Castle ruins near Freiburg

Before I describe our trip to Tenerife, here a few photos of one of the many walks and hikes we have taken around the Freiburg-Munzingen area.  The ruins you see are from a time long gone by when the area was dotted with fortifications and castles, fought for and destroyed by other Counts and Markgrafs in the area, and by armies moving thru the Rhine valley from as far away as Sweden, Austria (in fact, the area around Freiburg belonged to Austria for many years), Russia, France, etc. Built on top of a hill with a great view of the Rhine valley and backed by the Black Forest mountains, the Hochburg was thought to be a good location to defend itself, an illusion as was found out time and again.
The castles in the Rhine valley were rebuilt, destroyed, rebuilt,  until finally they became obsolete as a form of defense. Now they are just fun to visit. The Hochburg, first built in the 13th century by the Markgraf of Baden, is the second largest castle in Baden (Heidelberg has the largest and better preserved).

This walk can be expanded to include the ruins of three other castles. Caught in a rain storm Bill, my brother Ruediger and I visited just the Hochburg and then went to lunch in the nearby little town of Emmendingen.

 

 

The downtown of Emmendingen is now a pedestrian area.

 

The townhall built on top of medieval foundations

 

Goethe's sister lived here; Goethe and several famous 18th century authors visited and stayed here before she died at a young age.

 

 

 

This came as a surprise:  the German Archives for Diaries.