On Your Next Trip to Europe Why Not Make It a Trip into the Past?

Days of Yore Travel is for Discovers voyaging into the past.

Make It an Extraordinary Trip to Europe

Days of Yore Travel is for Adventurers who want "hands on" experience with the past.

Dine Like Kings and Queens

Days of Yore Travel makes your trip a culinary experience and a memory with friends.

Make History by Re-discovering History

Days of Yore Travel can help you enjoy the archaeological experience.

Get Up Close to Real Treasure

Days of Yore Travel can show you how you can be part of a discovery team.

Turn Museum Visits into Experiences

Days of Yore Travel can bring you together with experts who want to make history an experience for you.

Re-Living History Where It Originally Took Place

Days of Yore Travel will bring you face to face with living history.

Learn Traditional Craftsmanship from Experienced Masters

Days of Yore Travel can help you meet craftsman who still keep the old traditions alive.

Celebrate Like You Never Have Before

Days of Yore Travel can show the kind of parties you usually on see on television.

Discover Your Secret Love for Long-Lost Things Cherished

Days of Yore Travel brings you together with people who take pleasure in showing the beauty of by-gone days of yore.

Experience Thousand-Year-Old Cities Where It All Began

Days of Yore Travel takes you there.

Saturday, January 31, 2015

Top 10 Romantic Castles - Trendelburg - Rapunzel's Castle

Well, it's almost Valentine's Day - so Days of Yore Travel would like to present you with the Top 10 Romantic Castles you can stay in. Here's our Second Choice:

No. 2 Rapunzel’s Castle – Trendelburg



Trendelburg - The Real Rapunzel Castle

The Trendelburg Castle was built in 1300, near the city of Kassel. Purportedly this is the real McCoy – the original true Rapunzel Castle right out of Grimm’s Fairy Tales.

In reality, it was built by Conrad III von Schöneberg, to secure the road between Kassel and Bremen. Like Sababurg, it’s located on the Fairy Tale Road, on the other side of Reinhard’s Forest.

The impressive 125 foot high “Rapunzel” tower was added after the castle burned down in 1456. The Grimm Brothers added Rapunzel (the German word for lamb’s lettuce) to their collection of fairy tales, after a woman from this area told them the handed-down medieval tale of Sleeping Beauty in 1810. The forest surrounding (Reinhardswald) is full of so many old trees, you will believe it’s haunted.

Unlike in the fairy tale, the castle played a strategic role in the Thirty Years’ War, and was destroyed by General Tilly’s Croatian soldiers. It wasn’t until 1996 that it was finally purchased by an investment company and finally restored, making it one of the most romantic castle hotels in Europe.

Romantic Castle Chambers

The rooms all have “castle chamber” décor, especially for romantic couples in mind. The hotel gives special attention to details like rose petals in the bath, and bedding arranged with a romantic flair. Naturally, four-posted canopy beds at the crowning touch to this romantic castle hotel. 

This hotel is perfect for people who want the fairy tale experience with romance, comfort and luxury. Here’s a sample of one of the specials they have at Rapunzel’s castle:
  • 2 overnights in one of the fairy tale rooms
  • Royal castle lord‘s breakfast
  • They welcome you with the heavenly smell and taste home-baked muffins
  • Fluffy bath-robe and comfortable slippers
  • Aroma bath in your fairy bath in your chambers
  • A fairy tale heavenly relaxing massage (25 minutes)
  • 3-course dinner with an "enchanted" main entry
  • 5-course dinner in "magical" candle-light for romantics
  • An enchanting day in the land of fairy tales is awaiting for your discover
  • You can arrive as of 12:00 pm (upon request)
  • You can take a late check-out up until 4:00 pm (upon request)
  • Free parking in front of the castle
Dine like Kings & Queens

Couple price for a double room including bathtub -
Starting at 496 €   
 

 Extras (per couple) :   
  • Four-posted canopy bed or residence in the tower    € 40,00
  • Honeymoon Suite       € 80,00
  • Residence in the Royal Suite    € 120,00
Spoil yourself like a real Princess or Prince
And for super-romantics, they have more extras:
  • A temperate sauna (150°F) for cold winter days – 30 €/hr/couple – private use: 75 €/hr/couple.
  • Pamper yourself in their “Princess Mouse Skin” Salt Room (24 € /hr /couple)
  • Relaxing massages starting at 35 € / person, or hot stone massages 75 € / person.

Castle servents awaiting your commands, See Rapunzel let down her hair, or haunted Reinhart's Forest

Naturally, no romantic trip to this castle would be complete without a castle event, such as fairy tale reenactments, feast for the knights, or a trip to the haunted Reinhart's forest or the nearby Tierpark, which has many of the legendary animals right out of fairy tales.

Sound irresistibly romantic? To find out more, send an email to Days of Yore Travel,
or the Trendelburg Hotel at: info@burg-hotel-trendelburg.com

Address:
Burg Hotel Trendelburg
Steinweg 1
34388 Trendelburg
Germany
Telefon +49 (0)56 75 - 90 90
Telefax +49 (0)56 75 -93 62
Website: http://www.burg-hotel-trendelburg.com/en/

Don't Miss These Other Romantic Castles:

No. 1 - Sababurg - Sleeping Beauty's Castle













Friday, January 30, 2015

Top 10 Romantic Castles - Sababurg - The Real Sleeping Beauty Castle

Well, it's almost Valentine's Day - so Days of Yore Travel would like to present you with the Top 10 Romantic Castles you can stay in. Here's our first choice: 

No. 1 - Sleeping Beauty’s Castle – Sababurg

The Real Sleeping Beauty Castle - Right Out of the Fairytale

The Sababurg Castle was built in 1334, near the town of Hofgeismar. Purportedly this is the real McCoy – the original true Sleeping Beauty Castle right out of Grimm’s Fairytales.

