Meersburg (my favorite day)

Got up this morning after a loud and hot night at the Gasthof Ochsen. There is a bar/cafe across the street and no a/c at the hotel so our options for most of the night was either to roast in silence or have air but lots of noise. This morning, however, was much quieter and we again awoke to the church bells sriking the hour. Actually, at 6 am, they rang for a long time (maybe for mass?). Anyway, this went on for at least 5 minutes, prompting B to remark how much he hates organized religion! :-)

This morning we drove to Meersburg. It is a lovely, medieval town on the shores of Lake Constance/the Bodensee. The lake is huge and green and you can see Switzerland just on the other side. We walked down about 200 steps to get from the top of the hill to the lower town. Almost at the bottom, M decided to walk down the huge granite steps instead of staying on the smaller steps. On his first step, he pitched forward and fell head first down the other 5 stairs. It was really scary!! Fortunately, we escaped with a few scratches and the air knocked out of him, but no broken ribs or head injuries! Whew. We took a few minutes to regroup....


We wandered through the harbor/lower town and then headed back up the hill. The buildings are almost all original to the middle ages and you felt like you were back in time walking through the streets. Although it was sunny, the light couldn't shine through to the street in some places as the upper levels of the homes reached so close to each other across the street. It really felt like we had been transported back in time about 500 years.


Back on the top of the hill, we bought tickets to visit Meersburg Castle. This castle is the oldest inhabited castle in Germany. An aristocratic German family owns it, but you can tour part of the castle. The oldest section of the tower, Dagobert's Tower, dates to 628 AD and most of the rest of what you can tour was built in the 14 and 15th century. It was the coolest castle tour I have ever taken. If you are at all interested in medieval history, this was the place to be. You could see the great hall, bedrooms and ladies' solar as they would have been arranged at that time. We also saw the knights' armory - full of chain mail, armor, swords, other weapons and a rare medieval jousting lance (the wood still in tact). This was, by far, M's favorite room. We also toured the blacksmith and kitchen areas in the basement, saw the dungeons (couldn't go down in them, but could look down into them) - I would not want to be there!! On the walls, they had posted the coats of arms for the knights and nobles who had lived in that castle dating back to 1200's. We also saw a medieval toilet room and bathing room. In more recent times, the Brothers Grimm stayed at the castle and they had some letters written by them on display.