Magical! The Wartburg Castle built in the Middle Ages is situated on a precipice of 1,350 ft…read moreoverlooking the town of Eisenach, in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It was once the home of St. Elisabeth of Hungary, and the place where Martin Luther hid under false name and translated the New Testament of the Bible into German. Parking is located on the foot of the hill. It takes about 15 min to walk up to the castle. Once you reach the top you are transported into medieval time. The Wartburg castle is absolutely stunning and very well preserved. We took a English speaking tour and where so glad we did. The tour takes - bit over an hour and is very informative if you are into history. Afterward we climbed the tower, strolled around on castle ground and enjoyed the views, and coffee and cake at the German castle cafe.

World class Tannhäuser performance yesterday 09/23/2015 in the castle`s great Festival hall…read more Organized for years now by Mr. Andreas Volkert (Wartburg-Stiftung) - BRAVO!!! (Next year`s performances are reserved/sold out - all Wagnerians be persistent in getting those returned/unused tickets!)

I was on a trip to Germany with my college-aged children, and I wanted to make sure we were able to…read morespend some time at one of the larger castles. I picked Coburg, as the reviews spoke highly about the armor display in particular. This castle did not disappoint! You drive up a narrow road to the castle, but when you get to the top the road widens and there is a nice sized car park area. We were there about an hour after it opened and had no trouble finding a spot. You do have to go to a machine to purchase a parking voucher that you place in your car window. Then you walk up a long, cobble stoned drive to the castle. The castle was so impressive, with the big moat area, and grand entrance. We started off walking around the grounds looking over the wall from the lookout points, and just enjoying the beauty of the surroundings. We couldn't spend an endless amount of time at the castle, so we wanted to make sure we saw some specific exhibits first. So after buying our tickets, we headed over to the area with the armor and weaponry exhibits. To start, there is a great exhibit of carriages - some very ornate. There is an entire floor of weapons, including some very interesting rifles - again, some very ornate, others just very unusual. Work our way up another floor to the armor area, and we were not disappointed here at all! Many examples of different styles of armor, the various weapons, etc. What I especially liked was that in addition to individual mannequins wearing complete suits of armor, there was rack after rack of helmets or breastplates, etc. just like it would have been in an armory centuries ago. Very impressive! These areas were very well done, and we could have simply spent hours right there. Then we went through room after room full of furniture and artwork in the restored rooms of the castle. My favorite was the intarsia room - the precise details of some of the inlayed scenes was incredible, and made you truly appreciate the craftmanship. One of the rooms had a large scale model of the castle, so that you could appreciate the layout of the walls, gardens, etc. and gave you a sense of the grounds. We did start to go through the Martin Luther exhibit, and it too was very well done. But we were starting to get short on time, so we decided to cut out of this exhibit mid-way so that we could spend more time on the grounds. We worked our way around the building and saw many wonderful views of the valleys below. The best was when we came across a beautiful and large garden of blooming lavender! Even better, there were swarms of bees busy at work, and being able to be so close to so many bees without worry was very cool. By far, this was an amazing stop, and truly worth the time and the entrance fee. We did see other castles on our trip, but none compared to this one. The displays were so well done, the renovations were well done, you just really felt like you were seeing it as it appeared so many years ago. I would highly recommend this stop!

If driving, parking is quite the problem since the main parking area only has 10 parking spots…read more You can either park at the city and walk up or park by the "airport" and walk down, either way, you'll walk. They always have an exhibit and of course there is a restaurant too. They do have a "geko" train that goes from the bottom of the hill to the castle.

Love this place, so relaxing, great souvenirs to take home! Beautiful trees, so inspirational!! I…read moremiss living in this amazing city! It was great to be back after years in the states!

