Favorite castle so far (To Kusel)

There are several ruins of castles close to our village (15-30 min drive).  On a whim, May 10, 2012, we drove to Kusel, Germany to climb a castle.  What we discovered was fun, beautiful, and oh so yummy!

Jeremy was about to go back to work after graduating leadership school (ALS), so he was sleeping days and about to work that Friday night.  It was to late in the day to do anything big, but I said, "let's go to Kusel."  We swung by the house to pick up some food for Harper, and we were off!  I think it took 25 mins to get there (Burg Lichtenberg).  Of the several we have been to, this one is so far the nicest.  It's still in ruins, but they built some of it back up for visitors.  There's a whole campus of buildings still in tact--a church, two museums, a hotel and a restaurant  within the fallen walls.  The scenery is beautiful.  The castle was constructed starting in the year 1200, the French killed it, the Prussians took over, the church was built in 1755, it burned again, and then the people of Kusel received it as property and started restoration of it.  The main tower was rebuilt back to its original 33 meters.  It gives such a great view.  The grounds are well kept, and there's no charge to just walk around.

So anyway, as I said before, we got there around 1500 and were already behind the ball when it comes to our time constraint.  Most things in Germany close around 1600-1700 in the afternoon.  Well, to get to the main castle area you have to walk past the Burg Restaurant.  We were getting there at their off time, but there were around 25 retired people sitting outside eating the most glorious ice cream desserts.  So, we stopped.  They had a modified menu due to the time, so I got a salad and Jeremy got ham, cheese, bread and a beer.  We sat outside on the terrace with all the locals, who were very nice to us even though they didn't speak any English.  It was good, but we couldn't resist getting what the locals apparently know is like heaven.  Homemade vanilla ice cream with this warm, raspberry, dreamy, heavenly sauce that you pour over it.  Then you eat it quickly so it doesn't melt the ice cream.  Jeremy actually ate just the sauce when the ice cream was gone. I thought he was going to tip it up and pour it down his throat.  And, no, we didn't get a picture of the dessert.  We didn't waste any time clearing our bowl.  It's a really nice restaurant that holds like 80 people inside.  This will be a frequent trip for us.  Yum!

We walked around for maybe 30-45 mins then went home.  It was a really nice day.  We weren't rushed, it was super easy to find unlike most of the ones we've gone to, and it was a beautiful day.

And everyone was happy!

~Tara