Hello Mummy,
today we took took a walk in the outskirts of the neighbour city Solingen. You can find a medieval castle there, Schloss Burg. It is situated in the district Burg, imbedded a large rural and woodland area. Katja's parents went with us and also Nathalie. She will soon visit you, Mummy. She told us that she would travel to you as soon as she had taken a bath. We parked the car and walked to the castle.
Soon the castle came into sight.
This tower once belonged to the castle, unfortunately we don't know more about it. You can find the tower here, two ancient cannon and a memorial dedicated to the dead of both World Wars.
Here you can see a zoomed photo of the castle.
We had to walk through the forest for another 15 minutes until we reached the castle.
When we reached the castle we went to the courtyard.
Schloss Burg was built in 1133 by Count Adolf I von Berg on a hill above the river Wupper.That's why this region is called "Bergisches Land". Many people believe that it's name refers to the landscape with hills and valleys. (For those who do not speak German: The German word for mountain or hill is "Berg", so many people think that the name "Bergisches Land" means "land with many hills" )
About a hundred years later it was enlarged by Count Engelberg II von Berg. This is the guy on the horse in the courtyard.
In Thirty Years War (17th century) many parts of the castle were destroyed. It was rebuilt then, but it was used for industrial purposes for many years. In the end of the 19th century they began to rebuild it as it appears today.
In the castle courtyard you can find souvenir shops and shops whose owners are doing an "old" handcraft. For example someone makes soap, another makes brushes, then you can buy things that were used by knights for the kids, like swords and helmets.
This monument is showing Count Engelberg II von Berg.
In middle ages they stored gunpowder in this thick round tower.
You can see that the castle really is situated high above the valley.
We left the castle than to continue our walk in the forest. We came to this outlook pavilion. It looks exactly like the one I saw last week! Katja told us that those two outlook pavilions indeed were "twins". They were created by an architect who put them at two places with a gorgeous overwiev.
The ceiling of this pavilion is painted with the crests of the surrounding cities. The one with the lion and the sickle is the one of Remscheid.
Yes, the sight onto the valley of the river Wupper is great.
I tried to climb up this rock.
We reached a place from where you can see the city centre of Remscheid in the distance. We had to take a zoomed photo. I can see the tower of the city hall and the water tower.
We left the forest than and walked through the district Hoehrath, a rural area where you can find many horse breeding and riding stable.
We also saw a sawmill.
Katja told us that you usually can find a lot of horses on those meadows. Maybe the horses were already brought back to their stables.
This was a very nice walk.
Bye
camilla
