Walking these walls is a memorable experience, one we came away from with an extensive photo gallery. Same old walls but a different, much sunnier and calmer day. Once every five years isn’t too often to put up a photo gallery of such a singular place, is it?
The walls are open daily, from 10 to 5. It’s Sunday, so we’re there right at 10 hoping to beat the tourist crowds and also to walk the walls with enough day left that we can get a ride or walk in. It’s disappointing when we arrive to find a large tour group - maybe 40 folks - crowding in the door to the museum, the entrance point. I tell Rachael that they’ll go one direction, they’ll go another so it will be fine; but in fact we reach the walls before them because they’re pulled into an orientation meetup that holds them up. It’s brilliant - we quickly pull away from them and have the walls nearly to ourselves for the entire way around.
The walls are huge - a large square box that completely girds the town, giving you views down and across it and out to the surroundings in all directions. It takes us about an hour and a half, but you could easily do it in much less that if you’re in a hurry - it’s only 1.6 kilometers around. But why would you? It’s a brilliant experience.
Oh, and one more thing. It’s Sunday, so it’s free.
Crossing the canal on our walk to the city we get a view of Constance Tower. This is the same route we walked to dinner last night and will again tonight.
Entrance through the Gardette Gate, the main entrance through town. There are nine other gates, all smaller. Once you’re inside, the entire town is virtually a pedestrian zone - there are cars, but very few.
Looking up at massive Constance Tower from the ground level. I should have taken more close-up photos of it and its surrounding moat, and we should probably have toured the tower itself but we wanted to get ahead of the crowd.
Looking back at Constance Tower, and the tour group making its way up the stairs. Good thing we got such an early start! It’s a narrow walkway, basically like this the whole way around except when you’re passing through one of the towers. It wouldn’t be as much fun in a crowd.
Keith AdamsThe sameness of those roofs is kind of startling, but suggests tremendous potential for installation of solar power generation panels. Reply to this comment 1 year ago
Scott AndersonTo Keith AdamsYes, that would give it quite a romantic look. I’m sure your suggestion would be well received. Reply to this comment 1 year ago
There are stairs angling up to the top at various spots around the perimeter. They’re all gated shut though. Once you’re up, the only way down is at the main entrance - either completing the circuit or backtracking.
Keith AdamsThe newness of the stone around those bells is suggestive. Where the bells perhaps appropriated for re-smelting as cannons a couple hundred years ago, and later replaced? Reply to this comment 1 year ago
