Castles are Freakin Sweet

Returning from Amsterdam my buddy and I took a long detour specifically to visit Warwick Castle. When I got home, my Polish flat mates made fun of me for a long while because, according to them, obsession with medieval castles is a uniquely American condition because we don’t have any. Whether that’s true or not, I still hold that castles are universally enjoyable (except of course by medieval peasants), and worth a visit whenever you have the chance.

After Geneva, I headed towards Montreux to meet up with some friends before heading back up into the Alps. I spent the afternoon wandering around the exceptionally impressive Château de Chillon. Even though the castle was never involved in serious conflict, it has a compelling place in the history of Western European commerce, and the Swiss independence.

By far the most interesting part was learning that people like me who love castles, essentially ruin them from being restored to their original condition. Chillon, for example, used to be completely white-washed. But, since we have this romantic notion of medieval castles being bare stone, there is a major lobby pushing against restoring the castle to what it would have looked like in it’s heyday. Authentic looking or not, it was still an impressive place, and filled my need to check out a castle every couple of months.