This is published in response to J's post above making it Christmas Market Monday, so more photos than I would usually do. If you don't want to listen to my whiney rants, then scroll directly to the bottom of this post for the Christmas market photos.
4. Schloss burg
Or Sb as I shall now refer to it is a castle that is located perhaps 25 min away from me, by car. It is between Cologne and D'dorf. If you're interested in German castle history, see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schloss_Burg
However, we're all about the markets today. I coerced D. into coming along for the adventure, because what is schlepping on various buses to a castle tucked away yet overrun by tourists, if not an adventure? Here is the main castle site: http://www.schlossburg.de/
It's referred to as an 'Adventsbasar' instead of a 'Weihnachtsmarkt' and supposed to be more of a medieval market so I left the reindeer antlers at home.
I had researched the bus options. It's a little difficult to get to the castle because it is in Solingen, not near anything else except hotels and restaurants that exist for castle visitors. So the buses that are going there will go there and turn around and come back. It's not en route to anywhere else, so buses are somewhat limited. Why all of this bus talk? Because I spent at least an hour on Saturday morning researching how to get there by public transport, on top of the ridiculous amount of data I already have stored in my head about the local public transport here.
Why is it so difficult you ask? Because you require either a degree in transportation logistics or law to figure out the bus rules and tariffs sometimes. I am in the VRS network which includes Cologne. Schloss burg is in Solingen which marks the beginning of the VRR network which includes D'dorf, Dortmund, etc. Because Solingen is a border town to VRS, if you are coming from nearby in VRS, you can get a ticket that will get you all of the way there without having to do multiple tickets for multiple buses. So bottom line, the best deal was to get a region 3 group day ticket which covers up to 5 people, even if we were only two.
Since I had done all of the bus ticket/schedule research, D. was in charge of getting the ticket from the driver. It was a little complex, he understood what we wanted, but it seems not to be a common request so he had to keep trying to work his ticket machine to get it to produce what we wanted. 'You go to Cologne?' 'no, Solingen--Schloss burg' 'Ah, ok. Have fun.'
We were on the first bus which took us out of the tiny town of B. where I live. We then hopped a second bus which put us in Wermelskirchen where we needed to wait for the third bus to the Castle. Because these are two different transport networks, the routes are not timed and the castle route is limited, so we had 40 minutes to kill in the middle of no where while we waited. I amused myself by taking a photo of the most decrepit bus stop in German, but that will be a different post. Anyway, we finally made it. Here is the photo of walking up to the castle:
This market is only for one weekend, so there were plenty of visitors. However, the castle grounds are quite spacious, so it did not feel crowded at all.
We walked around a little to see the grounds while it was still light out. There was a huge line to get inside the castle, so we left the inside part for a different trip.
Also on the castle grounds is the Seilbahn: http://www.seilbahn-burg.de/ which is basically like a ski chair lift that you can take from the castle hill down to the next town. I started referring to it as the 'seat bahn', but it was pretty cool:
So we hopped off at the bottom and took a brief look around, but it seemed to be just newer residential housing so we got back on the Seilbahn to go back up to the castle grounds. The castle grounds have an old-time merry-making feel:
Then, we walked some more among the stands before stopping for an Obstwein, which is a mixture of hot wine with a fruity flair.
As we were enjoying the evening we saw many people, especially people with their dogs. At one point there was a group with nine Westies between them, some sort of Westie owner club gathering perhaps.
Finally, since the castle is usually closed by 5 PM, the last bus out was 17.51 so we left in order to catch that one. Also waiting for the bus was one of the character actors who was wandering around the castle grounds, a silver clad knight. Since the knight was going to pay for his bus ticket, we invited him instead to travel on ours, since it was a group ticket for up to five. He asked us where we were from and then showed us the sword that he had been carrying all day. No Disney there, it was the real deal, solid metal and heavy as a cast iron skillet. When we got off at Wermelskirchen we walked through town to find a place to eat before we took the next bus back. However, in the meantime, we stumbled into another market. More about that one in the next blog.
3 comments:
That seems like a nice day - other than the 40 minute wait. I wish we had a CM at a castle near where I live. We have enough castles, so we should - but don't.
Lookin' beautiful as ever in your Eingang photo (and thinner than I remember)! Your scenic photos almost look like you were visiting a fantasy land in person!
Just don't forget Dorothy to click your heels so you can return to the United States for the Holidays :)
Charles
P.S. What does Eingang mean?
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