When I arrived, I had about a half hour trek up the road to get to the castle itself. Within ten minutes I was thanking God the chilly day. Walking uphill always takes more effort than I expect it to. Eventually I reached the gates to the castle where I saw a sign announcing that until the 23rd of March, visitors could only enter on weekends.
For once, a plan falling through did not upset me. I was still on a mountain full of nature trails. I had paid nothing for the trains due to my student ticket. Why not take a hike and come back for the castle some other time? I set off in my quest to meander. As I wandered, I discovered something I had not heard of when researching the area. On a peak not far from the main castle, I spied the ruins of a far older one. I made my way to it. A sign explained that it had been built in the 12th century on the real Dragon Rock, so named for its volcanic creation.
Much of it had been stolen over the years to build other structures, including the Cologne Cathedral, until it received legal protection. One thing that did remain, to my great pleasure, was half of a watch tower peppered with arrow slits. They even had beveled insides to allow archers greater maneuverability.
After hanging out in the ruins for a while, I headed back down to explore the trails further. One lead to a semi-isolated mini-crest of rock, which I promptly scrambled onto. Looking over a town on the Rhine, knowing no one could see or hear me, I sensed the urge to sing out loud for once. So...I belted the fragments of "Let it Go" from Frozen that I know. I think I broke the imagined-versus-actual coolness scale at that point. I climbed back down and saw a sign indicating a cemetery in the area. I have intended to visit a cemetery and look at names for a while now, so I took off in search of graves.
After descending a surprisingly far ways down the mountainside, I found the forest cemetery. Each grave had a stone border. Within that border, they ranged from a simple plaque to a well tended garden. The path wound back and forth along the mountain creating little pockets of graves at each level. It seemed to lend intimacy to the place.
I came around one bend to see a larger lot for the Adenauer family. One of the people buried there was named Konrad Adenauer. I did a double take. Was that not the first Chancellor of West Germany after WWII? I turned around and found myself face to face with a sign declaring that that was exactly whose remains lay buried behind me. I had really not expected to run across the resting place of a famous politician.
Not long afterwards, I hiked back up the way I came, which took a lot longer than the way down had. I do not know when I will return to get a tour of the castle itself. I just know when I do that I'll probably spend just as much time traversing the trails outside as I do admiring the architecture inside.
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