Last weekend Craig and Jessica finally joined me in lovely lush Germany. With them came two loud, complaining cats and one very confused dog. Freyja had definitely missed me, and especially missed sleeping in my bed at night.

Everyone took the week to settle in and start soaking in the sights, sounds, smells and feels of the new place. After the jetlag started wearing off, we got to the weekend once more.

We decided to go tour the Nanstein castle ruins in Landstuhl. Unlike on Thanksgiving when I went on my first hike in the area, the ruins themselves were actually open. 6 Euros each and we were free to roam the interior of the structure. The castle was first there about the year 1100 or so, but it was extensively remodeled in the 1500s and 1600s for warfare with artillery and guns.

It was neat to go through the castle with a couple of first-timers, watching the curiosity and emotion of seeing something so old that has been there so long. The castle has a great vantage of the town and the surrounding areas, and we were able to go all the way up to the very top to see all the way out.

The natural limestone that the castle is built on is this gorgeous red color. It’s built out of a lot of that limestone, but they also pulled in stones from other sources. In the basement of the large artillery round there is a relief of the god Mercury that was repurposed from a 4th century shrine either on the castle grounds or brought in from somewhere else.

Also in the artillery area, there was a cannon with some speakers and lights hooked up to it so that you could experience a bit of what it would be like to be at war in the castle. It was also really interesting to experience the closed feeling of being in the cellar areas of the castle, where the wet stone dripped onto the floor, and the drops made little holes in the limestone mirroring the grid of the hewn stone of the ceiling.

After touring the castle we walked back to the car through the forest in a very light rain. We had the intention to hike further but didn’t want to get caught in the rain. Another successful adventure!