We returned here for the first time after leaving Bamberg in 2014. Unfortunately for us, the…read morecastle grounds seemed to be under extensive renovations (photos). We used to frequent this castle park and orangeries since it was only a few minutes drive away from our residence then, and we've been on a guided tour before. The majority of the castle is used by the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation today. Nine showrooms of the restored apartment of the prince-bishops are accessible to visitors including the "White Hall" with the virtuoso ceiling painting by Giuseppe Appiani. Schloß Seehof was built from 1686 as the summer residence and hunting lodge of the Bamberg prince-bishops according to plans by Antonio Petrini. Extensive renovation measures were necessary at the end of the 20th century. The restored cascade with its water features and some preserved sandstone sculptures by Ferdinand Tietz testify to the splendor of the former rococo garden. In 2008, Franconia celebrated 300 years of Ferdinand Tietz. At the end of the anniversary year of the greatest sculptor of the Franconian Rococo. Ferdinand Tietz (1708-1777), a native Bohemian, worked as a court sculptor for the Prince-Bishop of Bamberg and Würzburg from 1748. Adam Friedrich von Seinsheim commissioned him to furnish the garden of his summer residence Schloss Seehof with sculptures. Tietz created around 400 figures for this park. He used the easy-to-work reed sandstone, which was then painted with white paint to imitate marble or porcelain. For the sculpture program, Tietz brought the ancient world of gods down from the baroque Olympus and, thanks to his extremely lively imagination, gave it virtuoso form and movement. It's a very nice park to stroll around enjoying tree arches, hedges, water fountains (when not under reno), having a picnic, or just spend some quiet and peaceful time imagining what life must've been back in 18th century for the nobles. It's worth a visit when in this area. There's a flat-fee of 1€ for all-day parking.

This is the place to go for a stroll in Bayreuth. Adjacent to downtown (starting behind the new…read morecastle) is this big park. A kind of Bayreuth's green loung. In the summer the trees provide some cooling shadow.

It was the first stop on our tour on the romantic road to schwangau. We came up the castle with the…read morebest intend to enjoy our time. We spoke to the guy at the front hut and he told us it cost 5€ per person. We paid for our tickets and were advised to wait by the castle gate for the tour to start. After 15 minutes i ask a young man/ kid if he gave the tour and he said you need to wait. I walked back up front and ask how much longer I should wait, the gentleman in front walked back with us and basically got the kid of the chair to do the tour. The tour was informative and the kid did really well. I just think costumer service should be much better and shouldn't be forced by the visitors. By the way you were the only place on our tour to schwangau with ssuch a rating. Will I be back no thank you

I was traveling with my two college aged children, and thought that a night in a castle would be a…read morefun experience on our road trip. We didn't have trouble finding the hotel, but when we arrived, about 8pm, and walked in the front door, there was no one there. We walked around for a bit, saw the restaurant, but didn't see any way to check in. Finally someone from the restaurant came up to the hostess stand area and we asked and they were like, "oh, I can do that for you". So we are checked in, and they want to walk us to our room first, which seems fine, so off we go up stairs, down halls, up more stairs, down more halls till we arrive at our room. Our room was very large, with a raised, timbered ceiling with a huge chandelier in the middle. Beautiful wood floors, and large windows that open on two walls opposite from each other (which helped with a breeze during the night), and a nice sized bathroom that was a few steps up from the bedroom floor. We were very impressed to say the least. Then we decide to go park our car and bring up the suitcases. Well, to begin with, the car park is well down a hill and quite far from the front door (and the driveway is gravel so rolling wheels don't really help), so absolutely bring up your luggage before you park the car. The car park is sizeable enough that there is no issue with parking, it is just a long walk if you were carrying your bags. So we drove them back up and dropped them off on the circle before taking the car back down. Now, to get the bags to our room - first, a large flight of steps into the main level of the castle. Then a second large flight of wooden steps, down a hall, a small set of wooden steps, then some stone steps, then two longer, narrow hallways before it opened up to a larger hallway and our door. So if you have mobility or back issues or problems with carrying things, this may not be the place for you! Once in our rooms we realized that we didn't have the wifi codes, and had to go back down to the restaurant to get them, then back up again. The wifi worked fine for us, so that wasn't an issue. My daughter chose to take a shower before bed, and when you go in the bathroom the exhaust fan turns on. Not horribly loud, but loud enough that even with the door to the bathroom closed we could hear it going, and going, and going. We even got up a few times to make sure that we didn't do something to leave it on by accident. It finally turned off sometime in the middle of the night, but that was kind of a weird thing. As I said, the leaded windows in the room open up and we had very scenic views of the property. There are areas on the property between the castle and the car park that have decayed, but made for scenic backdrops for photos. The next morning we went out and took lots of photos. There was a stone tower with ivy growing up the side, a large "railing" made from cement/stone with big newel posts, even a stone arch with a wrought iron gate which made for great family pictures - so bring a tripod or a friend to snap them for you! We decided we didn't want to spend the money on breakfast there, so we packed up and headed out early to find a local bakery (recommend Kerling's Feinbackerei in Coburg!) All in all, it was a nice stay, and certainly different from a typical hotel. It was a nice little change on our trip.

