Burg Nanstein Castle - Landstuhl, Germany

Saturday we got our first chance to do some sight seeing off base in nearby Landstuhl. We bought a new European GPS and took off. Okay, actually we followed some friends but still, the GPS was hooked up. That counts, right? We followed our "guides"  into this village and up around these teeny tiny hairpin backroads to this castle overlooking the village below. My first thought...we HAVE to get a smaller car because these roads are TIGHT! My second thought...Europeans drive like maniacs! Before we knew it, we were pulling into a lot and the castle was right in front of us. No signs. It was just there.  Cody and Sam did their best as our tour guides describing what rooms were dungeons, where the knights lived, and what tower the archers aimed their bow and arrows from. I, myself imagined the tower that the princess lived in. *smile*

Just makes me anxious to see and explore the "Disney" Neuschwanstein Castle.

                                                        Making our way thru the village

                                                                roads are pretty tight

                                                           Landstuhl Village below

                                                                             ruins

                                                    part of the castle was built into the rock

                                                         refurbished guardrails of course

                                            during festivals, plays and musicals are staged here

                                                                   in the "dungeon"

                                                          lots of spiral steps thoughout

                                                                     on top of the castle

                                                              A little background info:
Burg Nanstein is a castle in Landstuhl, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
It was built around the year 1162 after Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I demanded its construction as additional defense for the Palatinate.^[1]
In 1504, German knight Franz von Sickingen, inherited part of the castle after his father's death in the War of the Bavarian Succession, finally acquiring the entire castle in 1518. He immediately began extensive refortification to make the castle suitable for firearms.
Nanstein is well-known for an elaborate siege during the Knight's Revolt in 1523 which claimed the life of von Sickingen. The fall of Nanstein was a symbol for the decline of castles in the Palatinate.
In 1542, von Sickingen's sons recovered Nanstein as a fief and started reconstruction of the castle. Reinhard von Sickingen completed the reconstruction in 1595. In 1668, Elector Charles I Louis forced Lotharingian troops from the castle and razed the fortifications.
In the 19th century the first conservation work was done on Nanstein, and this has continued to the present day