I could tell you all kinds of facts about the castle, but truthfully, I would just be looking them up on Wikipedia and then re writing them. So just go to Wikipedia yourself!
We actually arranged an english tour, so we arrived right on time for that. It cost 3 euro for a student, 5 for an adult (I'm still as student, yes!). And you just show that you paid at the gate when you start your tour. They actually don't let you go through unless you are with the guide. This is not a "self tour" sight. So we had a very gracious guide. He was so nice considering that we were a large group on foreigners who broke alot of rules. Hopefully it wasn't the worst part of his day.
Outside the gate
To tour the castle you start at the bottom and work your way up, even though the oldest part of the castle is at the top... but walking straight up would have been super hard so I'm glad we took 1.5 hours to get up to the top.
So this is the first "courtyard" looking up from the third gate. There are three gates so it must have been super secure!
One of the first rooms we went in had all kinds of armor and weapons. Alex and Ben could have defended the castle I think.
The next room we actually weren't supposed to take pictures in. But everyone got there first so they were standing in front of the "no camera" sign. So i honestly didn't know this picture wasn't allowed!
Behind the picture in the middle is a secret passage to the chapel that actually is on the other side of this wall. But it cost an extra euro to go into the church and we didn't pay it so we never saw the church.
We had 16 people with us, with all the families that came. One family is actually from Romania and they have four little girls who don't speak english. But they were sure cute! I caught one on her way upstairs. I think that all the stone staircases that spiraled were one of my favorite parts.
But they came second to the fall views out of the windows. I loved the views and the windows themselves were really cool!
We finally got to the top and the view was AMAZING! Apparently we could see Poland. (not in the this picture though. This is the amazing downward view)
So that is a snipit of all the pictures that I took in the castle. My camera actually ran out of juice when we were almost at the top. Perhaps I'll post again when I get the pictures from everyone else that I'm actually in. But I hope you have enjoyed these! (hint: leave a comment!)
This is a statue of the most famous poet Pavol Országh Hviezdoslav.
ReplyDeleteSpectacular views, Alison! Are the mountains in the background of the photo, 4th from the end, still in Slovakia?
ReplyDeleteMichael, at least I'm not an asian tourist.
ReplyDeleteAs for the mountains, there are some very very faint ones that I think are the border to Poland. But apparently Poland was much closer than those mountains... not sure how that works exactly.
Love your post Alison; you sure know how to combine great pictures with captions! Edee
ReplyDeleteI was just there, climbing all those stairs in the castle, and at 68 , I did feel it somewhat. What beautiful views we had when looking out a window. We did go into Saint Michael's chapel, and I am glad we did. I was just wondering if anyone knew how many stairs we had to climb??
ReplyDeleteI was just there, climbing all those stairs in the castle, and at 68 , I did feel it somewhat. What beautiful views we had when looking out a window. We did go into Saint Michael's chapel, and I am glad we did. I was just wondering if anyone knew how many stairs we had to climb??
ReplyDelete