Instead of Christmas Markets, today was a day of castles.

To start off the day we headed a short ways southwest to Castle Lichtenstein. Perched on a cliff over looking a long valley Lichtenstein Castle was built on the remains of an older medieval castle and was built after the owner read a book about an imaginary Lichtenstein Castle then decided to design a castle to match the one in the book.

The exterior resembles a fairy tale castle while the interior is warm and welcoming, just not welcoming enough to allow photos inside.

After our tour we grabbed some lunch on our way to our next castle.

After lunch we headed to Hohenzollern Castle with our timed tickets. Instead of a normal walk through the castle, there was a special Christmas event where the whole castle was decorated for the season. Unfortunately, this meant that the castle was open for special hours and required the timed tickets. Thankfully we had seen this before the trip and were able to buy the tickets. This worked in our favor as, when we arrived, there was one of the staff turning back anyone who didn’t have a ticket already as they had sold out for the evening.

The fog would settle in a short time later, completely enclosing the castle.

We also got to see a few outdoor events as well.

Before we headed back to Tubingen we enjoyed a well deserved Hot Aperol and a Punsch.

For dinner we hit a popular restaurant called Baren Gasthaus. They serve small plates and a lot of drinks. We skipped the drinks.

Tomorrow it’s back to Christmas markets with Stuttgart.