Pupletts in Sweden: Germany, Austria and Prague (28 Oct - 4 Nov)

Höstlov (the autumn school holidays) was the perfect time for our next trip. I had always wanted to see the castles on the west side of Germany stretching down to Austria, so I drew up a suggestion for Kristine, which involved 9 days and about 20 different castles. We both agreed that would be a bit excessive both in time and number of castles, so I cut it back to what appeared the be the best ones. Kris then pointed out that we were just over the border from Austria so we could check out some of the towns there. From the border it was only a short way to Vienna (the capital of Austria) and on our way back to Malmö we could easily pass through Prague (capital of the Czech Republic) and Berlin.

It was an ambitious plan - 3 countries, over 3000km in 8 days, but we'd done worse!

The plan

We started on the 28th of October, which was Kristine's birthday, by heading out about 9:30am and driving over the Öresesund Bridge, through Denmark and down to Rødby. From there we caught the ferry over to Puttgarden and the Border Shop. We did a little shopping and then headed down to our first stop - Dortmund. We arrived quite late so checked into our apartment, the Do Suites.

The next day we started early and headed out to check out the BVB Dortmund (Borussia Dortmund) Soccer Stadium, formerly known as Westfalenstadion (after the Westphalia region), but now called Signal Iduna Park (for sponsorship reasons).

The stadium us one of the most famous in Europe and has a capacity of over 81,000 - largest in Germany and 7th largest in Europe.. Construction was finished in 1974.

Front of the stadium

BVB Dortmund

Side of the stadium

From there we headed off to our next objective and I achieved something I'd always wanted:

Listening to Rammstein in Germany - it's not as good as a concert, but oh well

For some reason this place had an Aussie flag - and the sign is pointing to the interestingly named Pornic

Driving through one of the small towns in Northwest Germany

Our next stop was Essen. Kristine's main reason for wanting to head here was to visit a town with the same name as one of her friends (surname).

The sign says "Essen - the Shopping City"

After taking a few photos of Essen signs and raising the train station for souvenirs (it was early Sunday morning so the shops weren't open) we came across a really cool fountain and water play area. It was about 8 degrees C, so not perfect water weather, but the kids (and Kris) had fun playing with changing the flow of water:

Water Play

Fountains


Statue of Heinrich Reisner (details below)

This is what he is reading (translation below)

"Every person has the right to education and access to vocational training and further education. Article 14 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. Heinrich Reisner, Patron and supporter of life-long learning in technology and economics"

Cameron deeply considering his right to education

And more Aussie flags...

Our next drive was down to Schloss Drachenburg (Drachenburg Castle) on the Drachenfels (Dragon Rocks). To reach the castle we needed to walk up the hill a way. The weather had started to turn nasty with a pretty strong wind and a sprinkle of rain.

We followed a tramline up the hill to the castle:

Tram Line up the hill

As we walked up, we came across a variety of dragon-themed shops (Drachenburg means Dragon-Castle - well since Schloss also means castle I'm guessing the place is literally Castle Dragon Castle).

The area is named after dragons, because legend says that this is where the hero Siegfried (in the Nibelungenlied saga) killed the dragon Fafnir.

Angela's Dragon Herb Garden

The Nibelung Hall

The Nibelunghalle is situated in the spot where Seigfried supposedly slew the dragon. It is a reptile house and display of the legend (the actual site referenced in the saga is unknown, so many placed have claimed the credit - this is one of them). We didn't have enough time to visit though, so we continued on.

From outside the castle there wasn't a really good view:

Schloss Drachenburg

Walking around to the entrance

We decided to pay to go and have a look around the castle - we didn't have enough time to do the full internal tour, but the views were pretty cool.

Schloss Drachenburg was built in 1882-1884 as a private palace, it was originally planned to be the home of Baron Stephan von Sarter (a banker and stockbroker) but he never lived there. The paace is now owned by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Nearby is the ruins of the Burg Drachenfels which was built in 1138 by the Archbishop Arnold I of Cologne. Drachenfels was slighted (deliberately destroyed by the owners to prevent enemy use) in 1634.

First view of Schloss Drachenburg

Walking up to the castle

Main Tower

Doors to the the former stable/garage

View of the Rhine from the front

More views

Looking down the Rhine

Dragon / Gargoyle

Front of the castle

Front Door


Rear / Side of the castle

By the time we got to the rear of the castle it was really starting to get windy - the kids took shelter behind the wall:

Our next stop was the village of Cochem, the biggest town in and seat of the Cochem-Zell district. Despite being the 'biggest town' in the district, it only has approximately 5000 inhabitants.

Our main goal was to see Cochem castle, but the town itself was amazingly beautiful and the castle was way up on the mountains above it.

The town is an ancient one, situated on the banks of the river Moselle (which runs through France, Luxembourg and Germany) it was founded before 886. The castle was first mentioned in documents in 1130.

When we drove into the town it was surprisingly busy - it turns out that we had arrived on Cochem Oktoberfest day!

Saint Remaclus' Church on the far bank of Cochem

The Enderttor - one of the originally city gates

There is a legend relating to the Enderrtor gate - when the Knight Franz von Sickingen tried to attack the town the citizens were unsure how to deal with the threat. They rolled all of their heavy, empty wine barrels down on knights and many were injured. When the knights realised that the barrels were empty, they left the town alone, expecting that a town that only had empty wine barrels wasn't worth looting.

Fountain and the Saint Remaclus' Church

While Saint Remaclus' Church looks old and matches the old style of the city, it is surprisingly new, built in 1963. The plan was to build an impressive building on the far side of the river to create a counterpoint to the castle on the other side.

The Oktoberfest tent was packed!

Oktoberfest

Model of Cochem Castle in the Visitor Centre.

Bridge over the River Moselle

A model wine-press converted into a mini garden

Saint Martin's Church

Spire of the church

Interesting alley

The far bank of the river

Reichsburg Cochem (Cochem Imperial Castle)

Main street

This lovely set of Lederhosen could be yours for only 90 Euro

This was my favourite shop - I bought the dragon fire sword in the bottom middle

A tower with flood markers - the highest one is from 22nd Dec 1993

Flood markers

Far bank

The bridge

Main Street

Tomas found this 'camouflage'

Despite my potential excitement, it turns out that 'Fuchsloch' means Fox Hole.

High water marks on the building in the photo above

Eagle statue over the top of the railway line

We'd almost finished our exploring for the day, but we had one last stop - a final castle - Burg Eltz.

Burg Eltz is located above the Moselle river and has been owned by the same family (the Eltz) since the 12th century (for 33 generations!). It is well situated on a 70m high rocky outcrop and surrounded by the Elzbach river.

The castle was built in the 9th century, starting as a manor with a palisade and becoming a walled fortress in 1157 to protect Frederick Barbarossa's empire.

We arrived in a carpark and paid 5 euro to park. The attendant told us to take a shuttle bus down to the castle. One was waiting so we hopped in, it was 2 euro per person each way - which doesn't sound like much until you factor 5 people in 2 directions (20 euro or about $40). We were pretty disappointed to find that the castle was actually only about 800m from the carpark and we could easily have walked without needing to pay. Oh well, it was worth it. Entry into the castle grounds was free, but there was a paid internal tour. We decided to just have a look around ourselves.