A monday in Germany

I slept pretty well yesterday, but still woke up once or twice during the night. I did some writing and finally figured out the deal with my pictures (which still doesn't quite work) my grandparents and I then packed up and left at 9:00am to catch the bus to Heidelberg. The bus station wasn't that far away, about a 5 minute walk, so we were on time for the bus, but the bus, how ever, was not very on time. It was 10 minutes late, but when it arrived we hopped aboard and got on. The bus started forward right as I turned around to sit in my seat and I was thrown back into it pretty fast. Good thing I was in front of my seat! It was kind of interesting to observe the people on the bus. Almost everyone had a book and were reading. They probably ride the bus everyday and come prepared. We switched busses half way and got of to wait for the next bus, which was also late by 15 minutes. We got onto that bus and he started really quickly so I didn't have any time to sit down so I stood up. It was a fun bus ride and I enjoyed just standing there and looking around as the buildings passed by.

We were dropped off at the bus station right next to the famous bridge. We then walked our way up town to find the Funicular so we could ride it up to the to the castle. The Funicular is kind of like a cable care that goes up the side of the hill... I'm not really sure because I never saw it. It happened to be closed for maintenance so we instead walked up all 300 of the stairs to the top. I was able to get some cool shots as we ascended. Once we got to the top we walked through the gateway and I got my first view of the castle. It was very big and a lot of it was in ruin. There was a large walk way/vantage point to the left as you walked in and then there was a really long pathway that went a good 1/4 of a mile down to the other side of the castle gardens (which were outside the castle).

We then went to the gatehouse to buy some tickets to go in the castle and the lady gave us too many for some reason so when we got to the bridge entrance there was some confusion. There were two guys there. One spoke English and German and the other just spoke German. They were kind of funny. The one guard had to go back and fix the mistake and once that was figured out they let us in. We crossed the bridge which gave us a view of the moat and one of the towers that had a chunk fallen off. We walked right in and then turned to the left and signed up for an English tour of the castle. We had about 20 minutes before it started so we took a restroom break, which was in the wine cellar. We then looked around down there for a bit and then came back and went to the place we were supposed to meet at in the castle. It was a small room with some different pieces of armor and some history on the castle. We then went across the stone hallway to a different room when the tour started and the German lady showed us a model of what the castle originally looked like and then what it looked like now. She told us that the French had tried to take over the castle, but couldn't get through the walls because they were almost 20 feet thick. The French eventually were able to take over the inside and then used explosives to blow up one of the towers (That would have been quite a site!!).

We then moved on to over look the moat which was very interesting. It wasn't even full of water, it had a nice lawn. I guess when they weren't at war they had the moat filled with deer so the prince electors could go hunting (and if you ask me that's kind of lame...). When they were at war however, they would pump water from the well and fill up the moat, but it never

The whole castle was very artistic! Even the bridge has a ton of designs and huge amount of work that must have been put into it. The castle took over 300 years to build and four different kings built their own little section on it before the fall in the 300 year war (If I'm remembering right) Over the next couple hundred years the castle was rebuilt, but then almost all of it burnt to the ground when lightening struck the bell tower and it caught on fire. Even though the castle was made out of stone the interior of the castle had a lot of wood work and was very flammable. The guide said it burned for three days and four nights.

We then toured the inside of a portion of that castle that had been rebuilt after the fire and got to go into several of the rooms and look at the furniture. There was a lot of amazing paintings and the floor even had an interesting background. Instead of being marble like it appeared to be it was actually painted wood with a thin surface of glass over it. They called it peasant marble because it wasn't expensive. They cut down some 60,000-100,000 oak trees I think to make it all. That's a lot of wood! After that we went and saw the "chapel" that was actually all still original because it was all stone and wasn't affected by the fire. I thought that it was cool that it survived. There was a lot of statues and paintings all over the place. The tour ended at the chapel and we went to the wine cellar again to get something to eat at the little restaurant that was down there. I had some coffee and a sandwich. The bread was really hard, but you just had to take small bites. We sat down at a table and a bunch of foreign exchange students sat down at our table too. A lot of them were from Cypress and one was from England. I think they were on a field trip.

