Autumn awesomeness, postcards and castles of Germany

I recently did a direct swap of postcards with Postcrossing user Günter in Bochum, Germany, who sent me three fabulous modern postcards of iconic castles within the German landscape. They're too wonderful not to share. The first one features Hohenzollern Castle, surrounded by dazzling fall foliage. The castle site and history date to the 11th century, but most of the modern structures seen here are from the 19th century.

Here's another postcard of Hohenzollern, taken from a distance. As you can see, it is an isolated and well-protected stronghold, sitting atop a 2,800-foot mountain of the same name in the Swabian Alps.

The final postcard from Günter is the fairy-tale-esque Schloss Neuschwanstein, surrounded by mist. Did you know, by the way, that the 19th century Neuschwanstein contains a manmade grotto that originally featured an artificial waterfall and "rainbow machine"? That Ludwig Otto Friedrich Wilhelm (no relation) was a real character!

Here's one more recent postcard received through Postcrossing. It's from Tarja, who lives in Lempäälä, Finland, and loves gardening and her mixed breed rescue dogs. The postcard highlights autumn in Finland.

Previous posts featuring castles

• Dramatic black-and-white postcards of two German castles
• Autumn Is Coming
• Conway Castle in Wales
• Two stereographic cards from along the Rhine
• Two groovy images of gloomy castles
• Two artistic interpretations of Neuschwanstein Castle
• Moonlit Winnekenni Castle in Massachusetts
• Portchester Castle in the county of Hampshire
• Walzin Castle in Belgium
• Scotty's Castle in Death Valley
• Heidelberg Castle, Germany

(In my mind, I've had an overabundance of castle-themed postcards over the years. But in putting the above list together, I see that's not really the case. So I think I'll be upping the frequency of castle posts moving forward. We can never have enough castles, right?)