Imagine that your German grandparents collected a lot of random art and artifacts and then decided…read moreto display them in Snow White's castle. That is the Spessartmuseum. Loved exploring this very eclectic museum. We went because a man at the information desk at the Lohr City Visitor Center said that there was a collection of Jewish religious artifacts in the museum, but there was so much more. Not sure exactly how the museum is organized, but the collections are roughly grouped into themes. There are rooms filled with local traditional crafts like glassmaking, ironworking, pottery, shipbuilding, and more. Other rooms are filled with objects from a day in the life of common villagers as well as royalty. And, of course, there is a room dedicated to Snow White with the talking mirror. The corner section dedicated to Jewish art and religious artifacts was very interesting. In addition to the torahs, prayer books and kiddush cup, there was a digital display that told the history of the Jews in the region. Synagogues and communities that were no longer there. Personal stories of families. Photos of historic cemeteries. The exhibit on Jewish Life commemorates the historic heritage of the area that was almost wiped out by the Holocaust. The digital display was one of the few areas where the information was in both English and German. I found it so fascinating and engaging. So, what is the connection to Snow White? A young woman lived in a castle, officially known as Kurmainzer Schloss, that was founded in the 14th century by the Counts of Rieneck. It was later adapted by the Electors of Mainz. According to our guide, Maria Sophia Margaretha Catharina von Erthal was a real historical figure who lived in the castle during the 1700s. She is believed to be the inspiration for Snow White. Maria Sophia was the daughter of Philipp von Erthal, who was a nobleman in Mainz. After the tragic death of her parent, she faced a cruel stepmother which mirrors the Grimm Brothers fairytale plot. The story's "magic mirror" is thought to have been a real glass/mirror from the castle and the "seven dwarfs" may have been inspired by short‑statured miners who worked nearby in the Spessart Forest and wore hooded clothing. On a visit to Lohr, I would highly recommend a visit to this museum. So interesting to explore "Snow White's" castle to learn more about this charming city.

We visited Lohr specifically to see the real life Snow White castle and it is a beauty! The actual…read morepart of the museum devoted to Schneewittchen was a little disappointing, quite small and not a whole lof of history (I probably found out more online than I did there). But for an avid Snow White/Disney/Fairytale fan as I am it was totally worth the visit!!! The coolest thing to see wasnt actually in the Snow White area but in the room of mirrors where they clame is the REAL talking/magic mirror, CRAZY! The drive there was absolutely breathtaking, more off the beaten path! And the town itself so charming, just like a fairytale!

Very beautiful castle! So historical and cool. It's huge and located by the Main River part that…read moregoes through Bavaria.

Amazing new wine and dessert - windbeutel…read more This is a flaky pastry filled with whipped cream and asp berries. Maybe liken this to a Napoleon or brest pastry.....very refreshing! The wine was new and young - like a barrel tasting when the wine is not quite in its final form. This was so delish! Walking around the castle & grounds then enjoying a nice break....doesn't get better than this!