Truly, there is something magical about this castle, because it was originally dedicated to “Christian spiritual love”; namely – built to protect pilgrims travelling to the nearby pilgrimage site of Gottsbüren.

The Grimm Brothers added Sleeping Beauty to their collection of fairytales, after a woman from this area told them the handed-down medieval tale of Sleeping Beauty in 1810. The forest surrounding (Reinhardswald) is full of so many old trees, you will believe it’s haunted.

Just like in the fairytale, the castle eventually became ruins, full of overgrown roses, but in the 20th century, the Koseck Family “kissed it awake”, restoring it to perhaps the most romantic castle hotel in Europe.

Reinhard's Forest, Rose Garden, and native wild horses in the Tierpark
All of the rooms have names, like the “Unicorn Room” or the “Fox Room”. Designed especially for romantic couples, the rooms are furnished in traditional old-world country/castle décor. The tower rooms have four-posted beds – just like you’d expect in a fairytale.

Tower rooms in the castle, with welcome dish of treats

This hotel stresses romance, comfort and luxury, but at affordable prices.
The Sleeping Beauty Romantic Weekend Special includes:

  • A special gift book and plate of fruit and treats, waiting for your arrival in your room
  • Two overnights, and an elaborate royal breakfast buffet
  • A rose cocktail, served in a crystal rose petal glass on your first evening
  • A gourmet 3-course and a 4-course evening meal with a special menu
  • Admission tickets for the castle (without a tour guide)
  • Admission tickets for “Tierpark Sababurg”, Europe’s oldest zoo – built in 1571 (without a tour guide)
  • Hiking through the nearby forest, the “Sababurg’s Wild Forest”, Germany’s first national forest – from 1907 (without a tour guide)
  • A small goodbye rose souvenir to remember your stay at Sababurg Castle
Pamper your beloved with a Sleeping Beauty 3 or 4 course gourmet meal

  • Special Package Price for a couple staying in the Castle Bower (Kemenate): 550 €
  • Special Package Price for a couple staying in the Castle Tower (Turm-Gemach): 750 €
    (This includes a room with a four-posted canopy bed and a whirlpool-tub)
You can save 15% if you stay in the castle hotel from Sunday through Thursday.

And for super-romantics, they have extras:
  • An extra day of Sleeping Beauty Luxury for 220 € in the tower room with the canopy bed, gourmet menu and whirlpool-tub
  • A bouquet of flowers waiting in the room, or delivered at the breakfast table starting
  • at 30 €
  • A private audience with Sleeping Beauty and Prince Charming for 95 €
  • A portable fireplace for your castle chamber (bio-ethanol) for 50 €
Sound irresistibly romantic? To find out more, send an email to Days of Yore Travel,
or the Koseck Family at: dornroeschenschloss@sababurg.de

Address:
Dornroeschenschloss Sababurg
Koseck Family
Im Reinhardswald
34369 Hofgeismar (Sababurg)
Germany
Tel: +49 5671 808 0
Fax: +49 5671 808 200
Website: http://www.sababurg.de

Don't Miss These Other Romantic Castles: 

 No. 2 - Trendelburg - Rapunzel's Castle

Monday, January 19, 2015

Learning to Make a Real Celtic or Medieval Bow

Learning to choose exactly the right kind of
wood for a bow at Ronneburg Bogenbau
 Anybody can buy or mail-order a sword from an online replica shop. They're nice, but somehow all the same. But, if you want to go back in time, and get the "real" Celtic/Medieval feeling about making one of the most deadly and precise weapons of all time, there is nothing better than learning how make an original bow from an Expert.

Meet Nico Veggiato - a Bowyer (Bow Maker) & Fletcher (Arrow Maker), who preserves the age-old traditions. 

Whether you want to make a European prehistoric hunting bow, a Celtic warrior bow, or a medieval army bow, Nico and his team of experts can teach you - not only how to cut, plane and sand a single piece of wood into an authenic period bow - but also show you how to make authentic arrow tips, how to notch arrows, and how to attach cut and attach feathers to them.

Nico's seminars take place in authentic surroundings - in the medieval castle of Ronneburg (built in 1231), just outside of Frankfurt am Main. 



In just two days, you'll learn:
  • How to select the perfect wood
  • How to shape a bow
  • How to braid a bowstring
  • How an arrow shaft is constructed
  • How to fletch (attach feathers to an arrow)
  • How to make arrow heads and attach them
  • How to shoot your new bow

If you would like more information about participating in bow-making seminars, write to us at Days of Yore Travel, or visit the Ronneburg Bogenbau website.

Here's where you get the real medieval experience in experimental archaeology - making the same kind of bow that once defended the castle walls you make your bow in.

This is where you can find their tentative calendar for Bowyer seminars.