Schloß Sprechenstein

1:34:00 PM Out And About Global 2 Comments

My poor family is subject to my "pull-over" whims and the road from Munich into Northern Italy via the Brenner pass is full of pull-over possibilities. There must be at least 15 castle fortresses along this road and I want to explore every one of them. Unfortunately, we are usually in a hurry to get to our destination or it is dark as we are passing through so we rarely stop, but on this occasion I lucked out. We were somewhere in the Sud Tirol when Bob pulled off the freeway.

This castle is called Sprechstein--It took a few minutes of driving on the frontage road to figure out there was no road up to the fortress, if we wanted to see it up close we had to hike up to it. So, that's what we did--put on our hiking shoes and followed the dirt path up the hillside; only took us about 30 minutes to reach the top.

This castle is on the opposite side of the freeway, making Sprechenstein a good "pull-over" because you get 2 castles for the price of one.

Sprechenstein is a ruin and not open to visitors, but we were allowed to walk around the perimeter. Looks like a Rapunzel tower if you ask me.

This sweet 3 legged cat came hobbling over to us--we could hardly resist giving it love!

One thing Europe is good at is what I call the "stop and smell the roses" attitude. It is very common to find a park bench in the middle of nowhere--may be in a corn field, along a deserted road, or on a hillside, but they exist for contemplation, relaxation and enjoyment. I love this photo I caught of Bob and Eden taking a minute to pause.

If you want to hike Sprechenstein exit the A-22 at Sterzing/Vipiteno and head east--You have to double back on the frontage road towards the castle; there aren't any signs. When you get directly beneath it there are some restaurant/guest houses. Park there and look for the small sign pointing the direction of the hiking path. Admittedly, this is like finding a needle in a hay stack, but you can google search the coordinates if you are determined to find the location.