Drachenfels

When we were in Berlin a couple years ago, we got to see some cool castles and palaces, but they weren't really the sort of castle one thinks of, when one does think of castles. Or perhaps one's ideas of castles are constrained by an imprecision in the language. What I'm trying to say is that I never thought about the fact that there are different sorts of castles, but I guess we could say there are the medieval fortress-y types, and the 18th-century Frederick the Great types. But when I think about it, I can see that castle makes me think more of the former, and palace of the latter. And I think that the German language has this same distinction (though I could be wrong, having picked all this up indirectly); that is, burg for the fortress-type and schloss for the palace-type. (Then there's this distinction, but let's not get into that.)

Anyway, though I loved the Berlin palaces, I also was hoping someday we would get to see some real CASTLE castles. So I was excited to learn that there were some not far (by train) from Düsseldorf. In fact, there was one place where there was both a burg and a schloss, both of which had similar names and I'm still a little confused about it. One was Burg Drachenfels and one was Schloss Drachenburg (so…Palace DragonCastle?). But at any rate the city they were in was called Königswinter, which, accordingly, we set out for. It took us awhile to decipher the train schedules, but at last we made it.

We walked past the little town, and then to the bottom of a big hill where there was a rack-and-pinion railway! I was very pleased about this, since we had ridden a funicular railway in Italy, and at the time I thought to myself, "Now if only I could ride a on rack-and-pinion train, my specialty-train-related life would be complete." Haha. Most trains can't go on a grade steeper than around 2%, so on steep hills, there are sometimes special trains that use cogs or pulleys to keep them on the tracks. A funicular railway uses a pulley system, and a rack-and-pinion has gears or cogs that grip a special track. (If you want to know more—and why wouldn't you?—go here.)

We hurried onto the train without getting to look around much, and I said to Sam, "If only I could see the cogs working under us! I need to be able to describe it to Sebastian!" So I was happy when, in the little train station on the way down, we saw this:

As you can see, there are two regular train wheels on the sides, and then the special gear-wheel in the middle, which climbs up the grooves in the middle track. The parts lock together to stop the train from rolling back downhill. Cool, right? And this particular railway, the Drachenfelsbahn, is OLD, too—I read later that it has been around since 1883!

When we got out of the train at the top of the hill, we were greeted by this amazing view of the Rhine. It was so beautiful! Then behind us, at the very top of the hill, we could see these castle ruins:

The forest-covered hills around us (this area is called the Siebengebirge, or "seven hills") were so pretty! The leaves weren't brilliantly-colored, and I don't know if that's because they never are, or because it was the wrong time of year for it, but there was a generally warm cast to the trees, with the occasional bright tree or branch for contrast. 

And of course, down by the river it was so GREEN. I never get tired of green.

We hiked up the hill (the hill itself is called drachenfels, the dragon rock—it's where Siegfried from the epic poem killed the dragon) to the castle ruins. The sky was perfect for it: moody and slightly threatening. Those crumbling stone walls against the sky evoked two types of "history" feelings for me, which I don't know if I can describe, but one was the sort of medieval awe you'd expect from a castle this old. Knights, fortresses, moats. Marvelings about just how OLD these stones must be, and what kind of world made people pour their efforts into such fortifications. But the second feeling was almost a Romantic-era nostalgia for that ancient past. I kept imagining all the poets and musicians that wandered these hills and were so struck by the old ruins that they told stories about them. So many layers of the past! It's hard to even comprehend it. But I love being somewhere that makes me want to TRY!

Ky loved the pure ancientness of the ruins. I think it really caught his imagination, just like it did for the Romantic poets. He took pictures of practically every stone (and then had to hoard his camera battery life jealously for the rest of the day).

On the way up we'd seen that there was a walking path through the forest, and everything was so pretty that I wanted to see more of it, so we started walking down instead of riding the railway. The ground was carpeted with leaves, and the sun was going in and out of the clouds—it was like a fairytale.

Above the trees we could see the turrets (towers?) of the other castle peeking out. That was Schloss Drachenburg. (By the way, do you know the German letter ß? It may look like a "B," but it's really a double-S, so you sometimes see it written like Schloß Drachenburg. So many things made sense to me once I learned that!)

Ky was quite taken with the configuration of this lamppost

Just a short walk, and then we were there! As you can tell by the name schloss, this was the "palace" type of castle, and I read that a rich baron in the 1880's built it as an attempt to re-create the type of castle he imagined from the "old days." We couldn't read any of the informational signs, but when a tour group came by I heard the guide say something about "architektonisch mishmash," and you could see that it was. Victorian and Renaissance and Romanesque all jumbled together. 

This was the entryway, where you bought tickets to go into the castle itself. I'm guessing it was a carriage house or guest house or something originally? 

And there was a stately driveway, in which was parked a Rolls Royce! Malachi was SO excited about that. He took a zillion pictures of it. We decided it was probably there for the wedding we saw evidence of later.

The schloss was gorgeous inside. Lots of ornate woodwork, and paintings and murals. In the sort of chapel area there was a wedding going on—well-dressed guests arriving in pairs, and a lovely Indian bride in a hugely poufy red gown. I say "sort of chapel" because I don't know if that's ever what it was used for. The stained glass windows were all devoted to artists and writers and philosophers, rather than saints.

My favorite part of Schloss Drachenburg, though, was the outside! There was a very small garden area, with well-manicured hedges and trees, and a few statues…

…but there was no need for extensive grounds with such a picturesque view to look out upon! It couldn't have been lovelier.

I really think this was one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. I tried so hard to take everything in fully; you know how you do, trying to memorize the sounds and the breeze and the smell of the air. But it's already faded, anyway. I look at these pictures and I know it was even prettier than they can show, but I can't remember exactly what it was that made everything seem so perfect. The sweet little warm weight of baby Ziggy sleeping against my chest was part of it too, I'm sure, and being with Sam, and seeing Malachi's excitement and amazement at every new sight. I just loved every second of this day. And it wasn't over yet…