After we ate we went and walked around on the look out from the castle and got to see all of Heidelberg which was a lot of fun. My grandma wanted to walk through a small museum on pharmacy’s they had there too so we did that. We then left the castle after about 4 hours of walking around in it and went into the outside garden. I saw the tower that had been blown up and got up close to it. I guess it's been sitting there for over 300 years now. The gardens aren't in full bloom yet, but there are some flowers coming up. I saw some of the fountains and then walked around and enjoyed the peace and quiet. I also got to see some different views of the castle. After I walked around the garden we walked back to the castle bridge and then to the other side of the castle garden. There is an archway that you have to go under and it is said to have been built in one night for a surprise for a king's wife. All the stones had been pre-made and then in one night all put together. It was kind of hard to believe.

We then left the castle and took a longer less steep way down the hill because my grandparents didn't want to walk all the way down those stairs (Which is understandable!). Walking down was fun and I got to see a lot of houses and churches. I even saw a university that was there. I got some pictures of some interesting trees. When we got to the bottom of the hill we walked down a "main street" sort of a place where there was just this giant wide walkway for people with stores on either side. It was a lot of fun to walk through. We stopped at a bakery to get a special German dessert called Rosinenschnecken. It's kind of like a large, round and flat cinnamon role. Very tasty!

After that we then met up with my uncle and picked up my cousin from school. We drove over to a place where my grandparents needed to sign some papers so they could drive over here while my cousin Emily and I went to a bookstore and went to star bucks. I had a chai tea something or other and it tasted really good. Kind of a sweet tea/hot cocoa taste with a spicy flavor as well. After that we met up with my uncle and grandparents again and went to the electronics store and looked around. After that we went and picked up my aunt and other cousin and we switched vehicles and my uncle and grandpa and I went and did some errands and then my grandma, aunt, and two cousins went to do some other errands. After that we all went home and started on dinner. It was a nice evening and again good to be home.

I got a lot of pictures, but a lot of them were kind of dark, which was disappointing. They looked fine as I was taking them, but once I got them on the computer they were kind of dark. I will post them on my site anyway though. I'm looking forward to coming back to the castle in the coming years and remembering all this!

My adventure continues with.... Germany: Day 7 (actually 6 because I didn't get here until Wednesday last week)

The Weekend: Sunday!! :)

Back to the adventure! :)

Sunday morning we woke up at 8:00 to the bell tower across the street ringing. I slept pretty good, but woke up a few time during the night. I was rested, but tired feeling. We requested to have breakfast served at 9:00, so we packed up and got down there. We went into the "Rezeption" room and ate. There were two tables set for us. One table had butter, jelly, cream cheese and NUTELLA!! Then there were some drinks and boiled eggs. The other table was set for us to eat at and had a large basket of different breads; some croissants, Kaiservrotden and some other small rolls. They also had some meat and fresh cheese that was really good. My cousins and I had hot chocolate to drink. My cousin Emily and I had 5 mugs full! I also had two glasses of apple cider and a glass of orange juice. Let me just say that for a couple of us... the rest stops were a much visited attraction during the day :)

We packed up and drove out of town, but then after looking at a book we decided to go back and go to the museum the town had on a crater. We drove back and found a parking spot next to the outer wall of Norlinden. We then walked through the city streets and made our way to the museum. Along the way we saw that people were setting up stands and opening up trailers for markets. I guess we happened to pick the lucky day out of the three market days they have a year to come and be apart of one. I don't think I have mentioned this yet, but I have been taking a picture of almost all the benches I see on my trip and I'm going to make one or two posts out of the best ones. So far I have 45 bench pictures. It has been quite entertaining because every time we pass a bench everyone goes, "SKYLAR THERE'S A BENCH!!", which is funny to me. My cousin then picked up on my idea and has been taking pictures of doorways, which is actually interesting. She has taken some good ones! And it was also fun to tease her back and yelling at every door we saw.

