You would think

You would think we had hit some castles by now. It's been on our list for a long time, and we didn't even actually try to go to any castles yesterday. We tried to visit a medieval abbey that is still in use, but the buses didn't cooperate with us. So, after much deliberation (which included unnecessary train rides in the wrong direction), we decided to brave the iffy weather and hike to some castle ruins. We had a great, mostly non-rainy day ... probably our favorite sight-seeing day so far. We hiked out of Baden up to beautiful Ruin Rauhenstein first. Here you see the cliffside view.


We could find almost no history on this castle ruin, except that a former owner took the roof off to pay some tax in time past. We loved the peacefulness, the fall colors, the trees growing in the middle of it, the hiking and the price - free. It is set directly outside the lovely valley of Helental, which is supposed to be beautiful, romantic and famous for it's hiking. People love to hike here ... they call it wandering. And each little, carefully-marked trail is called a "wanderweg". (literal translation - wandering way)

We climbed the tower and could see the town of Baden surrounding us. It was easy to imagine times gone by. Looking to the hill straight across, we could see the next ruin we wanted to visit. I loved the view of the castle without its roof. Steve loved that it was a ruin. The boys loved the toilet that was merely a hole leading directly to the outside of the castle.

All in all, it could have been very romantic. Here is a peaceful picture taken by our fun neighbor, Adam, who joined us on our outing.

Of course, romantic hikes through castle ruins from the 12th century are always a bit interrupted by the "girls have cooties" crowd.

We hiked on to our next ruin ... saved for the next post.