Meersburg, Germany ~ A Medieval Experience

Yesterday we took the kids to the medieval town of Meersburg to tour a castle built in the 7th century.

Here you can see us approaching Meersburg from our ferry. The castle tower is in the middle of the photo just to the left of the clock tower.

Even with grey skies above, the town is colorful and bright. I'll go through the pictures below starting in the upper left and then taking it left to right and row by row. If you click on and individual photo, you should be able to view a larger image.






So the first picture shows the lower downtown. I took a pic of the castle from that viewpoint, but before climbing the stairs to the castle, the kids played in the castle playground. Next you see the bridge we crossed to enter the castle and a view of the castle from higher up. One of the first rooms was the knight room. The plaque on the wall shows how far back the castle dates, 630. As medieval castles were dark places, the metal surrounding the locks was embossed to help guide the key to the lock. I thought that was interesting. The well you see in the next picture was added in 1336. At one point this castle withstood a siege for up to six weeks in part because they had this water source and their allies were able to sail food supplies up the lake. At last our tour group reached the top of the tower which allowed me to take a couple nice shots of the town below.

I've always wanted to take the kids to a real castle. They are the center of so many childhood tales. How fun to be able to say we climbed a real castle tower!