We got to the museum and watched a short clip about the crater and how it was formed. We also got to see a lot of rocks and even a rock from the moon that was on permanent loan from NASA. If it was on permanent loan why couldn't they just keep it? haha

After we went to the museum it was around noon and we really needed to start moving to get to Schloss Neuschwanstein and see the castle. We then decided that we wanted to have more time to see it so we would do it next weekend when we wouldn't be so rushed by time. After making that decision we just relaxed and walked through the markets. There were so many different things that people were selling! After looking at a few I decided I wanted to up the bell tower of the church that over looked all the markets and the whole town. So I got 1, 40 € and started my climb while everyone else went through the market.

The tower, which looked tall, didn't take long to climb. The stairs were steep and curvy with a lot of names written all over the walls and stairs. There were also a lot of random wooden beams and very confusing walk ways and rooms. I'm not sure what has been taken apart though. When I got near the top I had to buy a ticket to go to the viewing tower. I had a little trouble communicating because the man thought I wasn't paying enough, but he thought I was an adult, but I was 16. I was able to point to the sign and then he got it. The view from the tower was super amazing! And the wind definitely took me back too! On two sides of the tower that the wind was blowing straight towards my clothes were plastered to my body. The other two sides I was fine. For a few minutes I just sat there and soaked in the view. Then I took some pictures and walked around the top. I then climbed all the way down the stairs again. Oh and I forgot to mention the pictures I saw. On one section of the tower stairs there were a lot of pictures of bible stories that kids had colored. Each bible story was summarized on the side in German. At least that's what it looked like!

I met my aunt at the bottom of the tower and went to catch up with everyone else, but a table caught my eye as we were passing it. The man was selling some cool knit hats. He said "They are reversible so you can where one side for 6 months and when it gets dirty, you flip it to the other side and where it for another 6 months) - except he said it in a heavy German accent. It was only 2 Euros so I bought it. I also bought some sugar coated almonds, which were really amazing! I met up with my cousins and grandparents at a small cafe and had some coffee and an Erdbeerschaitte (which was kind of like a giant strawberry pound cake). Once we were done we walked back to the van and then left for home!

On the way back home we took numerous photo stops. My aunt has been super nice in pulling over when ever I see a good picture to be taken. I'm really thankful for that. We passed through a small town that had some large Abbey ruins on a hill. I stopped and took some pictures of a bridge and then a large hill that was very blank with random bushes all over it. It was cool. We then stopped at a gas station where I had the most interesting restroom experience of my life. In this gas station you had to pay .50 Euro cents to use it. So I put the money in the machine, got a ticket (a ticket!!!) walked through the little 3 pronged turny thing and used the bathroom. THEN... I saw this weird button on the toilet and being the curious and adventurous (and sometimes mischievous) person that I am, I pressed the button. Immediately the toilet seat started spinning around in a circle and this little machine came down and cleaned it. I kind of stood there with a blank, "did I just see what I thought I saw", expression. Then I laughed and was completely surprised by the fact that I had seen a self cleaning toilet. So anyway, that was my most interesting bathroom experience so far in Germany!

We finally got home and it was super good to unpack and just relax after the super long weekend. We had some leftovers and then had some nice family time. We sat around the dining room table and sang some hymns and then read out of a devotional book and prayed. It was good to be back "home" again :)

So that was a condensed version of my weekend and if you thought THAT was long then be glad I didn't go into great detail - haha :)

My Germany Adventure continues with... Germany: Day 6... Monday!

The Weekend: Saturday! :)

Well we had an amazing road trip this weekend and I have so much to share! I'm going to just split it up into two days so it's easier to follow.

