On our trips back to the "old country" we do enjoy climbing around in those castles and Schlösser that you find all over the place there. Growing up around all this stuff, I never paid much attention to those old rocks, the old residences of the wealthy nobility in the "olden days." Most of them were just bloodsuckers who owned the land, the guns and the whips, and who built their fortunes on the backs of the farmers, the sharecroppers and the craftsmen who had the "privilege" to be their subjects.

Today, most of the palaces and castles are state property, and we visit them to appreciate the hard work and craftsmanship that went into these places. Some of these places are still privately owned, like the Hohenzollern and the Weitenburg, and there is something equally satifying to pay 10 bucks to the owners to get in and gawk at their place. In that, too, there is a certain amount of irony and historic justice.

Anyway - here are some impressions from the south-west of Germany, and from a trip to Alsace.

Enjoy,
Jürgen

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