last day of our trip (not including tomorrow's 19 hours of travel)

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last night we had home made pizza of our own creations and then everyone was tired so we went to bed early.

this morning it was another grey overcast day with a little rain and Martin says we off to visit Fasanerie Castle (Adolphseck) near Fulda, which was built in 1750 and today is being used like a condominium building as each of the various rooms are occupied but you can walk around and see the moat and walls like it's a museum, return to Church of St. Michael and see the crypt of St Bonafice then to Stadt Steinau to see the castle there and also visit one of the Museum of the Brothers Grimm where the family lived for 7 years when the brothers were in their early teens.

this was an epic day of seeing old museums and churches for one last time. the Fasanerie Castle's collection rivals some of the ones we've seen in Athens and Paris . . . !!! interesting in that it was the "summer" home for the bishop (duke) and the castle in Fulda was the winter home and they aren't more than 10 miles apart. there is so much history here - we've only begun to scratch it will have to come back for more.

the weather does get you down (not emotionally - physically), we weren't sure why we felt so tired but Martin says it's typical behavior when the temperature is warm and the sky is overcast and very humid. alas, later in the day when we were meeting up with Claudia and Sophia it began to rain. we walked Sophia to her ballet lesson and went to a nice coffee shop for some cake - Toni and Claudia then went off to buy fish for dinner while Martin and I waited for Sophia.

a grand dinner last night but we didn't watch the movie we planned as we chatted until our bedtime . . . time to get up early as we are catching the train to Frankfurt at 6:44am.

alas we've come to the end of our visits and return to the road for one more time and it will be a doozy as we'll spend almost 20 hours on trains, in airports and on planes heading home to San Luis Obispo. we'll arrive around 8pm but our bodies (and minds) will be at 6am!)

thanks so much to the Kroedels for making our last stop along this vacation like being at home. and thanks to all of you who have been following along. once we get home and have time to reflect and review we'll update the blog for a final time. until now . . . lebewohl, arrivederci, cheers, ciao and so long

Toni and Craig

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Photos

in Stadt Steinau
where the museum of the Brothers Grimm is located

Steinau Castle
it has multiple apartments and functions as a large condominium project

at the cathedral
where the crypt of St. Boniface is also located and dates back to the 700's