We had a great time showing Kurt's family around Germany from 22-31 May. (Katie, we missed you bunches!) We started out their trip with the traditional "Welcome to Deutschland" schnitzel dinner. Schnitzel, generally a breaded pork cutlet, is a traditional German dish that can be prepared plain, with brown gravy, creamy gravy, with or without mushrooms, as well as various other combinations. We met up with our friends Melanie and Adam and Adam's parents at the Pine Castle Tannenburg for one of the best and probably the biggest schnitzel we've ever had.
On Friday, we attempted to pick up a minivan we reserved for the week. Unfortunately, minivans aren't quite as common here as they are in the U.S. and they tried to rent us a "7-passenger vehicle." The 7-passenger vehicle was essentially, Kurt's Rav4 with 2 jump seats in the trunk. If we decided to take that, we would have not been able to take any luggage with us on our overnight trips! After saying no to that vehicle, they suggested that we rent a huge van, maybe 11 or 13 seats! It was ginormous! We quickly decided that while not the game plan we had in mind, driving both our cars all week, would definitely be easier and cheaper. After the car fiasco, we headed up the Rhein River to the Rheinfels Castle in St. Goar. We had a great time exploring the ruins. John got to climb up on top of a wall and only hurt himself a bit on his way down. We even remembered to bring flashlights to go through some of the underground passages! I think the boys enjoyed pretending they were Indiana Jones! Afterward, it was fun to introduce them to friends at Danielle and Jonathan's BBQ.
Saturday morning we started our caravan roadtrip and headed to Rothenburg ob der Tauber. We explored the Kriminalmuseum where we learned of all kinds of medieval crimes and their punishments of torture from masks of shame to fingerscrews to execution axes. From there we walked through the castle gardens and along the city wall until it was time for the Night Watchman's Tour. The Night Watchman gave us a brief history of Rothenburg and what it was like to live in medieval times.
We got an early start on Sunday and headed to Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein castles. Hohenschwangau built in the 1800s and was the summer residence of King Maximilian and his family. Maximilian's son King Ludwig built Neuschwanstein in the late 1800s but died before the castle was finished. Ludwig reportedly bankrupt the Bavarian state in building the castle and as a result it was opened to tourism immediately following his death.
On our way to Munich we stopped at the Wieskirche or The Pilgrimage Church of the Scourged Savior in Steingaden. The church is in the middle of a pasture with woods in the distance surrounding it. It is a beautiful church that was built to accommodate the stream of pilgrims coming to pay homage to the site where tears were seen on the figure of the Scourged Savior in 1738. Afterward, we stopped at Andechs Monastery for dinner. Our dinners were traditional Bavarian meals and we rounded them out with some freshly brewed beer!
On Monday, we took the New Munich Walking Tour and saw all the highlights of Munich. In the afternoon, we stopped at the Hofbrauhaus for a Maß of bier and some Bretzeln (beer and pretzels). Later that evening, we ate in a biergarten and stopped at another on the way back to our hotel for a drink. Before leaving on Tuesday morning, we climbed the tower of Peterskirche for a beautiful panoramic view of the city.
We stopped in Nürnberg for a few hours on our way home on Tuesday. Here, we explored the St. Sebaldus Church and the Nürnberg Castle grounds. John and Rachel also spent some time in the Albrecht Dürer house.
On Friday, we drove out to Burg Eltz in the Moselle valley, which is by far Carrie's favorite castle. The same family has owned the picturesque castle for 33 generations. Family members still live in portions of the castle! We went on a tour of the castle and walked through their treasury. A history of the castle can be found here.
On the drive home, we stopped in Cochem and made our way up to the Castle. Cochem is a picturesque town in the Moselle valley. We enjoyed our short time there. Below are some pictures from the trip.
