Matt and I had a wonderful 3-day getaway this week! His darling mother stayed with the kids and we headed West to the Rhine. In the almost 6 years total that we've lived over here we'd never seen the Rhine. Heard about it, seen photos of its castles and ruins, even enjoyed the occasional glass of wine grown on its steep banks, so a Rhine exploration trip was long overdue. We had a wonderfully, relaxing time hiking to and through castle ruins and meandering the halls of those that have been restored. Had either of us been camera savvy enough to think about changing the light meter to compensate for the cloudy weather, we would have ended up with far fewer blue photos. (I'm hoping Photoshop can fix our goof.) Our 19th Anniversary is coming up next month, so this was like an early celebration trip for us. The riverfront towns were beautiful to look at, but not all were worth exploring.
Our favorite castle was the Marksburg, which has the distinction of being the only Medieval castle on the Rhine that was survived the Napoleonic and subsequent wars completely intact. Its setting, on the top of a hill overlooking the Rhine, is spectacular! The tour was in German, but with a guide book, a passable working knowledge of German, and a very expressive tour guide, we did just fine.
One of our favorite parts of the tour was the explanation of the medieval punishment masks housed in the castle dungeon. This first one was used on people who were charged with exhibiting excessive pride. Because of the length of the mask and the weight of the iron ball hanging from the end, the person's head was pulled to the ground and they were made to crawl on the ground. Hence, the term "pig-headed". What fun it must have been to live during Medieval times!
There was an iron mask with long, exaggerated ears for busybodies who listened in on other people's business, and a gossip mask with an iron bulb that fit in the mouth so the offender couldn't speak. What a hoot! Our hands-down favorite little town was the town of Bacharach (as in Burt). Narrow, cobblestoned streets lined with houses built in the 1300's. The 1300's!!! (Sorry about the blue!!)
We found a fabulous little restaurant there that was run by a couple who had been married for 51 years. We ate dinner there two nights in a row and thoroughly enjoyed visiting with the wife. She shared a great soup thickening trick she uses to make an outstanding, simple vegetable soup. Yum!! Our god parents will be moving to this area later this year, and Matt and I are already planning the places we want to visit with them! We've found a couple of definite gems along the Rhine to share with them and can hardly wait!! :) They're going to love it over here!
"Do you hear water?" "Yeah, I think it's coming from over there." "Huh. I wonder where this little path leads." "Hey, Babe, come check this out! I found the water!" "Back there?" "Come on! There's a creek running between the houses back here! How cool is this?!" We ended up wandering around in people's back yards before finding our way back to the street! What a fun little town! We enjoyed the small village feel so much that we checked out of the place we were staying in and rented a room in an older couple's home for the night. The cute little old lady didn't speak any English and kept gushing about how good my German was (yeah, right!). In the morning she'd set up a table in their living room and covered it with linen and china so we could have a private breakfast. Her other guests ate in the breakfast room, so we assumed she didn't want us to feel awkward being the only English speakers in a room of Germans, and gave us a place where we could talk without feeling rude. She was so cute! She had a jar of fresh honey on the table and proudly told us her husband keeps bees. It was so good, we brought a jar home with us! That's definitely the way to travel; tromp around through town and stay with people who let rooms in their homes.
Who wouldn't want to stay somewhere this cute! Thank you, Mom, for blessing us with a wonderful time away!!
Our favorite castle was the Marksburg, which has the distinction of being the only Medieval castle on the Rhine that was survived the Napoleonic and subsequent wars completely intact. Its setting, on the top of a hill overlooking the Rhine, is spectacular! The tour was in German, but with a guide book, a passable working knowledge of German, and a very expressive tour guide, we did just fine. 
One of our favorite parts of the tour was the explanation of the medieval punishment masks housed in the castle dungeon. This first one was used on people who were charged with exhibiting excessive pride. Because of the length of the mask and the weight of the iron ball hanging from the end, the person's head was pulled to the ground and they were made to crawl on the ground. Hence, the term "pig-headed". What fun it must have been to live during Medieval times! 
There was an iron mask with long, exaggerated ears for busybodies who listened in on other people's business, and a gossip mask with an iron bulb that fit in the mouth so the offender couldn't speak. What a hoot! Our hands-down favorite little town was the town of Bacharach (as in Burt). Narrow, cobblestoned streets lined with houses built in the 1300's. The 1300's!!! (Sorry about the blue!!) 
We found a fabulous little restaurant there that was run by a couple who had been married for 51 years. We ate dinner there two nights in a row and thoroughly enjoyed visiting with the wife. She shared a great soup thickening trick she uses to make an outstanding, simple vegetable soup. Yum!! Our god parents will be moving to this area later this year, and Matt and I are already planning the places we want to visit with them! We've found a couple of definite gems along the Rhine to share with them and can hardly wait!! :) They're going to love it over here! 
"Do you hear water?" "Yeah, I think it's coming from over there." "Huh. I wonder where this little path leads." "Hey, Babe, come check this out! I found the water!" "Back there?" "Come on! There's a creek running between the houses back here! How cool is this?!" We ended up wandering around in people's back yards before finding our way back to the street! What a fun little town! We enjoyed the small village feel so much that we checked out of the place we were staying in and rented a room in an older couple's home for the night. The cute little old lady didn't speak any English and kept gushing about how good my German was (yeah, right!). In the morning she'd set up a table in their living room and covered it with linen and china so we could have a private breakfast. Her other guests ate in the breakfast room, so we assumed she didn't want us to feel awkward being the only English speakers in a room of Germans, and gave us a place where we could talk without feeling rude. She was so cute! She had a jar of fresh honey on the table and proudly told us her husband keeps bees. It was so good, we brought a jar home with us! That's definitely the way to travel; tromp around through town and stay with people who let rooms in their homes. 
Who wouldn't want to stay somewhere this cute! Thank you, Mom, for blessing us with a wonderful time away!!
2 comments:
WOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWW!!
Do you realize how many times I've coveted since you've been there?!?! Stop doing such cool stuff, you're ruining my walk with GOD!! ;)~
That looks FABULOUS!
I CANNOT wait to get there!!!!!
What a great blessing Moms are!
LYAll!
A couple's vacation?!?! How cool is that? Not to mention that it'll be shortly followed by girl's vacation. You, dear sister, are living the high life and I love reading about it. Thanks for blogging!
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