Dungeons and Dragons - almost

Before we get to the dungeons here is proof that the town my Mom lives in is really as picturesque as seen on the link I posted few days ago.


Thursday afternoon Rolf and I were bicycling a bit and stopped to take this photo.

Wednesday - believe it or not - we were back at the castle. This time we hiked to see it close up. First thing in view is a big rock.


In the area called "Pfalz" are a lot of big rocks and countless piles of rubble/ruins to be found, nothing special to me but maybe new to you. So I thought I'd share.


Once you hiked about 20 minutes uphill you get to the castle itself. The big event is announced by the stairs you have to climb. Look at how the natural rock is integrated in the (ok, I admit, renovated) stairs. The castle itself was mentioned first in 1024 AD, one has to reckon that most of the original stairs are gone by now. Personally I am of the opinion they did a good job to rebuild the whole friggin' thing, wait and see.

Oh, actually, see now:


In impressive heap of old and new stones, isn't it? You can climb up inside and enjoy the view from the tower. It's huge.


We walked to one end of the area, I asked Rolf to take a picture. He did it from far away because he can't stand heights and nothing but a fence between him and the abyss. And this is just to prove I was really there!

Then we went inside to climb up and have a look down. I tried to capture the inside but the meagre flashlight on my camera spectalularly failed to iluminate the greatness. Will say: apart from detailed photos I have none of the great hall that is worth looking at. I give you this instead:


My knight in shining armour!

Inside there are many nooks and crannies and, of course, the traditional castle window seats. (Let me tell you, it's no fun sitting there. Forget the view. All you can think about is the cold stone underneath your butt!)


Why, oh why did I leave my knitting outside with my Mom?


The attentive reader will have realized that on this picture is the same spot I stood in before - only that this is it seen from the tower.

From the tower the view can be spectacular, if you have beautiful weather, which we had not. However, I won't leave you with a feeling of deprivation but will show you how it looked when we were there:



And to prove the point of "countless piles of rubbles" here the mountain next to the one we were on:



The tower is another relict built by a knight, duke or king in the middle ages and I can't tell you anything about it. I am aware of my non-knowledge, I don't have any good excuse. To make things worse, on our way out I was looking everywhere for the prominently in the title mentioned dungeon, I couldn't find one, I think it was filled in and please don't tell me you were expecting a dragon, d'oh!

Back to the other reason I like staying in Germany: addis. Or so.


Turns out they are not as easy to find as one would like to believe.

Even a rarer find are books about knitting! In the largest book store in Karlsruhe they had about eight inches reserved for the knitting section, I almost dropped dead. Such a disappointment! And lots of them are really not German, but translations of earlier English publications. Like "Das große Strickmuster Lexikon" is a combination of the second and third book of the "Harmony Guides". Good thing I don't have them or it would have been a big let-down.


The series "Bäuerliches Stricken" (ordered online) concentrates mostly on sock patterns of old times, very interesting, especially for a sock-nut like me. Then there's a book (an original German one, too!) about Gansey knitting, and the obligatory "Rebecca", "Verena" and "Sabrina". "124 alte und neue Strickmuster" was a good find, I looked for it online, too, since my Mom wouldn't part with her copy, tehee.

Looking at all these patterns I couldn't escape inspiration, the cheap sock yarn and two new 60cm-2mm-circs (no addis, but close):