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

Holly taking her baby for a walk.

 Heidelberg Castle

Our family

Stanley and Holly loved this fountain.

One of the destroyed towers

Entering the Castle

Courtyard with the kids.

Inside the castle

We heard there was a giant Wine Barrel in the Castle.

This was the giant barrel.

Kids love to find caves to play in.

To be continued...

Smucker Visit

Exactly one day after my parents and Grandma Bettie left the Smucker's arrived. It was weird standing on the same platform waiting for the same train as we did the day before, but this time we were going to say hello instead of good-bye! As a quick note, Matt Smucker and I went to Willamette University together. He was on the track team as a hurdler, he was my RA (in charge of our hall) my sophomore year, part of my great accountability group in college, and I was in his wedding and he was in mine. I consider him one of my closest friends. Our families also have had fun together over the years going on a camping trip (pre kids), numerous games nights, Fourth of Julys, and New Years. With the relationship our families have Matt and Holly have been given the titles Uncle Matt and Aunt Holly (Technically Matt Smucker is Little Uncle Matt as Matt Reese is Big Uncle Matt)

Anyways we were excited to see them arrive. They were coming at the end of their family's European Vacation. They had spent the past few weeks in England, Netherlands, and Germany (around the Rhein and Leipzig). 

Enjoying Ice Cream with them.

We took them to our wonderful church. 

This was one of the few times that Heather got out because she was sick during most of their visit.

We took a day to go out to Wartburg 

(where Martin Luther translated the New Testament into German)

Picnic before heading up the hill.

Holly and her baby.

Stanley loves Uncle Matt

Grace loves her daddy more.

Afterwards we stopped by Erfurt to see the Dome.

 We enjoyed Belvedere Schloss on a beautiful day

What a beautiful girl

Kids love the fish

Daddys with their girls

Chillin' with Goethe and Schiller

Enjoying Spaghetti Ice Cream.

That is Ice Cream that looks like Spaghetti.

Unfortunately all visits must come to an end and we have to say good-bye.

Thank you Matt and Holly for taking the time and money to come visit us. We had a great time and look forward to seeing you next summer in Oregon.

Finally, here are a couple of videos we took during our time at Belvedere. All I have to say is that Stanley LOVES to perform. He must get that from his Nana.

Stanley Sings

Stanley races in the Labyrinth

Stanley and Uncle Matt's Dramatic performance.

Overby-Mills Visit

July is over and our summer is almost done too. Instead of one big July post I want to break it down into several key events. The first exciting thing was that we had three visitors. My parents (Steve and Sue) and Grandma Bettie were able to come out and visit us. For my parents it worked out nicely as they were in Slovenia doing an English Camp with Good Shepherd and Josiah Venture. After their team was done there they traveled to Frankfurt and stayed as the team flew back to the United States. In Frankfurt they also met Grandma Bettie at the airport. For Grandma Bettie (80 years old) this was her once in a lifetime European Vacation. Since Grandpa Dick passed away in February Grandma Bettie has been quite the traveler and it was our turn to be graced with her company.

Arrival!!!

Grandpa Steve and Grandma Sue at Kaffee and Kuchen time

Grandma Bettie had a great time visiting us

Playing with the Little People Grandma Sue brought from America

The three of them stayed at a local hostel owned by our friend Uli's brother. The Labyrinth Hostel is right next to the main bus station and super close to our house (Heather counted 300 steps). It also gave everyone a place to retreat to because no matter how much you love someone when you put that many people in a 78 square meter apartment for over a week you are bound to get some conflict. So we got to show Grandma around Weimar and the surrounding area and all of the grandparents got to see and play with the grandkids. Our running joke for the week was with Grandma Bettie and how "close" things were. We've been living in Europe for over a year now and what we would describe as "close" is not what Grandma would call "close" or a "short walk". For example our favorite Kebap restaurant is "just around the corner" and "super close" which translates to "less than a quarter mile" (0.5 kilometers) Market Platz is "close" which is just over a quarter mile. Something that is within walking distance is a half mile to a mile. (1 to 1.5 kilometers) Despite our differences on how we define "close" Grandma was a trooper. She even walked up a mountain to see a castle.

 Bus rides are a fun way to get around in Weimar to minimize walking

The climb up to see the castle

One of the nice things about visitors is that you get to do a lot of the things that you don't otherwise do (aka all the tourist things). We did a bus ride on the Belvedere Express which was rather expensive but a great experience. It was a driving tour of Weimar that had a movie in the van that dealt mostly with Weimar's Golden Era of Goethe, Anna-Amelia, Carl-August, Franz Liszt, and that whole group (late 1700s to early 1800s). It was very informational and great for Heather who got to hear about Weimar's history instead of having to read about it.

Ettersberg Palace

We found a new (to us) park near Ettersberg

Fun Slide!