After leaving Saturday morning around 11:00 in the morning we ran a few last errands. We stopped at the bank and I got some Euros and then we dashed over to the bakery quick to get some bread for the trip. We then hopped on to the autobahn and drove to Rothenberg ob der Tauber. We passed an airplane museum on the way and we will be going to that sometime in the next week. It was cool to see the outside though; there were a couple of huge airplanes on display. We also passed a big nuclear power plant with huge smoke stacks. Along the highway we passed a lot of farms. There were also large vineyards that looked really cool! We passed a ton of those and I did manage to get some good shots from the car window. We stopped at one rest stop and I got some nice pictures of the country side. When we first got there I noticed these cement headstone type things and wondered if some one was buried there, but then I realized they were picnic tables with out the bench or table parts :P - That was kind of funny. We ate bread and cheese for lunch (which even though it sounds simple, was really really good!) and then snacked on a lot of sweets. The highways in Germany are narrow sometimes and fast! There are also a lot of distance markers along the road and they make me nervous because if you had to swerve for something you would hit these poles that are every 10 meters or so and pretty much ruin your car. The cool thing about there poles though is that they have arrows on them pointing the direction to the nearest emergency phone on the highway. Every couple of kilometers there is an emergency phone; I thought that was kind of cool!

When we finally pulled in to Rothenberg it was 1:30pm. We pulled into a parking lot right outside the wall that surrounded the city and parked. We unloaded, packed up and made sure we were all warm and then set off. Before I continue I will share a funny story...

As we were packing up we noticed this man standing across the row between to vehicles. He was wearing sunglasses and at first we didn't notice him, but as we moved away from the van he moved closer. We thought he looked kind of suspicious. I forgot my sunglasses so we went back to get them. He just stood there and kind of smiled. We then shut the door and locked it and then took our time looking at the map and deciding where to go. The man was still standing there. As we started walking over to the side walk he followed us a little bit. We couldn't tell if he was just some random person or up to some mischief. Just in case, I very nonchalantly took a picture of him and my aunt took down his license plate number. As we walked away we started joking and making up a story about our stuff being gone. And later when we came back everything was fine and he was just some random guy.

We entered Rothenberg through a big arch and took some narrow stairs up to the castle wall. The first thing I noticed is that I was almost too tall for the timbers that were being used as rafters to support the ceiling. I couldn't walk up right comfortably because I kept thinking I was going to hit my head. There were a lot of different shaped holes in the wall for windows and they all varied in size too. Along a portion of the wall there were also name plates of people who had donated money to the reconstruction of the wall. There were names from all over the place. Even the US! Every transition (or turn) in the wall had a short tower and some steps up into the tower and then steps down again. The stone steps were very warn and you could see that there had been a lot of use. From the wall you got a very good view of a lot of houses and then long street shots. I took some pictures of that stuff. You could also see a tower with a bunch of scaffolding around it that was being fixed or something. I also saw some of the first actual photographers on my trip from the wall, but they all had Nikons... I felt a little out numbered :P

When we reached the far end of the wall we took the stares down to the street and then found this side doorway that took us into this really big indoor road with some canons at every window. The wooden beams and stairs were really cool! There was also a small garden behind the wall with a neat bridge over it. The bridge went over a sidewalk that went into the garden. I got some pictures of this too. After walking over the bridge and around the garden I went back to the street and as I was walking back into Rothenberg through this tunnel this small little care came zooming by and it was really loud, but very tiny... kind of like the car clowns squish into.

Like I said in my last post, Rothenberg had a medieval theme and almost every story had a unique sign with a special symbol on it. Back in the medieval days when some people couldn't read or write the stores had to have signs with symbols that told what they did or sold. It was very cool to see the descriptions through the signs. We walked through Rothenberg to the Market Square and right before we got there we stopped at a small shop and got some "Snow balls or Zimt Schneeballb as they call them. It's kind of like a funnel cake except in a ball shape and a lot more dense. I got one covered in cinnamon. We got to the square that I mentioned and it was really big. There was a huge church tower to the left as you walked in and then a large building with a clock on the front straight ahead. The market place was just a big square of bricks and there were a lot of people walking through it. We then turned left and walked straight down the street to the Garden that I talked about. It was really big and amazing! It opened up through and archway and there was a path to the left and the right. There were long sidewalks parallel to each other that went all the way down through trees to the large vantage point over the valley. There were also some side path ways that went to various locations in the garden to other look out points. The look out place was really cool and I enjoyed seeing the valley and the river. There was a sculpture that people were taking pictures by and I snapped a shot of a cute little 1 or 2 year old running through it (with permission).

