June 11, 2016 Saturday

We awoke early to catch our train to Darmstadt.  Frankenstein’s Castle is near there.  Frankenstein’s Castle is not the actual location of Mary Shelley’s story.   However, it is believed that she may have been inspired by the castle when she wrote her gothic novel.  Mostly, she may have been influenced by the tales of another great scientist, Jonathan Conrad Dippel, who was born in the castle in 1673.  Mary probably came into contact with the legends, and the name of Frankenstein in 1814.   Mary and Percy first eloped in 1814 and travelled throughout Europe.  These travels are documented in her 1817 work History of a Six Week’s Tour.    The trip up the Rhine would have taken the party within two miles of the castle’s ruins.  This is though, by no means, definitive proof that Mary named her protagonist in honor of the Frankenstein Castle and its family.   Despite this lack of proof though, one cannot go on a Frankenstein/Shelley tour without adding this site to the list!  We were not disappointed in the choice of sites!

I awoke in the morning and knew exactly what earrings I would wear for the day:  my Frankie earrings.  I packed my usual Halloween earrings specifically for this purpose.  I call the traditionally green guy with the hallmark sutures on his forehead “Frankie.”  It is a pet peeve of me (and I imagine serious scholars of the novel) to hear the creature called “Frankenstein.”  Frankenstein, as well all know, is the last name of the scientist:  Victor Frankenstein (the pronunciation of this name depends entirely upon how much you love Mel Brooks movies!).   Still, I always tell people that they can call him “Frankenstein’s creature” or “Frankenstein’s monster.”  But if they knew him as well as I did, I would say, they could call him “Frankie.”

Our day did not start off smoothly.  Our train never arrived.  We waited over an hour, and other trains came and went.  These trains were on schedule for later times than our train.  Shaddow shrugged and indicated that this happens in Europe.  We hopped another train to Frankfurt and just grabbed a cab to Darmstadt.