Castle Freudenberg
Created | Updated Mar 13, 2012
A Day at a special Castle
Two months ago, we were invited by our boss for the 10th anniversary-do of one of my colleagues.
The location was Schloss Freudenberg near Wiesbaden. It's a place with exhibits to try all your senses.
I wasn't really keen to go (because the colleague we 'celebrated' is quite often quite nasty to me), but my other colleagues convinced me to go after all.
The day before the weather had been lovely: sunny and warm, but not so on the day.
It was very cold (about 9.00 °C), and it rained, so I wished I could just stay at home, wrapped up in a warm blanket.
This drastic change in weather resulted in my blood pressure dropping towards zero, and my feet apparently being exchanged with two blocks of ice.
We arrived at our destination at about 14.30, and my first impulse was to turn around and go home - it was packed with people and very noisy.
A fire was burning in the large fireplace near the entrance, making the air so smoky it bit your eyes. A few steps into the hall, and I discovered the source of the 'noise':
a Chinese Spouting Bowl, like the one they have in the Explora museum, plus a smaller bowl giving higher tunes.
Well, after I had survived the initial 15 minutes I started to adapt to the crowds, noise and smells, and we ventured to explore the exhibits.
The building is only about 100 years old, but a listed building, which means that no major changes to the building (like a ramp for wheelchair access) are allowed.
It comprises a large cellar, ground floor and first floor.
Most of the sound exhibits are in the cellar - as is the 'Dunkelbar' - a bar that's completely dark, with a blind bartender serving you your drinks. The bar wasn't open, but there is a passageway that's just as dark. There are only so many people allowed in there at any given time, so we had to split into two groups. Before entering, you're asked to leave your handbag on a bench and your glasses in a small box. The glasses won't be of any use to you in there as it's pitch black, but if you keep them, you risk breaking them, either by somebody else panicking and flailing their arms, or by yourself running into an obstacle.
It was quite a spooky experience, all the way through we kept calling out if the others were still near, groping for a wall to keep to whilst carefully testing the ground with our feet. I still managed to hit my shin at some wooden obstacle, but not much, so it wasn't too bad.
We then had a coffee break at the very busy café, with view on the gardens. I took some photos of the sugar sachets, suddenly remembering the Guide Entry about them which was just in Peer Review at the time.
Having had our coffee and cake, we went to explore the first floor. There were exhibits where you could smell different fragrances, more sound exhibits, and some which could be set in motion.
The Garden
Afterwards, we ventured into the garden. It had stopped raining but was still very cold. Fortunately, there was no wind, though.
There is a path which you are expected to explore with bare feet - the ground is made of various materials like wood, stones, plain mud and large puddles, interspersed with tree trunks or large metal bars to balance on and test your equilibrium.
Apparently, you're meant not only to cross the path with bare feet, but with closed eyes, too (with somebody else guiding you, but still!).
Neither of these were exactly inviting in the cold, but the boss set a good example and some of us followed. My feet being as cold as they were, I thought I might at least get the Kneipp effect.
It was fun albeit not without risk, as due to all the rain, the whole path was very wet and slippery, especially the tree trunks and metal bars which were not only wet, but muddy, too. We all had our eyes open, anything else would have ended in broken limbs.
With our feet being so cold as to be numb, the various undergrounds couldn't be 'felt' the way they are thought to, but it was still great fun.
After we had cleaned and dried our feet, went to explore the garden a bit more, there was a pendulum, a large disk, made of concrete, probably weighing a ton, and dangling from a chain not very far from the ground. I don't recall it exactly, but I think the idea was for one to lie beneath the pendulum, and for somebody else to set it in motion. I don't recall which sensation this was expected to cause, but none of us were prepared to submit ourselves to the horror image of this block of concrete crashing down on us.
Our next station took us to a labyrinth - nothing much was growing there yet, so you could either follow it, or just cheat and take the short cut by stepping over the line. Some wind organs led our way out of the garden, and back near the building there were some nice wooden sculptures.
Despite the rain and cold it was a great experience which I can only recommend should you ever find yourself near Wiesbaden in Germany. If somebody's interested, here are some photos.
