Our First Castle!!

Last Saturday we went to Nanstein Castle in Landstuhl (about 20 minutes away).  It was SO much fun!!!  Seth was especially excited about visiting the castle.  It was in much better condition than we expected it to be in and was so neat to explore.  I took a lot of pictures... I probably went overboard on the blog post, but I couldn't decide which ones to post - hopefully you don't mind!! :)

Okay, so first off here is a little history behind Nanstein Castle of Landstuchl Germany...

Nanstein Castle is the landmark of the Sickingenstadt.  It was erected in 1150 AD by emperor Friedrich Barbarossa above a 15 meter high sandstone ledge.  It is the place where Franz von Sickingen, one of the last knights, died in 1523.  Franz von Sickingen died on the 7th of May after the surrender of the Castle as a result of the injuries he sustained during the battle for the Castle.  The Castle contains building material from five centuries.  There was a moat around the castle at one time and of course a draw bridge, but I'm not sure of the exact location of either one.

Now for the pictures!

 Why was this sign by the road leading to the castle?

 Because it was EXTREMELY narrow and steep and the least amount of traffic the better!!

 A view of the hotel from up by the castle - it looked like a nice place

 Seth's first castle

 The challenge of sight seeing in another country - you often can't understand the signs!! :)  Thankfully they had a pamphlet in English.

 The Battery Tower from 1518

 Walking by the castle wall to the entrance - this is the oldest part of the ruins from about 1150

 Another sign - this one had some in German AND English

 By the entrance

 Looking up the circular area inside the archway

 On the castle walls!

 The view of the village from the castle

 This tree is growing out of the ruins

 This was a little window from one of the stairwells

 Inside the castle walls

 Here is a view of the castle and the village from the air

 Exploring

 Here are some of the original rocks with different symbols on them that have fallen from the walls

 This is a view through a metal barred door into a room - we thought maybe it was the dungeon! :)

 Up and up we go!

 Looking out from inside

 Isn't the view spectacular?!

 Looking out from the top of the castle

 Now we're going down!

 This is the original cellar

 Does this look familiar?

 It goes all the way through the wall to where we parked our car

 You can see all that sandstone

 More of the fallen rocks with the designs

 Seth and Sayer by a suit of armor

Then Shenandoah wanted her picture taken too!