Accidentally on purpose (To Homburg)

This has been the hardest castle ruins to research.  In Germany the castles have two or three names.  For example, the town website calls it Schlossberg, Hohensalzberg Castle, and Hohenburg auf dem Schlossberg (which basically means the castle high on the castle hill).  Berg/Burg means castle.  Schloss also means castle.  Anyway, March 26, 2012, Harper fell asleep in the car.  I can't remember exactly, but I don't think she had been napping much so I asked Jeremy to keep driving.  So he did,  he drove past the house and just kept driving. Somehow we ended up in Homburg.  It took us 20 mins to get there.  Right before we got into much of Homburg we saw a Schloss sign.  We know what they look like now, and we always follow them.  Schlossberg Strasse literally drove us through the middle of the Karlsberg Brewery and up to the highest point in Homburg.  We decided that we should return the next day when better prepared.  So we did.

The right side mound of sandstone
 is what we missed.

We packed a lunch for all three of us, packed the backpack, and packed the camera.  It was chilly and windy, but it was a large area to explore, climb, and walk.  We found a quiet spot on the castle grounds that seemed to block the wind and ate a picnic lunch right in front of everyone.  We were disappointed on how the town didn't take care of the grounds.  It was overgrown with weeds, and it seems to be a hangout for local teens after school.  There was a lot of trash laying around too.  Because this particular castle was built up, then destroyed, built up, and destroyed again (as it seems for most castles in Germany).  The last destruction was in 1714, and the castle was then forgotten about.  Apparently they've been digging this one out of the ground for a while now.  We did not get to walk the entire castle campus.  That was a big mistake.  Now we have to go back and do it again.  Why, you ask?  Well, as I was trying to find out some information on this stinkin' castle I found out that there are 12 underground caves tunneling all under that awful castle.  Ugh!  Apparently they are the largest man-made caves in Europe.  Seems like they have an interesting history, and you get to wear hard hats to walk through with a free guided tour.  So here's the lesson for the day...when traveling in Europe (even if you just stumble upon a cool site), research what you're about to see.  Good thing it's only 20 mins from our house.  I would be ticked if it was a far drive and we missed something important.  Still, it was adventurous just driving around these crazy German streets acting like we know what we're doing. I'm just glad that on this trip I didn't make Jeremy drive up a street that actually turned out to be a walking path that end with steps. We love adventure!!

~ Tara