Oh and a funny story... we were waiting by the bathrooms for people that need to go and my cousins and I were standing there talking and saw these to German ladies walk past and go down the pathway to the men’s side. We started laughing and then a couple seconds later they walked past us again talking really fast and since I didn't know what they were saying it just made me laugh.

We left the gardens and started walking back to the car because our parking time was almost out. I wanted to climb up the church tower and take some pictures so I ran ahead with some money and looked for the right door, but it had already closed which was a big bummer. We walked through the streets some more and saw a lot of different shops. My cousin Emily and I walked into a store that had some really big horns in it. Like the kind you would blow in. When we walked in there was this machine that said, "hello, welcome, come on in" and it said it like a dozen times. The man there also had a large variety of knives that were very impressive. I really wanted to get one, but they cost a little much and I figured I would see more knives and try and make up my mind when I saw some more. We also went into a Christmas shop that had all these ornaments. If you ask me, it was way too much Christmas for me this time of year. We then walked the rest of the way to the van. We took a break and had some tea/cider/hot chocolate and then snacked on a bunch of different things that we had brought. We then packed up and went on our way to find ourselves a place to spend the night. We drove to a place called Dinkelsbuhl. As we entered the town I saw a music shop that was displaying two drum sets... I immediately had my aunt drop me off asap and ran back to the shop to buy some drum sticks, but they were closed!! I was disappointed, but I'll just have to keep looking! I then ran and met up with everyone and we went searching for a place to eat. There was a giant church/cathedral looking building where we parked and we heard a lot of horns coming from it. We stopped and asked someone about it and were told that they were having a special hunter’s ceremony. We stopped and ate at a small Pizzeria. It was really nice and was completely empty... I guess all the people were eating some where else. The food was good. I had a pizza and some salad that tasted really good. The pizza in Germany is a little different. all the crust is thin, which I like, but I also like fluffy pizza crust too! After we ate we walked back to the car. It was dark and a little cold so we were all rushing. Once we got to the car we drove around a little bit touring the city by night and then we went on our way to find a place to stay.

My uncle, who stayed home because of a class he's taking, called us right as we were thinking about calling him and asked us if we had found a place to stay. We hadn't, so he found a place for us. The hotel was in a town called Nordlingen and it was almost an hour away from Dinkelsbuhl so we hastily went on our way. The lady that owned the place was very polite, but also interesting. She had her own private elevator too, which we all thought was funny (Of course we were all tired too). The rooms were amazing and the beds were really comfortable. The room my grandparents and I stayed in was a very good size. It had three wooden beds a couch, a table, two chairs, a wooden closet and a T.V.. The bathroom had two sinks, a toilet, a bathtub AND a shower. It was very cozy! I took a shower and got in bed and would have slept pretty good except my grandpa snored all night! He said I was snoring, but when ever I woke up it was him who I heard (And yes, I made sure it wasn't me).

So that was my Saturday and part on of my exciting weekend! It was a very long, but enjoyable day and I took about 200 pictures. I'm looking forward to posting a ton of them when I get back! I will type the adventure that today (Sunday) brought, tomorrow morning! Hope you are enjoying the trip so far!

My adventure continues with... The weekend: Sunday!! :)

The Weekend!

For the weekend we will be traveling down "Romantic Road" which is a stretch of highway between Wurzburg and Fussen, Germany. It is best known for passing by the Nuschwanstein Castle, which is seen a lot on post cards around here. We will be staying at a bed and breakfast some where along the way to sleep Saturday night. One of the places we will be passing through is Rothenburg, Germany which is the best preserved medieval twon in Germany. There is a large wall that encircles the town and allows for some amazing pictures I'm guessing. There is also a tower called te Rothenburg Town Hall Tower that gives a good view of Rothenburg and the surroundings.

Some highlights of Rothenburg are...

