You know, every once in a while you just have to go somewhere you never pictured yourself at in a million years. This weekend was one of those “Once in a While” deals. The castle above is called Wernberg Castle and was built originally in the late 13th Century. Originally it was owned by the king of Bohemia (Modern day Czech Republic) and passed hands quite a few times over the years until it ended up in the hands of the Bavarian kings. Everything seemed great until…
The Swedes destroyed it in its entirety during the 30 Years war… Ouch
So then a family named Konrad picks up the ashes and builds the new castle that you see today in the late 1600s. Long story short, the family still owns the property but it doesn’t see much battle anymore because today its a one of a kind, Super high class 5 star hotel with a 5 star French restaurant inside one of the castles incredible vaulted rooms.
I knew that I wanted to do something really special this year for Valentine’s day since last year I kind of started a trend with my wife when we went to a super nice Hotel and Restaurant in Ansbach called Buerger Palais. Last year I had tried to get us reservations in a castle closer to where I live called Colmberg but it seems like the day before Valentine’s day is not the day to try and get a room in a sweet castle hotel, go figure. So we ended up in the Buerger Palais and let me tell you, it rocked. Classy furniture all decked out in the style of the 1700s… My wife was in Heaven.
This year I learned my lesson about procrastination and started searching much earlier than the day before. I remembered that the last year I had tried to get us into a castle hotel so I thought I would search for another one and see what I found, maybe even surprise my wife completely. MAN DID I FIND ONE. Wernberg was the first option I came to and when I looked into it, I found out it was only 45 minutes away. PERFECT! So I booked the room and made us dinner reservations at the restaurant too. I figured, go big or go home so we went big (though much bigger than I was planning). I managed to surprise her big time and we had a lot of fun. The grounds were beautiful, the room was wonderful, the food… Oh God the food, the food will be another post I think, I want to go course by course for that one. Also, the first morning, after we came back from breakfast, we found these adorable (and delicious) cookies left for us by the hotel staff on our nightstand. Man what a place.
We even managed to get some wandering in to a neighboring castle ruin which was a pretty good hike. Unfortunately, I only have pictures of the castle, not the way. I will do some more posts about the other activities on that weekend but trust me, if you aren’t strapped for cash and want an incredible hotel to stay in, look up Wernberg. I promise, you wont be disappointed.
The Wanderweg Blog 