My European Exposure: Bavarian Castle Pass

Our guys had to go back to school and work this week, but Laurel was still on winter break from college. She & I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to start taking advantage of the Bavarian Family Castle Pass. It's an awesome deal that allows your family an entire year to take advantage of over 40 palaces, fortresses, castles, and other sites in the state of Bavaria for 65 euro, which will pay for itself really quickly with our family of four. I believe they have an individual yearly pass for a lower rate as well.

Our first stop was the New Palace in Bayreuth. We went on a Monday morning and basically had the whole palace to ourselves. It was a self-guided tour, so we took our time wandering from room to room. It was our kind of castle - beautiful and lavish!! Laurel found quite a few things to put on the list of things she wants in her house one day...lol! Unfortunately, no photography was allowed inside the palace, and I didn't even get a shot of the outside.

On Tuesday, we drove to the town of Kelheim to see the Hall of Liberation. It's a memorial that commemorates Germany's victorious battles in the Wars of Liberation during the early 1800s. It's a really beautiful building, which from the top, provides some pretty great views over the town of Kelheim, which is situated where the Danube and Altmuhl rivers converge.

After we left Kilheim, we drove just down the road to the town of Riedenburg to see the Prunn Castle which was built around 1200. The tour through this castle was a guided tour in German only. We obviously didn't learn a whole lot about this castle, other than what we read online, but we did pick up on a few things that the tour guide said. We're slowly getting better at the language thing! (Side note: Laurel & I started a German class this week, and we're really excited about it. Yesterday I bought bread at the bakery using only German, and today I ordered in German in a restaurant without even asking if the waiter spoke English or had an English menu!)

Back to the castle...we weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but this castle was definitely more along the lines of the kind of medieval castle that Don & Austin prefer to see with displays of armor, weapons, etc. It was still an enjoyable visit for us though.