After spending yesterday looking at castles in Luxembourg, I hit the road early and headed south east into Germany and to Saarbrucken. I spent the night at ‘Am Spicherer Berg Campingplatz‘ and for 7.5eu a night it was great. Peaceful with superb toilets and showers. I love industry and all things mechanical and wanted to visit the old steelworks in Saarbrucken, which is now a museum – but it was closed on the day I was visiting. There was a Roman settlement here from the 1st to the 5th century, and during the middle ages, coal was discovered, which led to Saarbrucken being a centre for metal foundries and an area of heavy industry. In the early 1900’s there were at least 54,000 men working in the coal industry and I wanted to see one part of it – the steelworks. Alas, it was closed so maybe I’ll try again next year.
After that I went to Saarbrucken castle – or the remains of it. The original castle was torn down in the 1700’s, it’s moat filled-in and a new renaissance palace built on top. That also had a fire, but was rebuilt and is now an administrative centre – but underneath the palace there is a museum and you can actually see part of the original moat and one of the ballustrades with it’s gun emplacements – all below ground and beneath the car park. The cost for this was 7eu and was well worth the visit.
