the castle

i was going to blog about this recent trip i took right after i got back but then the very next day i had the most awful night and that just took the wind out of my sails. so now i got some wind back and will tell you just a little bit about it. cause i took close to 150 pictures, not all of which will be seen by the public of course, but still there is a row of photos waiting to be published! i was so thrilled to finally have bought a new memory card cause on the old one fit about 54 pictures if i wanted them high quality... then i was even afraid this place would bust the capacity of my new one, and it nearly did, if night hadn't arrived at about six, and also photographer's burnout. this shot i took on the way out, and i almost didn't feel like it, but since i had begged for it, there i had to unroll the legs of my tripod again and now i am happy for it.

when i had commented on one of greg's recent pictures he said, hey, me and ben are going back to this place, will you come along? naturally i said, hell yeah!!! cause who would pass up an opportunity to go with a couple of fearless photohunters to an abandoned castle in the middle of goddamn nowhere? actually i had no idea where it would be, but if you've ever seen any of greg's photos you would do the same, ask no questions and just go! but he did show me a shot another photographer took on the outside and it blew away anything i could have even dreamed up myself! so off we went one early friday morning, i mean early!!! 5:45 early!!! thankfully i slept most of the trip from paris to belguim, occasionally peeping out the window, seeing the landscape change from flat to hilly, to mountainous. close to the border we kept driving by this raging river to our right, and a rocky cliff to our left with an old military installation on top. quite dramatic, this scenery, and setting the mood for things to come.

four and a half hours later, greg parks the car on the side of a windy road, we grab our gear (mine is rather slender to the big boy equipment of my companions) and off we go up a muddy hill towards adventure. ignoring the "no trespassing" sign, we are more concerned about the shots we can hear in the not too far distance. has hunting season begun already, or do the rules not apply in these forlorn parts? we quicken our steps, driven by a little fear but a lot of anticipation. this forest feels enchanted without me having even seen the castle. large dark pines with outreaching branches, the brightest moss overgrowing fallen branches and treestumps, one might see an elf or two, if one looked long enough, but we were in a hurry so the fairy creatures remained unseen.

then we came around the last bend and i could see parts of the massive walls of the castle, obscured still by tree branches, but these could not hide the grandeur that was rome... when finally in full view, my eyes wanted to pop from their sockets, and words absolutely failed me. i wanted to go mad with my camera, but caution prevented me and we rushed straight for an iron frame leaning up against one of the towers. it had horizontal bars, maybe was an old bedframe, which was used for a ladder undoubtedly by many others before us. greg went first and i followed, while more shots rang through the air. last came ben and we were inside, walking on wobbly ground. greg said, watch where you step! and i can see why, there are small holes made by heavy footsteps in the floor, and then there are places where the entire floor was missing. the castle had been attacked by a fungus which forced the owners to leave it to rot.

an interesting thing, among so others, about this place was that across the way sits its nemesis, another castle that is still inhabited, looking pretty and new, used as a hotel. it reminded me of how everything has its opposite, like darkness has light. that even earth has a nemesis planet somewhere out there...

but here we are, inside the castle. i will end my narrative here for now and will continue when i have more photos ready to be seen.