jeudi 13 novembre 2014

Hohenzollern.























One of the (many)reasons why I love Germany is the amazing sceneries including castles you can find dispatched through the whole country. It's become quite an habit for me to check which castle I could visit while I'm staying in a city, and this time around we decided Hohenzollern would be the perfect spot to discover while staying in Heidelberg. 
Usually castles we visit are really easy to reach, even EltzBurg was easy to find, you only need a bit of courage and a good pair of shoes. I thought this one would be easy to find as well, and the internet didn't give me anything to worry about, so that's quite confident that we left Heidelberg and jumped intro a train to Hechingen, the city from which we were supposed to easily and quickly reach the castle. But, as you might have already sensed, this was nothing of an easy and little walk.
First of all, there was no sign to be found. We took a picture of a map situated in front of the train station, and started making our way toward the castle. At that point I wasn't worried at all, I know well how to read maps and I have a good sense of direction. Soon enough we could see the castle in our field of vision. And that's when I started to worry. It seemed far. And that didn't seem to change despite us walking and walking. Eventually, to make it short we ended up walking for about two hours. In a very beautiful forest I'll agree, but a forest on a very stiff hillside.
When we reached the top of the hill and entered the castle, after some killer stairs, we were sweating like pigs and I was only wearing a tanktop. I could feel the drops of sweat running across my back. However we felt relieved, we had made it! " I don't care what or what not, I am NOT walking back to Hechingen, NO WAY!" I remember myself saying in a loud and exhausted voice.
If only I knew.
After the visit of the castle we walked back to a parking lot a few meters down the castle, and asked for the next bus. 
"There's one every hour, one just left a bit early, the next one is at 6.30"answered the lady who sold postcards, chocolates and pint with the picture of the castle on them.
My sister turned to me with a look of despair.
"Our train is at 6.40".
I laughed. dementia. I thought we just had to walk down the hill and we'd find other buses there. I was so naive and hopeful. We decided to take the road this time and not the path in the forest(thanks lord for that idea) and as the sun started settling down we reached the end of the hill. But there was no bus. Only what seemed to be, and surely was, the highway. I remember having read somewhere about how dangerous it was to walk on the side of highways, and that is was forbidden in some places. In addition to that we had arrived on the other side of the hill and had no idea where to go. It was getting dark and I couldn't decide which of the three villages I could see afar was Hechingen. However we trusted our guts and kept walking, the cars were passing by in an astonishing windy sound. As we kept on putting a feet in front of the other, we finally saw signs that said Hechingen : 1KM. At that moment I thought that was it. 1km was nothing! merely a few steps in my mind, I even thought to myself 'ah we could do that running in 5minutes!" But by then, the night had really fallen, and it was pitch black. We entered Hechingen, not having a single clue where we were. Once again, there was no sign to indicate the train station of the city center. We walked through this residential area for a few minutes, starting to worry about being late for our train. We finally met a lady who looked really troubled when we told her we wanted to walk to the bahnhof. 
- It's not difficult to find (LIE) but it's a bit far away.  Turn on your left, then right and then straight.
We were going to be late. After 10more minutes, I started running and told my sister to do the same. We ran for 10 other minutes or so and asked another lady. Keep in mind all that was happening after an already long and tiring day, at night in a city completely foreign in which for some unknown reasons there was no street lights or signs. A few streets later, we were completely lost and I could feel a) my sister about  to cry b) my own smell. That's when I decided to turn on the internet on my phone, had a look at the map and, animated by a desperate feeling told her not  to worry, we would make it. And guess what? We did make it. A few meters away we walked on a bridge that looked familiar, and with the help of the map that I had mentally took a picture of( btw, my camera had no battery anymore, hence we didn't use it to find our way back with the picture of the map we used on our way to the castle), we almost ran to the train station, an extatic look on our faces when we recognized the streets and stores and burning tighs.
We arrived 2minutes early, and dropped our aching bodies onto the train seats. At this point, all we could think of was a hot shower and food. Food that consisted of two vegan samwiches we bought in a hurry at Stuttgart where we changed trains, and hot shower we took when we finally reached the hotel. That sure makes a great story to tell, but I think it has taught me one thing: double check the distance and itineraries on google maps, don't listen to only one website. 
EVER.


8 commentaires:

  1. Sounds like quite an adventure. Glad you guys made it to the train. Beautiful pictures.

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  2. Emy, I was wondering, what camera do you use for your photographs? Do you use the same one for your videos as well? These pictures are tremendously beautiful!

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  3. Salut Emmy, j'ai découvert ton blog et ta chaîne Youtube il y a quelques semaines et j'adore ! :) je me demandais si tu ne pouvais pas mettre les archives de ton blog dans un menu pour qu'on puisse voir vraiment tout tes vieux articles ? Bisou continue tu es très inspirante !

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  4. what camera do you use?

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  5. Mmmm...Olympus OM-10, Sony Alpha A5000(5100). Fantásticas cámaras!!! Muy bellas fotos, felicitacionas y muchas gracias por compartirlas!
    Saludos,

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  6. Hi! That's the first time when I visit in your blog :) You have taken amazing photographs from different places. By the way, have you been in Finland yet? I live there, and it's a cool place to live, but also cold in winters. Now it's winter here, but there is no snow anywhere even though should be... It's just raining every day. I can recommend you to come to Finland, if you haven't been here yet ;)
    By the way, I think your English is perfect! I can't speak English perfectly because it's not my mother tongue... But I love French language, and also Paris, its culture and people! Paris is beautiful city and after a short trip there in summer (in June, about four days trip) I've wanted to go there again... I would like to travel in different countries as you do, but unfortunately I have no money enough to travel everywhere... My next stop could be Los Angeles or Scotland :)

    I watched some of your videos on YouTube, and I must say now, that I can speak 3 languages; Finnish, English and French ;) I love French language so much! In some Finnish forum someone said that France is a "Baguette country" and people there are "baguettes" ... I wasn't sure should I laugh or what...

    But anyways, I will travel to Paris again, as soon as I can. And I'll move there after few years, too...
    By the way, could you tell me what kind of place Paris is to live? I would be interested in that thing... ;)

    ps. I really don't get the thing, that some people think the French are unfriendly! When I was in Paris, I saw few Parisian men who smiled at me... Oh yes, it means that they are unfriendly, isn't it? I don't understand...
    pps. Someone Finnish people said also that French language is ugly... What?? I think it's just beautiful... Well, people dislike what they ever want...

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  7. Hi Emy my name is Ed im 28 and I'm from Mexico i just found your videos on youtube, im starting to learn french and I find them very useful so I just wanted to thank you. Very interesting story i hope I could travel to europe next year and meet some great places and castles like that Ive heard that they are also beautiful castles in Ireland. Well in México we do not have many castles but we have beautiful beaches if you ever have a chance to come to Mexico i recomend you to visit riviera maya beaches you gonna fall in love :).
    Au revoir.

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  8. Your photography skills are amazing! I love the symmetry, the points of view, the paralleled lines! Just great!

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