Advertisement
Published: March 15th 2007
Edit Blog Post
The next morning, Mike decided not to go into work. Instead, we bummed around the apartment all morning before finalizing plans to head to one of Mike's places for my European tour -
Burg Eltz. Burg Eltz is one of the oldest castles in Germany. We drove an hour to get there, and I loved watching the scenery change as we sped along the autobahn. Mike stopped at a couple of places to take photos of me in a "traditional" German town, and by another castle before we arrived at Burg Eltz. It was beautiful, exactly as a medieval castle should be. Set high atop a hill in a valley next to a mountain that we trekked down to see it. In the valley below, there is a small moat and the sun shining through the green of the valley gave the castle an almost mystical quality. We decided to take the tour, which would be entirely in German with a paper translation to carry with you. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and was gracious enough to translate some of the more interesting facts for us herself. I found that if I read the translated blurb in advance, I could often
understand at least some of what she said.
But the castle really spoke for itself, with rooms that held so much history you could almost see the knights and ladies of long ago going to parties or preparing for battle. It was incredible to see how some of the wood and tile had been preserved from a time before America even existed. It was humbling in a way.
Once our tour of Burg Eltz was over, we took a shuttle back up to the car. Mysteriously, though the car had been locked, a bottle of cranberry juice appeared to have exploded in the back seat. The cap was nowhere to be found, which was most odd, and the whole backseat was saturated in juice. We never figured out what happened. The ride back was just as beautiful as the ride there. I was enamored of this one magnificent bridge that towered so high, it looked impossible. We called the boys to make plans and eventually Mike & I decided to watch a movie and eat some pizza before heading to his friend's house, where we would be spending the night. Being away from America for so long, pizza
was just what the doctor ordered.
The next morning, I had no idea where I was, although the guest bed I was sleeping in was pretty comfortable. Mike had gone in for PT and his commander gave him the rest of the day off, so we decided to take a big trip. We settled on
Rothenburg and
Nuremberg (Nurenberg to the Germans). Rothenburg is one of the original medieval towns in Germany, surrounded by a brick wall and entirely cobbled. It is mostly a tourist attraction now, and it was funny and strange to hear so much English being spoken after being out of the US for so long.
When we arrived, we toured a couple of the stores, where Mike found a replica of a Roman helmet that he fell in love with. We had lunch at a beautiful fancy restaurant, where I had sausage with mashed potatoes as we looked out over a sunny garden. Afterwards, we walked around some more, ultimately stumbling upon a small antiques store, that had World War II memorabilia in a room in the back, the swastikas covered with duct tape. Mike was beside himself, and we spent half an hour
in there asking questions of the owner. I bought a small silver locket with beautiful scrollwork on it, and Mike decided that there was nothing in his price range. We returned to a previous store so that he could get the Roman helmet, and spent a little time in an authentic German Christmas store. Then we realized that we were running late if we wanted to make it to Nurenberg.
We headed over there, and I grew quieter, thinking about all of the history and heartache in that city. We headed deeper into the center of Nurenberg, to a beautiful church. We climbed up a steep, steep hill and through the walkways to the balcony where we could see the entire city. It was absolutely beautiful. We climbed down from the castle and Mike led me over to where the small footbridges cross over the river. It was really beautiful there, and Mike revealed his piece de resistance - the restaurant where we would be having dinner was actually over the water. It was this big local place, with dark wood paneling and a deep tan paint color. We spoke to our waitress in broken German (at least for
me!), and I had a delicious tomato soup. During dinner, we made plans to meet the boys at the Irish pub in Wiesbaden, so we rushed back to get there.
When we arrived, the other boys had been there awhile. I met some other friends of theirs: Oliver, Giggles, Tickles - yeah, I know. We joked around and sang along with the band, and really kicked back and had a great time. One of his friends came up with the idea that I should stay in Germany - he said that he would write up an official document saying that I had witnessed a murder and was now in the witness protection program in Germany. He eventually went up to the singer of the band and had him dedicate "Michael row your boat ashore" to Mike and I, saying that we were cousins. Of course, Mike raised his hand when the singer asked where in the crowd we were - it was both funny and embarrassing. Eventually, we left because Mike planned a full day of work the next day, but what a lovely day it had been!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.118s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 10; qc: 59; dbt: 0.0616s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb