The unique thing about Marksburg Castle is that it is the only castle on the Rhine in Germany that wasn’t destroyed during a war (the other castles have all been destroyed at one time or another and rebuilt). So you are actually looking at what this castle really looked like 500 years ago.
Getting to Marksburg Castle
We took a train to the Brauburg station. From there it was a 20 minute walk, mostly uphill, to the castle. There were taxis near the train station for those who did not want to walk.
The Castle Tour
Admission is €6, which includes the tour . When you first walk in, you walk along a stone walkway – not neatly cut stones placed like tiles, but rather solid rock worn smooth from hundreds of years of humans and horses crossing it.
We passed through room after room of simple, spartan surroundings. I actually enjoyed this as I would rather see what things really were like, instead of something set up simply to impress the tourists.
Though one room must have been more important than the others as the walls were covered in frescoes.
We went back outside
and got a nice view of the Rhine.
The Armory
We went then went back inside and into the armory and got to see a number of suits of armor from through the ages. My highlight was that I got to try on a real knight’s helmet! It wasn’t very comfortable.
I even learned a cool story. Since a knight’s helmet covered his head, you couldn’t tell who the knight was. It became tradition to raise the faceplate using your right hand so you could see who was “the man behind the mask”. This tradition continued even after they stopped wearing helmets with faceplates, and became what we know now as a military salute.
What did she say?
After the armory, our informative German tour guide told us that “Next vee are going to zee vhere dey shoot de horses.”
Oh my gosh. That’s horrible.
My mind raced. Are there going to be bloodstains everywhere?
I don’t want to see this place.
But I had no choice; we were on a guided tour and the only thing I could do was to follow the guide.
I stayed toward the back and made sure I was the last person to enter the room, so I could minimize the amount of time I had to see where they shoot the horses.
Was I ever relieved when I realized we were in the blacksmith shop where they SHOED the horses!
Adventure with Scott 