View from Burg Trifels

It was a lovely sunny and warm morning as we drove to Annweiler and Burg Trifels. We parked the van and walked up to the castle that sits rather improbably on a sandstone pinnacle that sticks out of the surrounding forest. It was built originally in the 11th century but the current edifice is the 3rd incarnation, begun by the Nazis in the 1930s and completed just after the war. It is also where Richard the Lionheart was held prisoner for a while on his return from the Crusades. There is an interesting exhibition about his part in the Crusades and whether he deserved to be held prisoner. Typical of its time the story is one of alliances, arguments, double crossings, money and treachery. There is no evidence to support the story about the minstrel so beloved of our starry-eyed view of him. The blip is the view west of the Palatinate forest with a sandstone pillar rising from the trees, and the extra a shot of Annweiler am Trifels from the castle.