Dorfy Day Trip: A German Castle

The Castle at Kaiserwerth, or what's left of it.

Let's talk a bit about castles. There used to be one downriver from the Dorf. It's a ruin now, thanks to the Napoleonic troops who blew it up to deny the German states any fortification that would have helped them retake the Rhineland. 

But in its hey day, after it was built by Frederick Barbarossa, it had the distinction of being one of his key castles on the Rhine. It guarded the Rhine River and exacted tolls from boats passing by. It's good business for the castle owner: you just sit and wait for the next boat to float by.

And! It was easy to reach. It is just sitting on a bike path, upriver from Düsseldorf – a cool 45-minute bike away. 

When you put in perspective, it's incredible that a stone building has survived in some shape or form for 1000 years. Yet, it's a common sight, even in Hungary, where they were built with a different purpose in mind. 

Picture this: It's year 1285 and you're a Hungarian peasant going about your business, when that business is interrupted by thousands of Mongol horsemen burning and killing as they go. 

Your only hope as a peasant without a horse is to hide behind a high wall, like that of a castle. But there are no castles close to you, so you're dead now. 

When the Mongol hordes came tearing into Hungary, they found a flat, nearly defenceless land, perfect for their mounted warriors. Other than a Hungarian army of knights and infantry, which they handily defeated with their mounted cavalry, there was nothing to stop them.

The Hungarians – who centuries before, like the Mongols, lived on horseback and rode to Europe from Central Asia – noticed that cities and fortresses with high stone walls survived the onslaught. Anticipating a Mongol return, they built castles all over the land and waited. 

The Mongols returned, but they couldn't breach the castles with horses and arrows. The Hungarians waited and watched them ride past, then attacked and defeated the Mongols. 

SIDE NOTE!! The Hungarian word for waiting and castle is var, and I'm certain that there's a connection between the two. In Germany, which didn't have to wait for terrifyingly apocalyptic Mongol invasions to come to them, large prosperous towns grew around their castles. It's no coincidence that burg is the German word for castle and town, think Magdeburg or Salzburg.

Where was I... oh yes, Hungary! All seemed fine for about 400 years or so when the Hungarians lost the Battle of Mohacs to the massive Ottoman Turk army. The survivors retreated to their castles and awaited the onslaught.

The Ottomans – 300,000 of them – moved northwest, fighting a long, grinding 70-year war, assaulting castle after castle. Some withstood the assaults, like Eger, but many fell one at a time. 

What's amazing is that most of these castles survived the Turkish invasion and would have survived today if the Austrians hadn't blown most of them after 1848, to avoid giving Hungarian revolutionaries any place to attack them from. You can't wait out everything, I guess.

Visegrad

This castle was where the first King of Hungary held court. This one was built after the first Mongol invasion. It survived that whole time, commanding a beautiful view of the Danube below, until it was destroyed by the Austrians.

Visegrad's Reconstructed Main Hall

Incredible view from up top.

If you happen to take the train between Prague and Budapest,
you will be able to Visegrad from the Slovakia side of the Danube. 

Eger

I've written about Eger before here, which, in my biased opinion, is worth reading. 

After we climbed the castle, drank Bull's Blood!

 Pannonhalma

Pannonhalma, which I mentioned in the past, managed to resist the Mongols, and the Turks, and the Austrians (well, kind of), and the communists. Not bad for a bunch of learned monks.

Fülek

I probably used the wrong umlaut thing over the 'u', but we came across this Hungarian castle on a road trip in Slovakia. The Mongols never managed to breach this castle either, but the Turks took it. 

Some Random Castle

Kata and I saw this one on a highway coach in Slovakia. I don't know it's name, so... that's about it. 

Random castle sighting in Slovakia.

The Coming Gloom

It's the gloomiest time of year for Canadians and sun-loving Dorfers, literally, if not figuratively.

The first Monday of September is Canada's last bank holiday of the summer, and the unofficial end of cottages, sun tans, and patios. If you get any of those in afterwards, it feels like a gift – the fact Toronto's baseball team, the Blue Jays, are on the verge of making the playoffs makes it that much more special.

With the planned August trip to Canada postponed until Christmas, we'll be missing out on the meaningful Canadian baseball and the nihilistic patio binges that occur when we all notice the sun is setting sooner.

The Dorf is no different. There are no late summer bank holidays to tell us when the summer ends and the fall begins, but the weather has become decidedly more gloomy. The sun is setting after 9pm, as it should in these higher latitudes and I'm scorning the rain, rather than being happy with watered plants.

Fall is coming. It's going to wet and grey and it's going to feel like it will last the rest of our lives, until May. Then it will be all good again. 

Until then, here's some older shots of the Dorf in all its grey and gloomy glory!

Apocalypse Dorf

Rheinturm in the Mist

Ships passing in the fog.

The calm, grey waters of the Hafen

Dorfy Day Trips - Intro and Zons

A visiting friend asked us what there was to do in the Dorf. I almost began but stopped myself – we were already drinking alt bier in one the Altstadt's brewhouses. What else was there to do in the Dorf? 

Now, to be fair, I was only in the city for two months at that point. I now know there are some fantastic art museums. The promenade along the Rhine is lined with bars and gets plenty of afternoon sun. If you're into shopping, there's fancy, pricey Königsallee.

I try to look at the positives of the Dorf. It's a tremendously liveable city, it's safe and has a great transit system. The winters are mild and the summers are sunny, sometimes.

I'm hard on the Dorf because I unfairly compare it to Budapest and Berlin, cities where I have spent a great deal of time. Plain, old liveability aside, Dusseldorf's serious draw is the amount of stuff there is to see around it. 

Castles, medieval towns, Roman ruins, forests, palaces, Gothic cathedrals, coal mines, yes, coal mines are worth visiting here.

In an effort to redeem myself in the eyes of any grumpy Dorfers, I will be posting about the Dorfy Day Trips I've been able to enjoy because I live in an okay city in a pretty cool neighbourhood of Europe.


Zons

This is a walled town that made its living on extracting tolls on boats passing up and down the Rhine. This was the only game in town, and was a good business until the river shifted east – yes, it does that. The river was now a few hundred yards away, making toll collection a little more challenging.

The town pretty much died, and this is where the story should end, but Zons has taken on a second life as a well-preserved walled medieval town. It's close enough for Kata and I to drop by for an afternoon, eat flammkuchen (German-style thin crust pizza with creme fräiche instead of tomato sauce) and drink riesling on a patio that overlooks the plain where the river used to be (which is kind of sad when you think about it) and eat ice cream as we wander the streets.

It's a pretty place and sadly, because I was probably too engrossed in my ice cream, I only snapped photos of a door and a window. Oh, well. It's close, so we might return.

A door in Zons.

A window in Zons.

If you go:
For fantastic flammkuchen, a great local riesling, and a patio with a pretty view, go to Torschenke in the old town. A shout out to Jill for recommending this spot.