Glücksburg, Germany 🇩🇪 2022

Date: 7th August 2022

Travelled: 160 kms from Flensburg to Wahlstedt, Germany  

Visited: Glücksburg Schloss   

Stayed: Wahlstedt Stellplatz, €8, N53.95740, E10.20540  

Budget: 74 days @ €107 per day

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What was a very quiet evening in Flensburg, was a bit noisier come 6am when it seems several of our neighbours started moving about and servicing their motorhomes. Seeking an early start to where ever they were going.

We started a little later than usual, before walking over to the Citit-Park shopping complex just across the road. There was a Sunday morning market in full swing but it was mostly a trash-n-treasure arrangement so we walk into the complex to find only the bakery was open this early. So we return to the Hymer with some treats and make ready for the road ourselves.

Its only a 12 kms drive to Schloss Glücksburg but there’s several detours to negotiate as a triathlon is underway here today. The schloss doesn’t open until 11am, so we have plenty of time for a cooked breakfast before purchasing our tickets (€6 pp). I should remind you at this point that ‘schloss’ is German for castle.

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The site was originally a Cistercian monastery dating back to around 1200. Following the reformation of the 16th century, the monastery was dismantled and the stone used to erect Glücksburg Castle complete with moat. By the 18th century it’s now home to the Dukes of Schleswig-Holstein as its transitions firstly to a palace, later as style dictates a hunting lodge. The original moat was extended during this period into a small lake. You can read more about it at the link above.

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Interestingly, Glücksburg Castle was confiscated from the family by the British Army at gunpoint in 1945 and the castle was used as a prison for Wehrmacht Officers for a period.

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Visiting the 1st and 2nd level apartments, we are given a pair of felt overshoes to wear. Obviously we were unsupervised.

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There are extensive information panels on the Schleswig-Holstein family who seemed to have been princes and princess’ of both Denmark and Germany at one stage or another and related to the Russian and English royal families through marriage.

Looking at the lineage of the European royal families, it’s surprising the odd web foot doesn’t appear.

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So that’s Glücksburg Castle done. It’s well worth a couple of hours and the entrance fee seems very reasonable given how expensive any old castle in England is to visit. So we walk the gardens on our way out and point the Hymer south for Wahlstedt.

There’s a pool next door to the stellplatz in Wahlstedt, so where hoping for a swim in the morning but that’s another day.

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Michael + Pam