We began to head back north towards Hamburg throughout this week. There are so many castles to explore in Germany and we wanted to go some of the ones that are consistently in on the "top ten" lists. We hit at least seven of the most famous castles in Germany throughout the past two weeks and they were all a little different and had their own unique histories and characteristics.
On Tuesday we went to Hohenzollern. King Fredrich William IV of Prussia built the current castle on this spot, though there were two castles previously built in the same location. This castle is now privately owned and at times the family actually stays in the private residences. The girls enjoyed this tour because all the children were given royal robes to wear on the tour. Once we entered the castle all visitors had to put huge felt moccasins over their shoes to protect the floors. The girls also thought this was hilarious. One of the highlights of this tour was that we got to see the king's crown in the royal treasury.
Later that day we travelled a little further to stop at Castle Lichtenstein. We didn't tour this castle as we decided that one tour a day was enough for the girls, but we were able to walk around the courtyards and check out the exterior. This castle was particularly cool because one side was built right into the rock face of the mountain. The girls were also pleased that this castle was not a steep hike to the top - we were able to drive almost all the way there. The huge tower was inspired by the medieval fairy tale castles but was actually built much later. Of course there were also castles there centuries before the current building, as is true for many of the castles we visited in Germany.
On Wednesday we made our way a little further north and stopped only once, in Heidelberg. The castle there is partly restored and mostly ruins, so it was an interesting combination of both old and new. The castle was struck by lightning many times and other causes of destruction left some really neat pieces of evidence of what the castle once looked like. My favorite was the turret that was split in two by an explosion. You can see both pieces and the way the second one fell into the first just looks so cool.
Wednesday had been a long day of driving, but Adam was up for another long day as we wanted to get to Belgium and Luxembourg since we were so close! Why not add two more countries to our list?
We drove first to Belgium. We crossed the border, found the first exit and pulled over near a farm. We made the girls get out of the car, informed them that we were in Belgium, took their pictures and hopped back in the car. They were utterly confused about what was going on and why we made them take a picture in front of a wheat field. We explained that this was their stop in Belgium and now we were going back to Luxembourg. They gave us a look that indicated we were crazy and got back into the car and asked for something to eat. So, there's the summary of our trip to Belgium!
We went back to Luxembourg City and had three things on our agenda: see Notre Dame, see the royal palace and see the casemates. First we stopped for some quick lunch and then walked over to Notre Dame. The church was beautiful and had a lot of lovely stained glass behind the altar. The girls have been lighting candles for Talia's birthmother, Caitlin, in all the churches we go into so they each lit one here. We then walked past the royal palace. While it looked regal and was guarded, after the amazing castles we've seen recently it didn't impress us much.
We then made our way over to the casemates. Luxembourg is built on top of a huge underground fortress made of miles and miles of tunnels. During each of the two world wars they sheltered 35,000 people! The girls loved walking around in the tunnels and peaking out at the city around and above them. It was so cool to imagine what must have gone on in this underground base over the past several hundred years.
Friday was our last day of castle tours and there were two more we wanted to see. Berg Eltz was probably our second favorite castle we visited on this trip. Unlike all the other castles that were high on the top of mountains and required a hike up to see them, this castle required a walk down to find the castle nestled in the woods and mountains. Because of its location it was the most well preserved castle we saw of that age. It was built in the 1540's and really hasn't needed to be rebuilt much since it was well protected. The castle was built together by three branches of the Eltz family that lived together on this land. The outside is stunning and the inside held some of the most amazing original furniture. The nursery had a painted Renaissance bed, the oldest in all of Germany. The girls liked touring the kitchen because there were examples of food hung from the ceiling to keep it away from rodents and other animals. I thought that was gross; the girls thought that was cool. There was also a huge piece of tree trunk that is now more like rock than wood. It was used as the chopping block for killing live animals in preparation for cooking and is filled with the dried blood of thousands of animals. Again, I thought it was gross; the girls thought it was cool to rub their hands all over it.
We hiked out of Berg Eltz and back to the car so that we could go see one more castle before we went back to Hamburg: Reichsburg Castle (also called Cochem Castle). We weren't planning on touring it, but after the very long, steep, hot hike up to it, we found out the only way to see anything was to participate in a tour and since we were there we figured, why not? One of our favorite parts of this tour was the legend of the mermaid. In one of the rooms hangs a sculpture of a mermaid with wings made of horns (representing the river and mountains surrounding the castle) and if you touch her belly, close your eyes and make a wish, she will grant it. Of course Tea and Talia loved this legend and were both eager to make their wishes. I don't think either has come true yet (they haven't revealed the wishes to us), but the guide told them that sometimes the wishes take a long time to be granted. It was also cool to see that there was a set of stairs that led to a passage that would take a person all the way back to the center of the city if he needed to escape an attack on the castle. As we left we were told to look back at the huge St. Christopher mosaic as he is the patron saint of travelers and he will keep us all safe.
On our way back down the mountain from our visit to Reichsburg Castle we stopped for spaghetti ice. This German dessert is really just vanilla ice cream with strawberry topping but it is served to look like a dish of spaghetti. Adam had been talking about it since our arrival and we finally got to try some!
Yesterday we took a long train ride from Koblenz to Hamburg and returned to stay with Adam's cousin, Mattias. We are going to stay in Klein Nordende for the week. I will spending each day at the International Congress on Math Education in Hamburg each day while the girls, Adam, Mattias and his family have fun. Already the girls are using some German (like counting to 5 as they jump on the trampoline). The kids and the dads went for a bike ride this morning and are now playing in the kiddie pool and trampoline while we sit under the cherry tree. The girls are looking forward to just relaxing for the week. Adam is glad that he doesn't have to drive much anymore. I am excited to see some of my colleagues from my studies at Penn and meet more math educators from around the world. We leave Germany a week from today and then have a few more days in Finland before we head home. It's hard to believe our time is almost over!
