On Halloween day, the kids had school & Trek had to work, so I took Opa & Oma exploring again. We drove about an hour & found ourselves in Bitche, France. There, on top of a HUGE hill stands a fortress like nothing I've seen before. One thing I'm learning about Europe is how to distinguish between a castle, a palace, a fort, & a fortress. They are all very different things, but they are also all "castles" to kids. This thing is a FORTRESS & it is massive in size. It was built in the 13th century. As you drive up over a hill & down into the Bitche Valley, you look up & you almost wreck your car as you're starting at this MOUNTAIN of a fortress in front of you. Luckily, you can drive all the way up to the fortress walls (in case you don't want to hike it). It was FREEZING so we drove all the way up. When we got out of the car & started exploring the citadel this is what we found . . .
Everywhere we looked there were dug up graves, empty caskets, & weird things.
We walked over to a big shed & there was scary music playing from a speaker inside. We realized we had just walked into a completely vacant haunted house. Immediately Oma & I grabbed Opa & told him to protect us. We were slightly terrified.
Then we found this walkway up to a big tunnel. Our curiosity was getting the better of us so we walked towards the dark entrance.
There was a demon on top as well as 2 guardian skeletons on either side of the entrance. It was the weirdest thing because it was completely empty. There wasn't a single person in sight. We didn't know if there was a place to pay for entrance to the citadel or if it was closed or what was going on. Usually there's a turnstyle or a cashier booth or something, but we were literally just walking around & nobody was there.
We walked through the dark tunnel & there was SCARY music & sounds playing the whole time. I was almost in tears (I do NOT handle scary things very well), but we made it out the other side. Outside the tunnel was another graveyard & more Halloween decorations. The citadel itself was beautiful, but we really were wanting to find out what was going on & if there were tours open.
Finally we found someone near the church on top of the citadel. They told us the citadel was closed until night because it was their big Halloween haunted house. They apologized & told us we needed to leave. We felt bad we were where we weren't supposed to be, but there was literally no signs anywhere. So we went back through the dark scary tunnel (& videoed it this time so we'd remember being scared).
On our way out we posed with the scary guys guarding the entrance.
Then we found a nice trail that goes all the way around the citadel. It took us a full hour to walk around the entire thing. It was amazing. I can't wait to come back & actually do a tour when it's open.
Adventure is Out There:
Entrance: 10 Euro for Adults, 6 Euro for Kids, Under 6 is free
Citadelle Bitche
Rue de Bombelles
57230 Bitche (F)
Telefon +33 (0)3 87 96 18 82
citadelle.bitche@wanadoo.fr
Website
Rue de Bombelles
57230 Bitche (F)
Telefon +33 (0)3 87 96 18 82
citadelle.bitche@wanadoo.fr
Website
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