Road trippin Part two: Hochosterwitz

Fine day ladies and gents. Second stop on our road trips was to a larger Austrian castle called Hochosterwitz. This is a castle a little bit out of nowhere, but near the city of Klagenfurt. The castle has been on our list for a long time. I remember we found the castle after we saw the latest “Fantastic Beasts: How to make more money with Harry Potter franchise” movie. At the end of that boring movie the bad guys are setting up in some Austrian castle and as we were heading here shortly after seeing that movie, we wanted to do some research into Austrian castles. I don’t remember if we found the castle they use in the movie, but the Hochosterwitz castle stood out and ended up on our list. 

Lets roll

A good spot for a break and a little snack or watermelon

Little peek of the castle

The castle is about 130 kilometres from Graz, so it was a good road trip length without getting overly numbing. The castle is perched on 160-metre-high cliff or mountain and it has a road spiralling down the cliffs with 14 different gates to protect the entrance. We took the funicular up to the mountain and walked down. The views from the top were great and it was just a pleasure to walk the grounds and gaze into the distance. At the top there was a small museum, but all the information was only in German, so we didn’t get all the historical info. Quick googling brought that it was mainly used during the Ottoman wars as a safe space for civilians and didn’t serve as a large military garrison. During the castles history it was never captured so I guess it succeeded in protecting the people during those times.

I can’t think of much more to say about the castle. It was beautiful up on its cliff so I just might as well share the pics. Enjoy.

 

We stopped by the road to take a picture

Views were great

Big ol pan to cook with

I like this picture with the flowers sprouting outside the wall and there is a little lizard in the middle of the picture

Not a bad view from the windows

Flowers were sproutiin

The castle had a little church in one of the levels

There were 14 of these gates

Castle in different light when we were leaving, thank you

Tunnels are something new to me here in the mountains