My home is my castle

Bad Wimpfen in Baden-Wuerttemberg is a picture book village. The timber framed houses in the narrow alleyways of the historic center are all over-grown with ivy and decorated with colorful flower-boxes, between taverns and homes there are old Vespa scooters and bicycles and shop windows display hand-painted pottery. There is a wedding taking place on the market square.

A one room apartment over the clouds

Some 134 steps above all of this you'll find Bianca Knodel, who has been living and working in the "Blauen Turm" tower since 1996. Since the Middle Ages it has always had people living in it. Today it is a magnet for visitors partly because of the lively and welcoming inhabitant, Bianca Knodel who is the guardian of the tower in Bad Wimpfen. Historically this job used to entail keeping a look-out and raising the alarm should there be a fire somewhere or enemy troops approaching. Today the tower guardian is a seller of tickets and, of course, a teller of stories.

A normal day for Bianca Knodel begins at 7:30 am, when she is woken up by her "room mate", a black tom-cat. "Then I have my breakfast in peace and quiet before tidying the flat. At 10 o'clock I then open the tower for visitors," she explains.

Selling tickets naturally involves having a chat at the "toll station." Once that has been accomplished, the visitors climb the 134 stairs to the viewing platform to enjoy looking out over the Neckar river valley, with its canoeists and vineyards. Bianca Knodel gets visitors to help her in her everyday life too. "Once a week I go shopping, and then I will put a crate of beer at the entrance with a little sign saying: 'dear guest, whoever carries this crate upstairs will be given a free beer.' This system has never failed me", she admits with a knowing smile.

A life spent high above Bad Wimpfen

She cannot, however, survive on the takings from the ticket sales alone. She lives here for free, receives a percentage of the ticket sales and she rents out her old apartment in Bad Wimpfen. She loves her lofty 53 square meter one room apartment with its own whirlpool. The magic of this place keeps her spellbound - which is especially exciting in stormy weather. "When thunderstorms move in from the west, then you can watch the dark clouds gather. I sit at the window, open a bottle of wine and watch the thunder and lightning. I love it"- Germany's only female tower guardian tells us.

How much longer does she want to stay in this job? At least another 21 years. "I owe it to women everywhere. Germany's oldest male tower guardian was 84 years old, so I have to manage at least 85 years," she swears solemnly, while holding a glass of sparkling wine in her hand.

A different kind of family home

Castle Guttenberg is located eight kilometers to the north, in Neckarmühlbach. The mighty castle with its many walls and watch-towers looks down over the Neckar river valley. It was built in the 12th century and never destroyed.

The main entrance leads into the extensive grounds, which includes the family graveyard that belongs to the Guttenbergs. They have been in residence here for 550 years over 17 generations.

52-year-old Bernolph Freiherr von Gemmingen-Guttenberg, the current Baron, has spent his entire life living and working in the four story residential east wing of the castle. The castle is his home, his place of work and his source of income. He is responsible for making sure that the business operation "castle" runs smoothly. His business includes everything from the castle tavern, the castle museum including torture chamber, knight's armor and library, all the way to the timber business and the German bird-of-prey keep with its buzzards, eagles and vultures.

Falcons, the untamed castle residents

The shows by the bird keep are very popular with the visitors. The falcons fly over the heads of the audience, while the keepers entertain the spectators by chatting about the unusual aspects of their work. Falcons, we learn, can not be tamed; they only come back because of laziness and the promise of regular meals.

Bernolph Freiherr von Gemmingen-Guttenberg wants to give visitors an authentic insight of what life in a castle is really like, with all the joy it brings as well as the challenges. That is why the guided tours are only ever conducted by family members - that way they include their fair share of personal family anecdotes. For instance his wife was only prepared to move to the "cold and drafty castle" once he had central heating installed. A favor he gladly did for her, of course. To this day though the castle lacks insulation, but, he adds, it does have some "pretty good windows."

Between romanticism and conservation

The Baron does not hide the dark side: life in a castle with all its hidden corners might sound romantic, but running a place like this is one thing above all else: expensive! The walls and buildings need to be professionally maintained. Only by adhering carefully to the rules of conservation can this historic heritage be preserved for future generations. A friend who is a bit of a sandstone whizz from southern Germany has just completed some extensive work on the castle keep. Generally speaking experts can be found for all the different buildings and materials, to carry out work or issue recommendations and assessments. "Living in a castle isn't something you do for a laugh - it costs huge amounts of money and it is really hard work," the baron tells us.

Hide on high

Sometimes he takes the liberty to switch off and get away from it all. When the weather is particularly nice he tells himself: "enough already - now I'll go to the forest and take some time out in my raised hide. I am juggling so many balls at once, that I daren't let a single one drop."

How about his three children? Were there moments when they didn't think life in a castle was that great? "A couple of years ago we spent the summer holidays in a tiny fishing cottage in Sweden. When we returned the children said: 'we want to go back to Sweden'." They missed how close they'd been to their parents; while the kids lay in their beds they could hear their parents chatting quietly in the sitting room. In the castle the sitting room and the children's bedrooms are separated by a 36 meter long corridor.

Today the children are 13, 16 and 17 years old and already pretty grown-up. The baron hopes that his passion for the old walls will one day be taken up by one of his children.

Like Bianca Knodel from the Blauen Turm, Baron Freiherr von Gemmingen-Guttenberg cannot at the moment imagine living anywhere else. He currently thoroughly enjoys juggling the balls in his business operation "castle." Maybe later on moving to Frankfurt am Main might be an option. "It's a different cultural environment there. Everything is a lot closer, and you don't have to climb up to the third floor all the time," he says with a smile and a wink filled with mischief.

Subsequently, having spent time chatting with some of today's castle keepers, the ancient walls along the Castle Road suddenly no longer appear so old and dusty, but instead seem to be bursting with life and passion.