Our drive took us towards a place called Berghausen, and – with two hours to spare befoere our couchsurfing host arrived, Luke and I fired up the Sat-Nav and took a look at what was about.  “Photographic spot Berghausen” was all that was available so off we went down some of the narrowest lanes ever (Sat-Nav has yet to learn that we cannot always fit through some of these villages) towards this photographic spot.

What the Sat-Nav had neglected to tell us what that there is a castle in Berghausen, in fact the longest castle in Europe, over 1 kilometre long.  and that it is impressive enough to dwarf the town it presides over.  All this came as a shock to the two guys in a bright red LDV COnvoy who were just expecting another Sat-Nav foul up.

Parking up and taking a walk through the caslte quickly whittled away the two hours, the free english guide books allowed us to gather a bit of the history, though much was lost in garbled – yet funny – translation.

The Castle was originally built for the Marriage between a Bavarian and his Polish fiance, it is their coats of arms that ca be seen on the main castle courtyard.

The catle is mind bogglingly long, with 5 different courtyards added throughout the ages, (you thought adding a conservatory was an extension… its nothing compared to this!)

Each extension is distinctive in it’s purpose, the original castle was built as a small fortress, mainly to collect tolls from the river below that crosses the German / Austrian border.  The first extension houses an armoury and several turrets for greater protection, for this was the time that the Swedes were rampaging around Europe, the latter extensions hold mostly society functions, including a chapel, living quarters and food gardens, allowing the castle to be self sufficient as sieges took hold as the best castle breaking strategy.

A full two and a half hours later Luke and Iwalked back to the van and finally headed to our couchsurfing host’s.