Field Trip Time

When I was a kid a field trip meant trip to the Buttercrust Factory for a tour at the end of which we each received a pencil, a ruler, and a slice of Buttercrust bread still warm from the ovens. That was the good field trip. The alternative was a trip to one of the missions of San Antonio. Everyone has heard of the Alamo, but there is also Concepcion, San Jose, Espada and San Juan. I am pretty sure I went to every one of those missions on a school field trip at some time or other.

Yesterday my third grader showed up with a permission slip for a field trip. I have to admit I am jealous! None of my field trips were remotely as interesting as this one promises to be. What makes it so cool? For starters it is 3 days long. A sleep over trip. Here is the description from the permission slip:

• Day1: Bus transfer after the regular school day to the Youth Hostel Büdingen. The group will be greeted by the youth hotel team with a welcome drink in an original middle ages goblet. After a warm dinner they will go by foot to the old town of Büdingen and participate in a Night Watchman stroll though the streets and narrow alleys of Büdingen.
• Day2: After breakfast the children will go to the Büdingen castle and enjoy a tour of the proerties of the princely families of zu Ysenburg and Büdingen. Lunch will consist of a lunch pack provided by the Youth Hostel. In the afternoon they will learn how the pages, knaves, and knights lived and worked in the middle ages. A museums education officer will give the children insights into the making of ink, writing on parchment paper with Carolingian script and a traditional middle ages writing utensil and creating a family crest. In addition they will be dazzled by a weapons exhiit. The day will end with a group barbecue in a special barbeque hut.
• Day3: After breakfast and vacating their rooms, the children will say goodbye and will take with them and array of memories and impressions of the Middle Ages. Bus transfer back to school by mid morning.

I am torn between being happy he gets to have this wonderful experience and wanting to grab on and hold him tight, he seems to be growing up too fast!

Busy Busy Busy...More Later

Sorry for the blog silence. David's sister Teri is here for a little European vacation so we have been busy busy busy. We have a little less than a week left before she leaves and so many things left to do. Of course we will not be able to do everything, but we can sure try. I will be back online after she leaves. In the mean time here are a few pictures just to give you a taste of the fun we have been having!

Rheinfels Castle

If you are ever in Hessen with kids then you must visit Rheinfels Castle on the Rhine River.  This stretch of the Rhine is thick with castles and many of them are open for tourists, or have been reinvented as  hotels, but few of them are as kid friendly as Rheinfels. In ruins since the late 1700's the castle has no fancy exhibits or delicate art work for the kids to destroy. Instead it is full of dark tunnels, crossbow slits, and impressive views of the surrounding countryside.

The boys had tons of fun climbing up and down and all around pretending to be medieval knights or Indiana Jones. It used up some of their never ending supply of energy.

David didn't let go of the camera for a minute, so no pictures of him this time, but bunches of cute pictures of the boys and few of me. Some places are blocked off for safety's sake but otherwise this was a wonderland for kids. We more or less followed the self guided tour and map (In English!!) we received with our entry fee. You can check out Rick Steves' self guided tour on the web if you want to know what there is to see. Next time I think we will try to follow his tour as I am sure there were things we totally missed today and a lot of things we saw but didn't understand. This isn't the fault of the map but more a function of letting the kids run and following them. David and I have been in a few castles now but this was a first for the kids. It was their day to explore. 

Rheinfels has lots of dark unlit passageways and even underground tunnels so make sure to take a flashlight, or if you are braver than me you can buy candles and matches in the gift shop.I wasn't about to wander around in the dark with four boys (five if you count my husband) all of whom would think it hilariously funny to blow out the candle leaving me in total darkness. Of course that would leave them in the dark too, but who thinks that far ahead? Also when you are in a dark tunnel and your husband calls your name DO NOT turn around to see what he wants. Fool that I am I turned when Dave called my name and got a face full of flash. For the next few minutes all I could see was spots and a dim halo of light from my flashlight. Glad he did this on a flat stretch and not on the stairs. We stuck to the larger tunnels but there are smaller tunnels that are only about 3 feet high. Braver souls (or more foolish) can explore those as well.

The only problem I had was the guard rails in the higher spots. They seem to be of the "suggest you don't fall here" variety rather than the more useful "I will catch you if you fall" type.  I just don't see how those two tiny rails are going to save me if I trip. I was very, very, careful not to trip.  I have seen these types of rails at every castle we have visited and some were much higher up than this.   In this picture I am about 3 stories up, but it seemed like more to me. We took all our kids up those stairs without accident but since I have no head for heights David had to hold tight to Grayson who can fit right under that bottom rail. I was too busy hyperventilating and holding on for dear life. Colin figured out just how scared I was when we were up at the highest look out point.  He stood next to me then suddenly yelled while lunging at me. He was rewarded with his mother giving a little scream and abruptly sitting down. Anything to get closer to solid ground. Of course some of the other tourists, not to mention the rest of my family thought it was hilarious.  Some day one of them is going to give me heart attack! Of course I could avoid this by not climbing up high but then I am sure I would get teased for being a chicken.  I am not sure which is worse.

