Frankenstein Castle

Fall is here, as is my best friend Ryan, so we decided to check out Frankenstein's castle, near Darmstadt, Germany, about a 1.5 hour drive from here. No work of fiction, here- this is a real castle that was once owned by the Frankenstein family. Mary Shelley made it famous as she embellished a story told to her by one of the Grimm brothers (of 'Mother Goose' fame) based on rumors of a physician working in the area there who was stealing bodies from graves for some self-taught anatomy lessons.

Some of the pictures look kinda spooky, but no one was "creeped out." The castle is mostly a ruin- only 2 towers still stand, and a few sections of walls. We were allowed to climb around pretty much anywhere we wanted to go, which was fun, and allowed us to take some cool shots. While we were there, the castle was being readied for Halloween visitation. All kinds of macabre torture devices were being placed at key locations on the grounds for a large-scale haunted house experience. We won't be attending the halloween festivities, but felt it was pretty cool that we got to see a real-life monster castle around Halloween time.

Having Ryan along meant not only that we were in good company, but also that we again had someone to take our picture together! Ryan hates to have his picture taken, so it's fun to surreptitiously snap pictures of him when he doesn't expect it.