Five Castles in One Day

Yesterday was likely our last nice weekend day of the year here so we went for a hike on the German-French border that was mostly in France and took us past 4 castles. Then we drove to another castle after that to see a total of 5 castles in one day. This hike would be amazing to do during peak foliage season, which is usually early November in this region.



The first castle, Wegelnburg. Note that when I say "castle" what I really mean in most cases is "ruin". But the ruins are well maintained and you can still get to the top of the castles for a great view of the surrounding countryside.



Some neat cairns along the trail:



The second castle, Hohenbourg.



The view looking back toward the first castle, you can just see bits of it on the hill:



In this picture you can see the fourth castle, in the middle of the left side of the picture.



Looking up toward the top of Hohenbourg.



We were on the ghost trail and the castle trail. I didn't realize the ghost trail existed before we set out but now I want to learn more about it. Also, the castle trail can take you to seven castles if you so desire but the walk is 20km and we didn't feel like walking that much yesterday. If you only do four castles the walk is a much more mangeable 10km.



The third castle, Löwenstein, was just a few rocks so we didn't stop and climb to the top here.



Just a nice view along the way.



The fourth castle, Fleckenstein, is up on the hill in the picture below. It was the most well-preserved of the four castles along the hike and also had a lot of fun activities for kids. It cost a few euros to go in.



Next we stopped for lunch. There is a great hotel-restaurant in Gimbelhof, which the hike takes you right to. The menu is quite extensive and all the food is amazing (it is in France after all). We started with a ham appetizer and it was delicious. Then Martin had some duck breast and I had pasta with veg, chicken, and a cream sauce. Plus wine, of course. It was hard to walk after all that. There was also a very good looking dessert menu.



The plates we used were super cute:



About 5 minutes away by car from the start of the hike, back in Germany, is Burg Berwartstein. This was our final stop. We did a little tour of the inside of this castle since it was not only fully intact but also still inhabited which is rare these days.



There was a tiny chapel that was very dark except for this bit of stained glass. Kind of creepy:



A flyer showing what the castle looks like from the outside:



The pic we took looking straight up from the outside. When castles are in the middle of the forest and up on a hill it's almost impossible to get a good picture of the whole castle from a distance.