I have no I dea what purpose these arches might have served back in the day but they make a nice back drop for a picture!

10th Anniversary Continued--Oberwesel

David and I arrived at the castle early to make sure that everything was all set for the evening. It was some hours before check in, so we planned to explore the castle grounds a bit, then drive down to the village of Oberwesel. In the gardens we discovered an arch framing a path. We followed the path and soon realized it led all the way down to the village. It is a very pretty walk. Once in the village we realized that this time of year, on Saturday afternoon, Oberwesel is very nearly a ghost town. We didn't mind a bit. We wandered about exploring the narrow streets,  looking at all the cool old buildings.

A passing woman noticed us taking pictures and showed us how to get to the town wall. She didn't speak English and we don't speak German, but with a lot of sign language we seemed to understand each other. We spent some time walking along the top of the wall enjoying the view. We even climbed up one of the watch towers. Dave enjoyed the elevated view of the town and the vineyards across the Rhine, I just enjoyed getting down onto firm ground. Too high for me!

Although all the shops, and even the visitors center were closed, we did notice several restaurants open for business. For lunch we split a döner kebab. YUMMM! We noticed several docks along the Rhine where river cruise boats pull in during the summer.  I would assume there is more going on during tourist season.

If you do decide to stay at the hotel and walk down to explore the village make sure you pay attention the last photo in the slide show below. If you walk down, you will have to walk back up! It is a looooong way back up. I was quite sore the next day!

Yikes That's High!

David and I had a fabulous weekend. We stayed in the tower room at Castle Schöneburg, alone, with no children.  WOOHOO!  I am too tired to sort through the 300+ pictures we took this weekend and put it all together in a post that makes any kind of sense.  Here's a teaser.  I will post more as the week goes on.

Castle Schöneburg is now a hotel and our room was the highest room in the Hotel.  It has a balcony, the highest balcony in the hotel.  My husband and I enjoyed a glass of sherry and some apples on the balcony. I am afraid of heights.  Here is are some views from the balcony so you can appreciate how brave I was to sit out there with my husband. 

Wordless Wednesday - Snowy Castle

Wordless Wednesday--Schloss Heidelberg

A Castle and a Christmas Market

Saturday we went to the Heidelberg Christmas market. We could have gone to the one in Frankfurt but we wanted to go someplace new. We didn't actually know where the market is held but we knew it was set up near Heidelberg Castle and we were pretty sure we could find a castle.

I don't know if you are aware, but castles are big. Really really big. From a distance they look impressive in a pretty fairy tale sort of way but up close they are just huge. We didn't see the market so we decided to explore the castle first then go looking for the market later in the day.  After all we had the whole day with out the kids.  We could do what ever we wanted.  From one of the terraces in the castle we could see the Christmas market set up in the town below.

The market was fun, if a bit touristy and crowded.  We wandered around looking at the stuff for sale.  Lots of Christmas decorations, knitted hats and scarves, candles, and of course lots of food and drink. I drank some gluhwein (traditional mulled wine, warm and yummy) and shared a pastry with Dave.

I am glad we didn't take the kids with the crowds it would have been hard to handle. There were some things for the kids to do though. There was ice skating, don't you love the little penguins for the tiny ones to hold on to so they don't fall? A little train named  Rio Grande, we thought this was funny since we are from Texas where the Rio Grande is located. There was also a merry-go-round. And of course there was food and kinderpunsch for kids to enjoy. 

After we had our fill of crowds and Christmas cheer we set off to explore the shopping scene. There were lots of fun shops to explore. It made for a relaxing afternoon. We ended the day with a visit to a bookstore, an English language used book store, my very favorite kind. I found a new used book to read and we headed home. We will be back to explore the castle with the kids another day.

Castles Castles and MORE Castles!

We decided to finish off a busy weekend with a relaxing drive up the Rhine River. The Upper Middle Rhine Valley has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This section of the Rhine is home to bunches of castles. Alonzo swears he counted 19 today, and he probably did, although I think he is counting some of the more ornate churches as castles. We didn't actually visit any of the castles but instead went to several scenic spots and overlooks just to enjoyed the view. One of the very nice things about living overseas is knowing we can always come back later. We aren't compelled to fit everything into one long exhausting day.