Day: June 8, 2016

It’s almost a secondary attraction. The crowds are here to visit the zoo, but the impressive-looking castle is open and there are tours every 30 minutes, all included in the admission.

It’s an odd castle, and I couldn’t quite figure out why at first. Then I noticed: it’s not up on hill, it’s down in a valley. In fact, it’s in a fairly steep valley, and more importantly the valley is all curvy. This hides the castle from view in the foothills of the mountains, especially when seen from the plains beyond. And it worked: when the Ottomans raided the plains, they never saw or attacked this castle.

On our first try to find the way down to the castle, we ourselves were confused and delayed. We had found the herb garden, which was full of typical Austrian herbs, and we all had to smell (and taste) them.

Then we found the main gate, but still couldn’t get there:

We wandered through the formal gardens and took time to smell the roses:

And then we found the gate that led to the gate:

But first we went through a courtyard, probably the old farm and support buildings for the castle.

The buildings were all restored, and some were open with displays of old tools and wagons. Even these buildings were all hidden by the valley and had nice views of the forest:

Then we went through the big gate and down to the castle itself. It is a mix of old defensive architecture, and I assume newer decorative elements:

But they did have a moat (more of a ditch) on the main access road, as you can see by the planks just outside the main door.

At the well inside the courtyard:

In the end, the threat of rain passed and there was talk of waffles at the refreshment stand, so we did not go on the tour of the castle. So we hiked back up the hill, through the main gate:

And above the formal garden:

And past the modern fountain that the kids had fun playing with:

I (Andy) can tell the story behind this photo: when I was a kid, I saw the movie “the Gods must be Crazy” and thought it was hilarious. So I once told Leilani about it, but she wasn’t old enough to watch it until she was 10. For her birthday last year, I bought the video of the movie online and we watched it. Once you get past the terrorists/rebels and the machine guns and the hostages (all rather caricatured), it still is a hilarious movie. Leilani really liked the parts of the movie where an old Land Rover such as this one (same color and all) “misbehaves” and causes all sorts of comedy. So when we saw this display, probably made to look like a safari setting with the huts nearby, I told Leilani I would take her picture with the truck.

For the rest, I hope we’ll get Leilani to tell us what they were doing:

Leilani and Juri, who is her second cousin (same great-grandmother)

It was a zoo…

Because of the long lines, we missed the feeding of the cheetahs, where they zip the food through the cage on a wire. But the lions were still working on their side of beef:

The gentle white donkey is still every kid’s favorite:

In back: Matthias, Tanja, Jakob, Sonja, Andreas
In front: Juri and Leilani

Find the monkey:

Leilani asked for this. She had started jumping into bushes and we told her to stop because it would break the branches. But I told her I could drop her in from the top, and she said yes:

And because life is not fair I (Sonja) was the one who got bitten by a tick…

Maned wolf:

Prezwalski’s horse:

Tapir and capybara:

Cotton-top tamarin:

Coati (Central and South-American racoon relative):