The girls were sad to leave our new friends in Lubeck, Germany…but it was time to head south. Ella had become particularly attached to Jakob, the baby, and she followed him everywhere!
Remember how I said our hosts were SO amazing? They even hooked us up with a box of food for the road…complete with little surprise treats for all of us! Can you believe it?
A few hours down the road we pulled over at McDonalds, but didn’t go in! Instead, we found some tables outside and ate the scrumptious snacks Andrea had packed for us!
The kids were happy!
Next, we drove to Kassel, Germany in search of the Löwenburg Castle. We found a parking spot, and set off walking the endless trails of the park that encircled a large part of the hillside.
We kept stopping to ask people where the castle was, and people looked a little confused, as if they didn’t really know there was a castle in the woods. A few kept pointing for us to keep walking and walking and walking. One lady offered us help in French, because she didn’t speak English. I said “espanol?!” Nope–no luck!
Finally…we found it!
Löwenburg Castle is reportedly an “artificial castle” which means that it isn’t as old as it actually looks. It was built in the late 1700’s to imitate an old medieval castle.
The old jail? It was a tiny gated room just outside of the front gate.
The interior courtyard had free entry, and we could go into a few different rooms. Overall, if we had wanted to see anything in the upper rooms, we had to have come with an independent tour group. At least that’s what the lady in the small info center seemed to imply. Oh well.
Instead we walked around it, and of course snapped some photos of Barbie enjoying her castle.
The Royal Air Force bombed the city of Kassel during WWII, and parts of this castle were badly damaged. They’ve never repaired it fully.
Not a bad view from the hill next to the castle, eh?!
