1. Castle of the Month – Dundonald Castle in Scotland proudly stands on a hill which has been in continuous use since around 2000 BC

The great hall, now roofless, contained an elaborately decorated ribbed vault. Though decorative, these transverse and diagonal ribs played no part in the structural support of the vault. There was a canopied fireplace in the west wall which has long since disappeared. At the northern end, a pointed doorway leads to two wall closets, one containing a latrine.

The ground floor was used for storage, with an entrance in the east wall and the stairs in the north wall led to the service area of the laigh or lower hall on the first floor. Dundonald castle also contained a minstrel's gallery, which had its own latrine, above the service area.

The western wall of the castle features 5 stone carved heraldic shields which are among the oldest in Scotland.

Dundonald Castle was originally reconstructed without any bedrooms or chambers. This was hastily rectified with the building of an extension to the south. The ground floor of the new building contained a bake house and small prison.

During the 15th century, King James III sold the whole of the Dundonald estate to the Cathcarts in 1482, who in turn passed it on to the Wallace’s in 1526 and by end of the 17th century Dundonald castle was in ruins.

I will explain you 4 of my favourites and a little bit of their history. If you plan to travel to Germany, you might like to know them and to feel its charisma too. ;-) These 4 castles are located in South Germany, so you do not have to travel hundreds of kilometres/miles to see each of them. By the way, most of our German castles are located in South Germany.

1. Heidelberg

The first one I describe to you is the Heidelberg castle. It is really big and has a secret stairway to walk up to it. Very few people know that way, most of the people go up by the "hill train". I mean, you can do that too, but imagine how incredible it is, when you walk up the more than 300 stairs (each stair has its number on it!) and see all the old houses around you, WOW!

Heidelberg itself has a strong history too and you see that on all the houses and the extremely expensive residential areas. Very famous people live in Heidelberg, such as Steffi Graf and famous Scientists. You should also walk through the, and now I'll give you a insider secret, "Philosophenweg" (Way of Philosophs). You may ask the people out there where exactly this way is, but however when you walk up that way, you have an really awesome, and I mean really awesome view to the Heidelberg castle and Heidelberg itself and its river (Neckar).

2. Schwetzingen

Not far away from Heidelberg (approx. 10km) is a small town called Schwetzingen (yes, I live in this town and I love it!). The special thing here is, that this town has just 22,500 residents, but also a huge castle! When you visit German castles you will realize, that some of them not so big, but beautiful too. The castle of Schwetzingen is not just beautiful, it's awesome and huge! The city itself spends all of the entrance fees (only 2,50 EUR per day) into this incredible castle, and you see that at each corner stone, plant and bloom.

The Schwetzingen castle is almost as big as the city itself! :-)

Its history goes back to Baroque, Rococo and Classicism. It's still apparent today that the irregular complex of the Schwetzingen castle in essence dates back to a medieval castle altered in the Renaissance period.

At the end of your castle visit you absolutely must go to one of the irresistible cafés and restaurants in front of the castle - at the "Schlossplatz" (castle place). There are seven (and much deeper in and around the city) of them and you will find people of all ages there, and you easily come in contact with them. They are really communicative. Most of the young people are able to speak English. More about this amazing town you'll find on my site: www.smart-travel-germany.com/schwetzingen.html.

My site isn't perfect yet, but it grows day after day and I work really hard on it to give you the highest valuable free insider tips for your travel to Germany.

I hope you enjoyed the first part of my special report of 2 awesome German castles. Watch out for the second part with the other 2. I will post it shortly.

Also for further insider tips go to my website. I finished the creation of my monthly free special report. In this report I will describe the rest of our TOP 40 German castles and its histories. You can subscribe to it at www.smart-travel-germany.com/smart-travelogy-germ.html.

I appreciate you!

Marcus Hochstadt

Marcus Hochstadt travels extensively to countries, continents and Germany itself as a sales manager and entrepreneur since more than 14 years. He knows in almost each German city the points of REAL interest and gives you insider tips on his daily growing website http://www.smart-travel-germany.com Watch out for his free monthly special report with more valuable insider tips.

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