Heather, myself, and Grandma Bettie were able to visit the Anna-Amelia Bibliothek (Library) for the first time. My parents had seen it back in October so it was our turn to do the tour. It was an incredible visit (note to people visiting Weimar: you must get tickets early in the day and get a scheduled time slot they only let x number of visitors in each day and often the tickets are gone by late morning). Quick history lesson, Anna-Amelia became the Duchess (kind of like the queen) of Weimar when her husband died and her boys were still young. She charted new waters as she welcomed non-royalty around her and her boys and was a big supporter for the Arts and Culture. She started the library which outgrew the palace and had it put into a new building (which was good because the palace burned down soon after the books were moved). The library was open to the public and Goethe was one of the men to organize it (this was one of many roles Goethe took on). The library suffered a tragic fire in 2004 and since then they have had to remodel and restore a lot of it. Anyways it is an incredible visit.

Heather and Grandma Bettie in front of the Anna-Amelia Library

Weimar Schloss behind them. 

Notice the grey clouds, the start of a wet rest of the week.

At the Belvedere Palace Gardens

Stanley showed us where the fish are

On one date night Heather and I were also able to visit the Weimar Schloss (castle/palace). Unfortunately we didn't give ourselves enough time and were rushed through most of it. In Germany if it says it closes at 6 that means the workers are leaving at 6 so you are being escorted out at 5:58. (They actually began closing off rooms at 5:30).

We did another visit to the Erfurt Zoo because walking with the monkeys is always fun.

Grandma Sue and Holly

We love how close we can get to the monkeys

The best way to get around.

We love "choo-choo trains"

Take a break from all the walking.

Grandma Bettie's favorite animal was the Giraffe.

I was able to find a race while my parents were here so they could get to see me run. The race went really well and I won by over 2 and a half minutes. You never know how good the competition will be in races like this and with where I am at in my running I wasn't sure how I would do. Race day was rainy and it was up in the hills behind the sports complex in Bad Blankenburg. A couple of guys went out fast and I tried to go with them, as we started the ascent I caught one of them, then the other and while they started to slow I felt good and kept going. We had about a 1.5 mile uphill and at one point I looked back and realized how far ahead I was! Then the decent started and I just went with it. The last half of the race was all flat following a river back to the sports complex. I kept looking back and thinking "did I take a wrong turn?" I ended up running 34 min and 22 seconds which is a Personal Record because I never ran the 10k in college! I am really pleased with how I did and curious on how fast I can run the 10k. The bummer part of the day is that my dad didn't get to see my finish. He went back to the car to get the food because they didn't expect me in until about 40 min. (4 years ago they would have been right).

The starting line.

Awards ceremony. Notice the castle in the background? That's where we went after the race.

After the race we went up to see the Griffinstein Castle in Bad Blankenburg. When visiting castles you have to remember that you can only drive so close to them. The rest of the way is a walk. Grandma did a great job walking up the hill to the castle. Fortunately it was "close." Overall that was a really fun day. A big thank you to the Mund family from church who let us borrow their car to make the day possible.

Speaking of church, the weekend my family was here just happened to be the weekend that our church met and held the service at Tiefurt Park. It was questionable of whether it would happen because of the weather. The decision was made the day before so it was a go. God definitely held back the rain clouds as it was overcast all morning with a few sprinkles. But the rain didn't hit until after the sound gear was packed away safely. Now Tiefurt Park is about 3 miles from our home and because church was on Sunday the bus schedule was not as easy to get there. So we could arrive by bus an hour and a half early or about 15 minutes late. Instead the girls got a ride with the Meichsners and my dad and I walked there with the kids in the stroller. (Now that was a long walk.) The whole process of deciding how to get there was interesting (to Taxi or not to Taxi that was the question), but fortunately God pulled through and provided the perfect alternative.

Four Generations of girls

We really worked hard and tired ourselves out.

I mentioned before that Heather and I got to go on a date while my family was here. We actually got to go on two dates. We tried out a restaurant that we've heard of but had never been too, the ACC cafe. It was great. It has a more college feel to it so there is more English spoken there by the waiters and waitresses. We had two great meals there. Unfortunately on the second meal Heather had some questionable looking bacon and the next day she turned up sick. That pretty much wiped her out for the rest of my parent's visit and the Smucker's visit after that.

In the end we were so thankful that my parents and Grandma Bettie were able to come out and visit us. What a blessing. Good times, good conversations, and good memories. They were the first set of visitors we had this summer and it was a good start.

Good-byes are so hard

Holly even cried after the train pulled away.

In my next post I'll write about our time with the Smuckers. They arrived the day after my parents left, ironically exactly the same time and same platform, and same route that my parents and Grandma Bettie left on. In the meantime, you can check out more photos from July in our web album here.