St Jakob's Church - It was built during the hieght of Rothenburg's Gothic period and took 170 years to complete. The churches greatest treasure if the "Holy Blod Alter" which was carved by Tilmann Riemenschneider between 1499 and 1505. It also has a nice organ.

The Town Square - The market place includes the town hall, the clock tower, St Georges Fountain, some shops and then a lot of cafes. The Town Hall is split into two parts. The Gothic part which includes the Imperial Hall and the 65 meter high tower. Then there is the renaissance part that includes the arched terrace. I'm looking forward to this part!

The Medieval Crime Museum (haha - this should be fun) - This museum consists of the best collection of European objects and documents pertaining to crime and punishment from the 12 to 19th centuries. And it presents it rather graphically I'm told.

Burg Gate and Garden - The Rothenburg Imperial Castle was located in what is now called the Castle Garden. The castle itself was destroyed in an earth quake in 1356 and the obly surviving building was the prison which was rebuilt in 1400. There are two round gardens, a mask through with tar was purred through onto enemies. The garden also has a nice view of the surounding country side. I'm looking forward to seeing this a lot!

The other thing I'm looking forward to is the Spital Bastion. The Spital Bastion fortification has a figure 8 design with two courtyards and has an ancient moat and a lot of walk ways that are good for exploring..... The description I'm reading says that there is an inscription over the main gate that says "Peace to those who enter, farewell to those who leave." - interesting....

So those are a few of the things that we will be looking at and doing on our trip this weekend as ?I'm told, but plans could change while we are on the trip. I might have the chance to go to France as well, but that is pending.

This morning has been normal, we are not in a big hurry to get out the door and we have just been eating beakfast and getting everything ready. I figured out my camera problem as well so I have not been having trouble with it any more. It's not fixed, but I have been able to work around it. It has something to do with the paerature because I can only shoot on AV at 4.0 which is wierd, but if I do I don't have any problems. I have been able to take pictures fine so I'm glad.

Well time to head out! I don't think I will be able to type anything up till Monday so until then....

My adventure continues with... My trip down romantic road :) (Coming soon...)

Deutschland: Tag Drei Weiter (Germany: Day 3 continued)

We traveled out to "The Mill" or "Zur Muehler" To eat tonight. It was a beautiful place way out in the back country. I'm noay out sure how people find it, but the smell of the food must lead them there. Right after we got started we crossed the river on a ferry and that was fun! On the way out into the country it turned into a single lane road and every so often there was a little pull off spot in case you met a car coming the other way. There was a really cool stream flowing next to the road the whole way up and I was really wanting to get out and take some pictures.

Another thing I have noticed in Germany is that people drive really fast! It was rather entertaining to drive on the back road at 50 miles an hour... or close to that. We got up to The Mill and it was set on top of a nice little hill and had a big water wheel on the side that was turning quite rapidly. There was a long trough that came from some where and turned to flow onto the wheel. There was a nice little brick square with some flowers around it. There was also an interesting stone table with an ovel base that I took a picture of and will post when I can.

The inside of the restaruant was really cool. There was a lot of stained wood and the ceiling had dark timbers going across in straigh lines. There was a lotof decorations too. There was some stone bunnies on a corner shelf and then there were different flowers and lights hanging every where. The tables we sat at were really nice too. They were very dark colored and had a nice wood grain. We ordered our drinks and I ordered Milch Kaffee (which is coffee and milk). It was really good and I drank it up fast. We then ordered our food and I ordered Rumpsteak, Pommes (french fries - Way better than Mcdonalds.), Zwiebeln (fried onions - They were sweet, but delicious. I like onions a lot!), Kraeuterbutter (herb butter), Salat (salad, which was rather different. It had all the lettuce on top and then it had shaved carrots and turnups on the bottom of my bowl with a lot of dressing. Very good though!), Spezi (A mix of Cola and orange fanta - Which was also really good). IT took a while for the food to come out, so we talked and then solved some Soduku puzzles. The food finally came and it was really amazing! The presentation was impressive and the tase was definitely equal to the looks. After eating my cousin Emily and I played around with our costers. We would lay them on the edge of the table so a little bit was stick off and then we would take our hand and flip them into the air and try and catch them. It takes some skill and then we would flip them across the table to each other and catch them which was even more difficult.

