Week 44: Time for More Castles!

As the weather improves, we are getting more excited about getting out and about. With all the castles we have seen in the past year, one may think that we are running low on options--you would be wrong! We decided to take a drive out to the Rhine, and check out some of the castles in the vicinity. 

One of the great things about driving on the back roads here in Germany is that we'll be driving along and one of us will go "Woh! Look at that castle!" And on this trip out, we had just such an experience in Kastellaun. Jason, who was driving, was the one who noticed the ruined castle up on the hillside. We stopped, parked and then walked up the hill to the castle. 

As with many of the castles in Germany, this one was a ruin and had only a couple walls and a turret remaining. While we were up on the hill admiring the castle remains, we ran into a wedding that was happening in the restaurant near the castle. We even got to see a Champagne cork fly and shared a smile with the opener of the bottle. Unfortunately, we were not invited to the festivities (nor were we really dressed for them), so we walked back into town and enjoyed some Kaffee und Kuechen (coffee and cake) before heading back out on the road.

Kastellaun Castle Ruin

Wedding Party

Our ultimate destination was St. Goar and Burg Rheinfels, the largest castle overlooking the Rhine. The castle was also a ruin, but still had many of its walls and a substantial number of buildings left. It was very cool, with lots of rooms and areas to walk through and even some tunnels that we got to explore with a candle. It would be a great place to go back to in the summer with a picnic.

Jason and Burg Rheinfels

Instead of heading straight home from Burg Rheinfels, we drove up to Koblenz. I have spent a lot of time at the Koblenz Hauptbahnhof (main train station), as the train line I take to get to other parts of Germany for work generally requires that I change there. But, I have not seen anything else of Koblenz. Jason suggested the stop, thinking there would be a park/monument or something else interesting at the intersection of the Rhein and Mosel rivers in Koblenz. And boy, was he right.

The intersection of these rivers is known as the Deutsches Eck (German corner). Located there is an enormous statue. ENORMOUS. The statue is of German Emperor William I. I highly recommend reading the Wikipedia page I linked to above, as it gives the history of the statue and the monument. The statue that is there now is a replacement of the version that was destroyed during WWII and the Wikipedia page includes some photos of the statue that was there before and what it looked like after being destroyed.

Statue of William I at the Deutsches Eck

To give you some idea of scale, the picture below shows Jason standing next to a carved eagle which takes up only the lower half of the lower wall between the stairs in the picture above. The only other thing I can think of that impressed me so much by its size might be the Lincoln Memorial, but this monument may be a bit more impressive, as there is nothing else even close to its size anywhere nearby.

Jason, providing scale

We walked around the park by the monument a bit before working our way back home along the Mosel. We stopped in Cochem (star of at least one previous blog post) for dinner, enjoyed a good German meal and went on our way.

Week 33: The Mosel Runnith Over

Last weekend we made another trip out to some Weinachtsmaerkte. This time we first went to Bernkastel-Kues, which we had visited just before Thanksgiving as they were setting up for their Weinachtsmarkt. Since that time, we have had a lot of rain in our area. After returning in December, we were getting rain almost every day. Since we don't regularly pass by a body of water as part of our daily driving, we hadn't realized just how much water had fallen from the sky until we arrived at the Mosel, just outside of Bernkastel. We noticed that where we had ridden our bikes along the river earlier this summer was completely under water. And once we arrived in Bernkastel, we found the below sign at the entrance to the lot where we normally park: Hochwasser (high water). 

High water on the Mosel

We, of course, wanted to see the destruction a bit closer, so we walked through the parking lot at the water's edge, passing by the cruise ship docks that had both ends now underwater. Additionally, as you can see in the video below, the river is moving quite swiftly. And, man, does it look cold. We were very glad to be standing on the bank.

The main point of the trip to Bernkastel was to find Jason's X-mas gift, which I had seen at other Weinachtsmaekte, but was not to be found in Bernkastel, so we took a ride down to to Trier, where I found just what I was looking for: a Fruestueckbrett (breakfast board). It is essentially a small cutting board that Germans often eat breakfast from. Breakfast usually consists of bread, cold cuts, honey and fruit, so you don't have runny eggs or lots of bacon grease to contend with. Jason had been using our cutting board as a make-shift Fruestueckbrett. This way the cutting board can go back to its normal and intended usage.

The view from our bedroom after snow

On Sunday we awoke to a dusting of snow outside our window. As you can see above, it gives a nice look to our neighborhood. Since I had yet another work trip that needed to begin on Sunday night, we took a drive up to Frankfurt on the slick roads (we passed one car that had ended up in the ditch), but with Jason's New England driving skills, we made it without a hitch. In Frankfurt, we spent some time at the Modern Art Museum, where there were a number of very cool exhibits, including a collection of shadow boxes that displayed what appeared to be the contents of the artist's desk. 

Following our intake of culture, we walked through yet another Christmas Market in Frankfurt, before Jason dropped me at the airport for my plane to Hamburg. The Christmas Market was set up along one of the main shopping streets that winds through the city (the Zeil). Jason had been there last spring prior to meeting up with me when I first arrived, but this was my first visit. Since it was Sunday, all the shops were closed, but the Christmas Market provided more than enough distraction as we walked around. It was a pleasant way to end a weekend before another long week of work. 

Week 28: Jason Interacts with More Farm Animals

Last weekend we took a walk around the city of Bernkastel-Kues, which is really two cities on either side of the Mosel River and, like many cities in this region of Germany, has its own ruined castle looking down on the city below. We've been through here before on our bikes, when we rode between the towns (and Weinfests) of Zeltingen-Rachtig and Brauneburg. On that trip we just passed on through, so we took an afternoon to see the area at a slower speed.

Bernkastel is the less modern of the two and they were just starting to set up for their Weinachtsmarkt (Christmas Market), which started a week after we were there. (We're very excited to visit a few of the Christmas Markets once we get back from our Thanksgiving trip to the States. We've already had the Gluewein, a heated mulled wine at home.) During our wandering we came across a very narrow house from the 15th century, known as the Spitzhaeuschen. 

Spitzhaeuschen

We also took a walk across the bridge to Kues, which, being the more modern portion of the city was a little less charming, but made for a nice walk. It also gives a good view back to Bernkastel. In the back of the picture below, you can see one of the cruise ships. There are a number of dinner and tourist cruises that take passengers up and down the Mosel on trips lasting from a few hours to many days.

Me with Bernkastel in the Background

On Sunday, we went off to an open-air museum about an hour or so from our place. Essentially, this museum has houses and buildings collected from one region of Germany on display for visitors to walk through. For those of you from New England, it is on the lines of Strawberry Bank or Plimoth Plantation.

Jason and I had been to a fantastic museum like this just outside of Copenhagen when visiting Denmark a few years ago and had really enjoyed ourselves. The museum here in Germany, while much smaller than the Denmark version, was still quite nice. There were many examples of Fachwerk buildings throughout the museum. They even had a nice exhibit (though, all in German) showing how the buildings are constructed. The basic idea is that you frame out the house with timbers, then fill in the spaces between the timbers with things to keep out the cold--mostly sticks covered with straw, mud and plaster.

Open-Air Museum

As many of the buildings were taken from farming communities, the museum included quite a selection of animals, including cows, chickens, sheep and goats. We took some time to visit with a number of them. They animals were once again fascinated by Jason.

Pig and Jason

Jason and Sheep

We are on our way back to the States for a bit for Thanksgiving. While it will be great to see friends and family, I am looking forward to getting back and having some more Gluewein!