Can you say Neckarsteinach 3x's fast?

This trip was made with our dear friends, Allen & Denise, who were visiting us in August 2006. The Neckar River flows through this part of the countryside, which is just down the street and over the next mountain from us, about 20 minutes. It is a beautiful drive, with castles and little towns nestled along the river. The Neckarsteinach is very pretty. They call it the Vierburgenstadt, which means the Four Castle Town.

The first place we actually stopped was at the Hirschhorn. You can drive all the way to the top, and they have a restaurant and hotel, and a small courtyard that you can have a wedding in. They were hosting one while we were visiting. It was very pretty and quaint.

We then found a parkplatz and found a path to the 4 castles. We found that we didn't want to attempt the stairway up the mountain for the first castle, and so we walked past the path for that one. The trail we did take took us past a castle that is a residence, and not open to the public. But, on the outer part of the wall was a place of worship that looked neat. Not sure if it was a meeting place, a shrine, or what, but neat nonetheless.

The one castle we did find that was open to the public was in ruins, and it was very cool. It still had it's lookout tower, and so we took a climb up to see the view over the river, town and farmland. It was very pretty and we even saw a tourist boat coming down the river. It would be a beautiful sight in the fall with the changing of leaves.

After our adventure in the ruins, thru the woods we went again. We followed the muddy trail down the mountain and into the town, where we passed by shops, modern sculptures and evidence of the altstadt. It was a lovely walk, and we found ourselves down by the river, and very hungry, so we stopped for lunch at one of the restaurants and were pleased with the cuisine.

All in all it was a good day with gorgeous weather, good company and beautiful views in romantic Germany.