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May. 16th, 2023 08:46 pm
Germany, Friday
We check out of the hotel and J. and B. pick us up and drive us to Marksburg Castle.
Marksburg is what I’ve been looking for throughout Europe, a castle that’s never been conquered and so looks something like it used to. We go up twisting roads to the top of a mountain and then climb a huge flight of stairs; I have no idea how we could have gotten there without their help.
At the castle we follow the guide up the slate stairs (above), slippery because it had rained earlier, and on to a kitchen garden, a wine cellar, a kitchen with a huge oven, in case you needed to roast an ox,
Oven
Kitchen implements
and the ruling couple’s bedroom with its canopied bed. It’s a very small bed; not only were they shorter than us* but they slept half sitting up because lying down was too much like death.
* Well, most of us. Maybe not me.
Then to the dinner hall. The food is served on a plank so the whole thing can be taken away and the next course brought in, or to clear the room for music and dancing. Apparently people in Germany still say, “Let’s lift up the table” when they’re ready to discuss business. All of this seems like great details for a high fantasy, and the next thing the guide mentions, though gross, is the best detail of all. The latrine was built behind the table, out over the air, and the door to the table was left open, so you wouldn’t miss anything anyone said.
Then we see a room with examples of armor spanning 2,000 years. They have a big spiky morningstar, and the guide tells us it was called that because if you saw it in battle you wouldn’t see the evening star. After that there’s a room that was used variously as stables or a dungeon.
The rain has held off while we were in the castle but it starts again when we get back to the car. Then we get all the weather at once; after rain comes hail, so we have to stop driving, and then everything clears up and it’s sunny again.
Marksburg is what I’ve been looking for throughout Europe, a castle that’s never been conquered and so looks something like it used to. We go up twisting roads to the top of a mountain and then climb a huge flight of stairs; I have no idea how we could have gotten there without their help.
At the castle we follow the guide up the slate stairs (above), slippery because it had rained earlier, and on to a kitchen garden, a wine cellar, a kitchen with a huge oven, in case you needed to roast an ox,
Oven
Kitchen implements
and the ruling couple’s bedroom with its canopied bed. It’s a very small bed; not only were they shorter than us* but they slept half sitting up because lying down was too much like death.
* Well, most of us. Maybe not me.
Then to the dinner hall. The food is served on a plank so the whole thing can be taken away and the next course brought in, or to clear the room for music and dancing. Apparently people in Germany still say, “Let’s lift up the table” when they’re ready to discuss business. All of this seems like great details for a high fantasy, and the next thing the guide mentions, though gross, is the best detail of all. The latrine was built behind the table, out over the air, and the door to the table was left open, so you wouldn’t miss anything anyone said.
Then we see a room with examples of armor spanning 2,000 years. They have a big spiky morningstar, and the guide tells us it was called that because if you saw it in battle you wouldn’t see the evening star. After that there’s a room that was used variously as stables or a dungeon.
The rain has held off while we were in the castle but it starts again when we get back to the car. Then we get all the weather at once; after rain comes hail, so we have to stop driving, and then everything clears up and it’s sunny again.
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