After leaving the absolutely beautiful Schleissheim Palace (and having dinner, of course), we made our way over to Klostergasthof Raitenhaslach – the oldest Cistercian monastery in Upper Bavaria but not ‘to visit’ per se – this is where we would be spending the night in Bavaria.
(*You’ll find that in Germany and Austria – old historic monasteries like this have now been transformed to hotels, B&Bs, vineyards and even with restaurants to boot!)
As we arrived fairly late, it was pretty much bed-time pretty as soon as we’d checked in. (Welcomed by the wild bunnies 🐇 playing around who we seemed to rudely startle on our arrival… 😁).
After breakfast, eager to see even more of Bavaria’s stunning castles and palaces, we decided to quickly check out the monastery before leaving. (This area of Germany, by the way, is known for its stunning palaces and castles and we’d planned our entire trip around this).
As we’d gotten up fairly early, we pretty much had the monastery to ourselves, with the odd local, say hello as they went about their daily business.
After looking around for a bit (there’s so much more to see here but it was too early to get in), we decided to make our way over to Burghausen Castle – the longest castle in the world!
Even before you close to the castle, you can see it from all around the surrounding area – sitting pretty majestically atop a hill.
The actual town of Burghausen is also pretty cute and totally worth stopping by in.
We happened to just park in the town and do the walk uphill to Burghausen castle (which meant we got to see the town as we did) but this was soooooo not intentional. We couldn’t figure out where to park but as it turns out – there’s a car park (at Curaplatz), right up at the top so park up there if you’re driving.
The walk up to Burghausen castle though did have its rewards as the town below slowly began to reveal itself with each step we took.
By the way, if you park at Curaplatz, you arrive at the other end of Burghausen castle, which is a longer walk to get to the main part at the other end (I say longer walk – but it’s only like 7 – 10 minutes as is completely flat the entire way).
Coming up through the stairs from the town, you arrive straight at the main part of the castle – an impressive piece of Bavarian architecture that’s almost 1,000 years old!
We spend ages around the courtyard, thoroughly impressed by every single detail out here.
I know it sounds naïve but the fact that centuries ago – people built places like this has always fascinated me since I was a little kid.
Once you’re done with the courtyard/outside area, make sure you head inside to check out, not just the rooms and chapel, but also the amazing art that lines the walls inside.
You have to pay for the inside bit of Burghausen castle (it’s like €4.50 so its no bank breaker really) but the outside bit is entirely free.
When you’re in, to get a sense of how long the castle is, make sure you head right up to the very top, where from the balcony, you can see the length and breadth of the castle along with some pretty epic views of the surrounding countryside.
But, of course, the best way though, to truly know how long Burghausen castle is, is to just walk the entire length and so, upon leaving the main castle, we set about doing just that.
Castle gates lead to more castle complexes…
which leads to even more gates…
and sometimes even tiny hamlets…
all the while distracted by the view on either sides of the castle complex.
Eventually, we decided it was time to leave and so we hot-footed it right back down into town…
…stopping off for one more little jaunt in the town, before heading off to find what is easily one of Germany’s most amazing hidden gems ever!
More on that in the next post! (*Seriously though, the next place was easily one of the most impressive places we’ve visited and surprisingly so as it’s not a place lots of people talk about or think to visit).
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