Reise im Tal der Lahn

H and A left this morning to head to Köln, then back to Greece and finally to the US. I had my own adventure of a day. The program planned a trip to a couple different places in the Lahn valley, which is the region Marburg is in. The trip started out with a visit to an old medieval castle, Greifenstein. Little did the program coordinators know, a medieval festival was taking place at the same time at the castle. After some negotiations with the festival people, we were allowed to go on our tour of the castle. We began by walking down to the bell museum. The castle has a collection of old bells, some dating back to the 12th and 13th centuries. So we looked around and played with the bells for a while before moving on. The next place we visited was the church. When the church was built, the German baron had no place to really build a church, so he simply built it on top of the old church. The inside of the new church was decorated in stucco carvings and figurines.

Our guide told us of an interesting story about the castle. It took place I believe during the Thirty Years’ War. A French baron had been fighting with the German baron for several days, but neither side was winning. The German baron decided to make a deal with the French baron. The two men would start out at the castle entrance and would drink a half liter of white wine for every doorway they passed through on their way to the center of the castle. If the German baron won, the French were required to leave immediately. If the French baron won, the German baron would surrender the castle to him and leave peacefully. The French baron accepted, not knowing that the only path from the castle gate to the center was a winding spiral, including 23 or so doorways. After the 13th doorway, the French baron collapsed, thus losing the bet and forcing his men to leave.

The tour wrapped up after a quick talk about the two towers, and we were left with 30 minutes to enjoy the festival. I climbed the towers for some pictures then came down for food. I got a tasty bratwurst on a roll and this amazing Belgian Kirschbier. I’m going to need to look for that back in the States, because it was absolutely delicious.

We then hopped on the bus and headed to an old red iron ore mine, Grube Fortuna. The mine felt good since it was a good 30 degrees cooler in the mine than the temperature outside (80-something degrees). Once inside, we took a cart elevator down, then a mine train to the inner part of the mine. Our guide showed us some of the different supports used to keep the mine from collapsing. He also demonstrated the use of some of the equipment used in the mine. After completing the tour, I now have a much greater respect for miners, not that I didn’t respect them before.

The final stop for the day’s adventure was Weilburg. Upon arriving at Weilburg, we went and saw the only water tunnel under a mountain to exist, at least according to the program coordinator. It was built to make cargo transport easier, since this was before the steam locomotive was invented. The use of this tunnel dropped a short 2 years later when the steam locomotive arrived. We then hiked our way to the Renaissance and Baroque influenced castle.

The castle was supposed to host an outdoor concert that night, which was the whole reason we came. Getting to the castle, we discovered the concert had been cancelled due to inclement weather. We decided to walk through the castle gardens on our way back. Just as I got to the end of the garden, it started to rain, turning rapidly into a downpour. The whole group rushed back to the bus, getting completely soaked. Even with my umbrella, I still got really wet. We headed back to Marburg, where I made a quick trip to the store for laundry detergent. Stopping for a Döner on the way back to the bus, I headed back to my dorm to do laundry and took it easy the rest of the night.