Schloss Haemelschenburg

On our way from Hannover to Hameln, we ventured off the main drag to see a castle. As we walked up, there was a guy with camera and tripod who immediately started talking. Turned out he spoke English and excitedly recommended we visit several other castles in the area. As best I could tell he was talking mostly about the one from the fairy tale Rapunzel. This is not it.

Haemelschenburg Castle is in the little town of Emmerthal. For 560 years it has remained in the von Klencke family. They actually live in the castle and take part in the daily work there. As far as I know there are no fairy tales originating from this castle, but there surely should be. It is really beautiful.

We decided against waiting for the next tour mostly because it was in German and we were pretty sure we'd get nothing whatsoever out of it.

You can even have your wedding here . . .

in this little church - one of the first churches built for a Protestant congregation in the world.

Right on the grounds of the castle were these three dams (I had to google that) and their fillies.

So beautiful.

The castle famous for the Rapunzel fairy tale is Trendelburg and was built in 1300. Located in the town of the same name, it was just a short detour as we drove back to Hasselt, but we didn't know it at the time. It is now a hotel so perhaps if we venture in that direction again, we can visit or even spend a night at this famous castle.