We then packed up and drove home. I looked through my pictures and then we have just been siting around and talking and I have been doing pictures and stuff. The basketball games are on the U.S. Military T.V. stations and my Uncle and Grandpa have been watching that. We are also getting ready for our trip over the week end. Which I will talk about as my adventure continues :)

My adventure continues with... The Weekend!! :D

Germany: Day 3!

I didn't sleep eveyr well last night, but I got up and tried to get some pictures loaded. I ate a bowl of oat-meal this morning with raisons :) and then I did a little bit of reading for a while. Around 11:00am we left for Felsberg, Germany which is a good hiking distance away from where we are staying. We started off down the hill again and got onto a trail. IT was a little colder today and the wind was blowing. The sun was hidden by som random clouds, but was showing some promise of coming out completely. As we walked up the trail I was amazed at the really tall pine trees! They were all over the place and made for some cool pictures. I will try and get some up soon, but I'm having some trouble with them.



We hiked all the way to Felsburg and it was nice to look at the differnt buildings through the towns. We passed a house with a bunch of chickens in the back yard and that was interesting. The houses were higher than the street so there was a wall that blocked my view from close up. We stopped t the bank to get some money and then we took the last climb up to Felsberg. We then stopped and talked to the bus driver. It is really difficult not being able to speek the language because we have to use sign language and talk in fragments. It was a long hike up hill to the small little town of Felsberg, but we made it finally.



There was a really cool arch that was the main entry way to the town and I took some pictures of that. There was a small garden right before we went in side with a black fence around it. On the small black gate there was a really cool metal rose and I took a picture of that. Hopefully I can get it up soon! We hiked up the road a little ways and stopped at a little Cafe called "Pippifax Cafe und Eis". It was a very nice place, but small. They had some pictures of Bob Dillan up and the guy there who spoke english pretty well was really nice and was pretty funny. We had a home made german pizza and then we each had Crepes for dessert. I had an apple sauce type crepe that was pretty good. We then walked up to see the castle that was on the top of the bluff. IT over looked the Neckar River and the dam we were at the day before which was really nice, because I felt like I knew where I was. The castle ruins were really cool and there was a lot of different sheds and stuff. Down by this gift shop there was also this really neet sculpture that looked like four wavy golden ribbons that were vertical. And it also blew in the wind and turned around, which was rather cool.



We went into the castle and had to pay to look around. There was a lot of old barrals and plows and even a gauntlet. There was a large tall tower that we had to climb up to get to the wall that you could walk across. There were 98 stairs to the top and it was a continuous spiral. And after running up to count the stairs I ran down it and got really dizzy from looking at the stairs. :P

The view from the top of the tower was amazing and you could see the dam clearly (where we were yesterday) and I could also see up the three different valleys. It was really cool to be up that high. I took a picture of myself so I'll get that up when I can. We then walked back down from the castle and went to a gift shop. It was over 300 years old and had some amazing wood work. The floor boards were all stained and very creaky. We walked to the back of the town and found a trail that wound down the bluff in a zig-zag pattern and took us all the way back to where we started. It was a very beautiful walk and I enjoyed the really flat and wide woods. The woods here are very unlike the woods in Winona. They aren't very dense and they are really wide open! It would make some good running trails. We walked for a good two or three miles.... or like 5 kilometers. The trail came out by the highway and we walked down it for ways and came to a pasture with goats. There were three of them and they were below us eating some grass by this pond and then looked up and "baaahd" at us. We called back to them and they turned and started walking towards us. We had to keep walking forward and calling o them to get them to come up to us. We finally got them t come really near to the fence.

