I can’t believe I haven’t written about this yet. It’s possible you read this blog and don’t know that I went to Germany in February. Liz and I spent a glorious week touring the castles along the Rhine. It was unreal.
2 ladies. 2 DSLRs. Delicious lunches in beautiful heritage buildings.
Seeing a beautiful land with a dear friend is always a pleasure.
Seeing motherfucking CASTLES from THE YEAR 1200 with one of my favourite adventuring companions in the whole world? Another. Fucking. Level.
This post has been percolating for awhile. Every castle we went to, I was surprised by something I’d never considered. I constantly saw my D&D characters from days gone by touring, lurking, infiltrating. I am an incurable nerd and I was raised on 3.5. When I watch movie fight scenes my brain is grinding through the skills, feats and mechanics. Going to an actual castle put this mental habit into a delightful overdrive. I was riduculous, and I was incredibly happy about it.
I have never been interested in actual medieval history. The fact is, medieval life was unbelievably terrible. People died all the fucking time from really dumb things because it was horrible. The charmed D&D life, though? The life where a cleric can repair nearly any malady and when a bard can turn a cruel town into a determined team? That’s what I saw in these castles.
I want to talk about the little things that I noticed. Later, I’ll post about big things. These are the details that made the experience so rich for me. Each of these photos links to its larger version so you can really peep the detail!
This floor was smooth and slippery.
There’s texture everywhere in these castles. Tapestries hang on the walls to keep heat in. Massive pillars keep the ancient structure standing firm. Winding roads lead up, up, up to the actual castle from the town below.
The floors are rarely even. This is in part due to age, and in part on purpose. The floor to the right was for horses entering the castle Marksburg. It was not fun to traverse as a human. As rough as it appears in this photo, it was actually smooth and slippery.
These are high traffic stairs.
A castle in winter is a fucking deathtrap – and that’s just environmental conditions. Forget about the soliders and prying eyes and invading goblins. Concentrate as you climb the stairs. Liz and I were TERRIFIED of these stairs at Altus Schloss Baden-Baden. They were icy, and we had double handed deathgrips on the railings. These stairs led to a second storey walkway around a beautiful courtyard, as well as a set of bedrooms and the main tower. These were stairs people had to take all the time.
I was actually mad Liz didn’t point this out to me. I HAVE TO FIND THESE THINGS OUT ON THE STREETS.
Just because it’s a castle and it already looks awesome doesn’t mean you slack off. There were decorative, beautiful touches everywhere. The porticullis at Heidelberg is set in an arch. There were signatures on the massive blocks used to put these castles together (something I saw on the temples in Egypt, as well). They weren’t just a show of might – castles were places for art and beauty, too.
A lot of castle staff would go through here. the kitchen, cellar, and bedrooms all led to this little spot.
A castle is a many layered thing. There are chokepoints created by the gradual development of a massive building over time. Time periods and construction methods get mashed together, and so do the people living inside it. It must have been chaotic and messy, but it was safer than anywhere else.
Maybe you already knew the stuff in this post, but I didn’t. A lot of these things were surprising, and changed the way I think about castles in D&D. The small details were illuminating and inspiring. What’s your favourite small detail about castles that other people might overlook, or not know?
