Day 11-Castle Secrets

Theresa's view while Bill slept.

After our late breakfast, we packed and checked out.  Before leaving, we took another walk down to the Castle Church, which this time was open.  It was amazing inside, with a flamboyant Baroque style, lavish with “gold” and flare.  We took some time to just absorb it and muse on everything. 

The Castle Church.

Part of the ceiling.

The Atom Cellar Museum.

A short hike back to the car, and we headed down the hill to the “Atomkellermuseum” (Atom Cellar Museum).  We did a little looking to see what was near, and discovered it, so figured why not look?  At first, we were amused that after the 5-10 minute drive, we ended up 200 feet or less from the Castle Church.  We walked into the museum which was a little crowded at first, but the noisy family finally left and we ended up there by ourselves most of the time.  Even though the museum was very small (maybe 30 feet wide by 100 feet deep), we spent nearly two full hours there.  It was fascinating!!  

Just prior to WWII, a few pockets of scientists were beginning to research atomic power.  In Germany, they even formed an “Atomic Club” of scientists who would share their knowledge with each other, publishing anything shared.  In mid-September 1939, the government stopped any publications and soon nationalized their research, which continued in Berlin.  Eventually, as Allied bombing made Berlin an unsafe place for such delicate work, they moved into hiding.  Since Haigerloch was situated in a narrow limestone valley, bombing was quite unreasonable, making it a perfect hiding place.  They took over a wine cellar to do their research (led by Heisenberg, with a few other big names in Atomic research), and continued until April of 1945, only a week or two before the US Army came through looking for the research center.  The arrival of the US Army was videotaped (as the US Army seemed to do a lot of!) and it was a mix of cool and funny seeing WWII footage of soldiers tromping up and down the very same paths we did in the last 24 hours!  It was also amazing thinking of the incredible amount of work that took place in this very small lab in a cave under the castle of Haigerloch.  Even more amazing was thinking, we only picked this place by chance to stay, and being there, only happened to check out this museum.  But the history here was phenomenal!    

The actual experiment set up and materials.

The test set up:  664 cubes of  blocks of uranium
(2 inch cubes; 6.25 lbs each) in a magnesium tub
(filled with heavy water) and lined with blocks of
graphite and sealed with an aluminum lid.

Burg Hornberg.

We drove through Stuttgart about halfway to Frankfurt and stopped at Burg Hornberg, our last castle for the trip.  Hornberg is a very little town on the Neckar River, and the Burg (castle) is high on the hill overlooking the valley.  The Keep was first mentioned in 1184.  The oldest structures are from about that time, but they added on up to the later 1600s.  The building we are in, near the keep, is one of the latest additions.  The castle itself (a short walk up the hill from the Keep) was purchased by Gottfried (Götz) von Berlichingen in 1517, and from this location he led many military campaigns, including the “Peasant’s Rebellion” in about 1525, where the peasants rose up against the aristocracy.  It was a disaster, as 100,000 of the 300,000 peasants were slaughtered by the professional and well equipped armies (of 6000-8000 soldiers) of the aristocrats.  Götz seems to be a colorful guy, such that a play was written about him not even a century after his death, attributing to him a vulgar phrase “He can lick my arsch” (we’ll let you translate the last word!).

Our little corner.  (It's nicer on the inside and back side.)

The Neckar River and the town Neckarzimmern.

The castle.  No wonder we're in the Keep!

Anyway, we checked in and were told that we were the only guests for the night.  So, although breakfast was to be from 7-10AM, they asked if we might suggest when we would show up (as a courtesy to his coworker).  We checked out our room and then went exploring the area and castle.  We think we saw our check in person in a car 10 minutes later, and when we got back, there was a sign basically saying they were closed.  So, I guess we are totally alone in this building?  It’s sort of eerie and cool being alone in a “Keep” just below a castle.  I hope we don’t have invaders, but if so, there is a suit of armor in the lobby.  But it looks thin and for someone less than 5 feet tall!  I’ll do my best!!

We headed over to the restaurant on the grounds for dinner (to save the sort of scary drive up a steep narrow road with little or no side rail and precipitous drops in the dark).  We did not run afoul of our dinner choices.  Theresa got Turkey, and gobbled it up.  Bill got the Duck, which was all it was quacked up to be!  (If you like those puns, you should have been there at dinner!  It was NON-STOP!)  We noticed a table set up in the breakfast area.  It was set up for two.  And it was the ONLY table set up.  Wonder where we’ll have our “frühstück”?

Good Night!