SCHLOSS SOMMERSDORF

Saxony-anhalt, Germany

If you think a proper castle should be surrounded by a moat, make this stop along Germany’s Castle Road. Schloss Sommersdorf’s 14th-century battlements rise from water on all sides, protection which likely helped it survive the plundering and plagues of the Thirty Years’ War ( 1618–48) that ravaged the local village. Inside ivy-draped stone walls, castle meets cozy B&B, with descendants of the same family that has resided here since 1550 renting only seven rooms to their guests. (Opt for a moat view!) Royal treatment: If you want to chat up the old fellow tinkering on the castle’s impressive collection of classic cars, mind your manners—that’s likely the proprietor himself, Baron Manfred von Crailsheim.

Some linger here longer than others. Catacombs hold mummified remains of past barons and baronesses, one of whom possibly was entombed alive.

There goes the castle:while lodging at Dromoland for Easter 1964, John Lennon and George Harrison borrowed swords from suits of armor and staged a mock battle.