Happy Halloween 2010

We spent Halloween night in Darmstadt, Germany. The castle there is called Burg Frankenstein (Frankenstein Castle). They did a family friendly early evening. The characters were out in full force but not harassing the small children, just the adults and/or teens. It was really impressive, of course you really can't ask for a better backdrop for a haunted house than the ruins of a castle with a colorful history including an inhabitant who in the name of alchemy was reducing down human and animal body parts in hopes of creating an elixir which would grant the drinker eternal life.

Addison loved it. By the end she had "pounded" it with a troll, hugged a zombie, danced with a witch, and had a lengthy conversation with Frankenstein the monster before he turns evil and seeks to kill Victor not the green guy with bolts in his neck. (Note: Because Frankenstein was the star of the show, it having been rumored that Mary Shelley got the idea to call her scientist Frankenstein because of this very castle, they had at least three different versions of the Monster and one Victor Frankenstein milling about the castle grounds. Addie most liked the one that looks most like the version from the movie with De Niro.)

It was a pretty great Halloween.


































































































































































































































































The biggest differences we noticed between this and US haunted houses, was a) it was in a real castle that is believed to be haunted; b) the characters were allowed to touch you. They would walk up and put their hands around your throat. We saw teens pinned to the ground, carried away and locked in coffins and boxes, tied down to an inquisition style rack and stretched until he said stop (at which point he was tickled mercilessly), and at one point a skeleton wielding a real sword walked up behind Megan and ran the sword up the inside of her calf. And this was all at the Halloween for Kids version where they are all on their best behavior.

*They adored Addison though, and even at the end as we were leaving they were still pinching her cheeks and giving her high fives and ooohing and awwwing over her. One of my favorite moments of the night was when the skeleton in battle armor was pushing anyone who stood to close away to protect "Die Prinzessin". She was even giving them all hugs. They were so sweet with her, it was awesome. She kept saying "the monsters are just so totally awesome" *


Proof that she did this of her own free will!! haha