My grandma had by now walked really far ahead so my grandpa and I hurredly walked to catch up. We passed a speedometer that told us how fast we were walking... and I turned around to see how fast I could run. I didn't get full out, but it said I was going 20 mph... of course it's probably 20 kilometers per hour :P So I'm not as fast as I thought I was going - haha

We made it back safely and I had jsut sat down to start typing when my cousins got home. I sat down and played some guitar hero with my cousin Emily and played on expert for the first time to "What I've done" by Linkin Park. It took me three tries, but I finally got it! We are sitting around right now and we are getting ready to go to "The Mill" which is a restaraunt out in the country. I will definitely write more later after I go. For now that has been my day so far! Stay tuned for more :D

My adventure continues with... Deutschland: Tag Drei Weiter (Germany: Day 3 continued) :)

Germany: Day 2 continues....

After spending the morning blogging and resting a little bit my grandparents and I went out on a hiking adventure. The community that my Uncle and Aunt live in is on a hill so all the streets are curvey and hilly. It's a very pretty place! We walked down to the main road and then went to a trail that goes to another trail that makes its way across the bluff along the Nickar River. Right as we were entering the trail I saw a sign that warned for "Frog crossing". They have to be really big frogs in order to watch for them. I'm wondering when I'll see one. :)

As we hiked the first bit of the trail I noticed that there is a lot of chopped wood. I mean A LOT! It's all over the place and it's stacked in big piles and long rows. Some of it is fresh and other piles are really old. We passes a pasture that used to have wild pigs, but they aren't there anymore. We also passes a big fenced in spot with wild deer in it. We hiked a little further and then the trail started along the bluff. From the trail I could see Neckar Steinach (a small town) and a lot of boat ports. There was a big barge that was on land and it was resting on there big metal rollers. My guess is that some sort of button is pressed and then the rollers go down the small embankment and into the water and the boat is then ready to move.

The trail was really beautiful and definitely one I'm going to run. It was fairly flat (no bumps) and a little hilly so I'm thinking it would be a fun run. It also had a nice layer of leaves which makes for nice soft running.

The trail followed the Neckar until the dam and lock that is there. It had a cool pedestrian bridge right over the dam and we walked over it. The sound was really loud and the amount of bubbling the water was doing was definitely impressive. I wouldn't want to get caught in those currents! There was one spot where the basketballs and soccerballs had collected and were being repededly sucked under and then pulled back up and spun around. They have probably been there for a while. We then walked across the bridge and into the town of Neckar Steinach. We walked a little ways into it and saw a few car delerships. We then stopped at a small Kiask and used their bathrooms. It's really interesting how you have to pay to use certain bathrooms over here. IT makes me more appriciative of the free ones we have in the U.S.; though these are always really clean!

We were rght next to the railroad tracks so we went in search of the station. We asked for diretions, but the man only spoke a little bit of English. We did find it though. We then started back and on our way across the lock and dam we saw a big barge in the lock transfering from the lower to the upper river. IT was really cool to see how fast the water comes up and the boats move through. We then walked across and I took a spiral stair case down to the bankside next to the dam to get some pictures, but my camera has been giving me some trouble and gives me this Error 99 message everyone in a while. IT has to do with the communication between the lense and the camera. It does it every once in a while and it was doing it then so I don't have a far away shot of the dam down stream. We met a group of kids from Mannheim that were on a field trip. They had a list of questions they had to answer about the towns and castles. They had all of them done except one that had to do with pearls. My grandparents and I figured out that the answer was Nickar Steinach because it's called "the pearl of the Neckar". I wish we could have figured it out earlier and told them.

We hiked along a different trail that was paved. It ran right along the bank of the river. It was really pretty. It then turned into a hill trail and we climbed 8/10 of a Kilometer up hill. There was a really cool stream with some waterfalls, but my camera wouldn't work so I couldn't get a picture of it. Maybe I'll get to see it again since it's nearby and snap a picture or two.

We got home and then spent the rest of the evening relaxing. I played Wii sports with my cousin Ana and then we had chicken curry for dinner. Which was really good. You can put a ton of different toppings on it; like pineapple, bananas, dried onions, raisons, cocunut and tomatos. IT's really good! (Like I said)

So that was my second day in Germany and it was a lot of fun!

My trip continues with.... Germany: Day three!