[Michael Ekelmann]

Hi all,
Our summer vacation this year was in Bavaria and the Tirol. Here are some pictures from the castles we visited.

Hohenwerfen:
https://picasaweb.google.com/106965559957094632841/July2011BigBavarianBlowout10_HohenwerfenCastle?authkey=Gv1sRgCI3878Chiur_xQE

Schloss Ambrass:
https://picasaweb.google.com/106965559957094632841/July2011BigBavarianBlowout7_Schloss_Ambrass?authkey=Gv1sRgCMnpwc2KnY2a1wE

[Gottfried P. Doerler]

nice.
i know ambras quite well, having jobbed there as museum-guard during my studies at the innsbruck university.
its quite interesting, typical rennaisance-castle (more like chateau than a fortress), nice armour collection. but as i recall visitors were mostly disappointed by the 3 floors of the main-keep, filled with habsburg-ancestry-portraits from top to bottom.
i mean, there are some quite exquisite portraits, by cranach, by velasquez.... but after seeing 100s of them you are quite bored, imho a 4th of them would be enough.

hohenwerfen also looks nice, more medieval than ambras, maybe i`ll have visit.
but i was quite surprised seeing the red-white-red window shutters on a bavarian castle, i`ve always thought, thats a typical feature of austrian castles.