussia, who wanted to have a castle there as a memorial to his ancestors. It looks nothing like the original castle and was never actually lived in or used for anything other than a tourist destination. That just made it less exciting for me because I couldn't go through the castle and think to myself that somebody had actually slept in this room or eaten in that room or signed an important letter in another room. But it was neat to look at for sure and the view from it was amazing - you could apparently see the Black Forest from it on a clear day. Here's some of the view:
And here's my parents enjoying the castle:
Our stop at this castle was just a few hours' break during our trip up to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, where we stayed for 3 nights.
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