Today was a complete contrast from yesterday. We went to visit the castles at Ehrenberg. They are a series of fortifications built from the 13th to the 18th centruries, just south of Reutte, Austria. The sit on the highway which is along the route of the ancient Via Claudia Augusta. They were there to guard that section of the route and to collect a tax from traders that used it.
I say today was a contrast because while Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein were build at palaces to house kings and fanciful dwellings meant to impress. The fortifications at Ehrenberg were always intended to be be just that, fortifications. They were abandoned and largely forgotten about in the early 19th century. In the last 5-10 years, a local group has been clearing, studying and developing the sites as a historical destination. They added trails to get to them, placed some interpretive signs and added a museum that tells the story of the place with fun interactive exhibits for kids.
Visiting these ruins and the museum was very important to Charlie. He constantly plays fort-type games and being able to prowl all around the ruins of these fortifications, hike up the hills to the best defensible positions and see how the architects of the time laid out the fortifications was exactly what he wanted to be doing. He loved it!
The hikes are strenuous, especially the steep trial up to the 18th century Schaufestung Schlosskopf, but the rewards are amazing views and fun ruins to explore. Even the "easy" trail is somewhat uneven and steep in places.
The kids were in a hurry to get down so they could visit the museum.
After our Ehrenberg adventure, we made good on our promise to take the kids to Kristall-Therme Schwangau. It's a spa-type place with a series of pools of various degrees of heat and salinity. It's also a trip since it has swim-up bars and clothing optional areas. But hey.. we were in Europe. It has nice views of Neuschwanstein in the distance. The kids favorite part was a oval "race track" pool that had a swift moving current in it. They made up games and would have stayed for hours if given the opportunity.
Feeling refreshed, we went to dinner at what was rumored to be the best Italian restaurant in town, Restaurant Il Pescatore. It was good. Hard to say whether it was better than Café Michelangelo where we ate the night before. It did have a cool aerator gizmo they stuck in the wine bottle... that was fun.
Tomorrow, it's off to Innsbruck and the famous Alpenzoo. Today's trip to Ehrenberg was something that Charlie had long be anticipating on this trip, visiting Alpenzoo is what Elodie has literally counting down the days towards. I home it doesn't disappoint.
