The Overby Odyssey: Castle Road Trip Part 1

Here is a post that I've been working on for way to long. Today I'll give you part one, but I will have to finish part 2 soon. Enjoy.

To finish off our summer we decided to go on a castle road trip. We had wanted to do something just as a family and this came together sort of at the last minute. I had found a website listing the top 5 castles in Germany and we decided to go to four of them.

Ready to go

Holly was especially excited about traveling by "Auto"

God blessed us with a free upgrade so we could fit all of our stuff.

Since Heather doesn't have her German license, I got to drive the whole time.

For the logistics we decided to rent a car so we could come and go as we pleased. We also decided to stay at the Shackelford's in Idstein (near Frankfurt) for three nights, and then we found a place near Munich for three nights. The Shackelfords are a family from Good Shepherd who work for the Chaplaincy at the military base in Wiesbaden. During our time with them we had a great time just being with them and enjoying the fellowship. We talked about life in Germany, God's plan for our family, and the decision on whether to stay in Germany or move back to America. Again, it was a great encouragement to be able to talk to and be with another like minded family who is in a similar place as us.

Playing in the fountain in Idstein

The tower in Idstein.

What the Shackelfords call "the Golden Tumors" (see 1 Samuel 6)

Finding a new park to play at.

German parks are so much better than American parks.

For our castles, the first one was Burg Eltz. This castle dates back to the 9th century and is very much intact today. There was only one attempt to attack the castle, but that ended diplomatically instead. It is nestled in a valley along the Eltz river and built on a rock crag that the river goes around on three sides. Something that we found on our tour is that castles were not built on the top of mountains but along ridges (or in this case in a valley). The idea was that your castle doesn't stand out waiting for someone to try to capture it. As we were driving to Burg Eltz we were wondering where it was. Even when we got to the parking lot to hike to the castle we still couldn't see it. It wasn't until we were very close did it come into view. Inside the castle was incredible with the paintings, armor, weapons, furniture, etc. Three families occupied the castle until fairly recently (beginning of the 19th century). Today it is actually still owned by one of the families.

First sighting of Burg Eltz

Inside the courtyard

Looking down on the fortification walls.

We got some great family pictures here.

Afterwards Heather and Holly took the shuttle back to the parking lot while Stanley and I hiked our way out. Ok, I hiked and Stanley rode. On the way up he would state, "This is hard work." Yeah, for me, but you have it easy.

At this first stop I noticed something. How it was so unfamiliar to hear English. We were waiting in line for the castle tour and we starting to hear American English all around us! My head started to turn left and right taking it all in. Julie Shackelford had told me how my mom noticed that I would always start conversations with English speakers in Weimar. I hadn't noticed it, but realized that I had been doing that. When you don't hear much English in public for almost a year you are drawn to those who speak your language.

The next day from the Shackelford's recommendation we took a Rhein river cruise. It was a lot of fun and fairly relaxing. Although kids don't want to just sit and watch the view, they want to get out and run around. Our trip down river only took about an hour and a half while our trip back up river took almost 3 hours! Fortunately on the way back there was a little slide and some kids play things. However, there was a lot of competition among the kids on the boat.

The castles along the Rhein (and only a short stretch of the Rhein)

Goofing off on the boat

The next day we left Idstein and made our way to Munich. Along the way we stopped in Heidelberg to check out the castle there. This castle is mostly in ruins. In a diplomatic move the King married off his daughter to the French King's brother. Then the King and his son died leaving the daughter as the only blood line heiress. The French pointed this out while the local government said no. So while the French were visiting the castle (or living there) they sabotaged it from the inside.

While in Heidelberg we became acutely thankful for having a GPS in our rental because we needed food so we searched for an Aldi, and making our way through Heidelberg to the castle also would not have been easy without the GPS.

Picnic in the Aldi parking lot