Castles and goats!

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Wednesday, June 2nd:

Woke up this morning refreshed and ready to go!!! We took Falco for his morning walk, then loaded up the car and went to Luxembourg to go see the Vianden Castle. I had been to the castle several times in my childhood, but they had done a major renovation inside the castle, so that was awesome to see. The castle was built right on top of this huge rock that looms over the town of Vianden and the Our River…the views are spectacular!!! The castle was ruined quite a bit in the World War, and thieves had absconded with most of the historical artifacts inside. But like I said…they did a huge renovation, and now every room we explored, had either a scene set up or artifacts collected and saved from being destroyed. The fireplaces were HUGE!!! Some of them were just right in the room, against the wall…not recessed like we normally see fireplaces…and the chimneys were immense too! The ceilings in the castle were cathedral ceilings and they were about 13-15 feet high. The chandeliers were just amazing too! Kenya had the BEST time going from room to room and even through some secret passage ways that only she could get through! Half way through the tour (not a formal tour…just an at-your-own-pace kind) we lost my mom and dad…they went off to find a bathroom and we never saw them again! LOL So it was just me, Kenya, and my aunt left…luckily we had gotten our group picture in before they got lost! When it came time for us to find the bathrooms, it was a maze to try and find it! The signs kept leading us higher and higher into the castle! Finally we found it and afterwards, we went out on one of the terraces to see if we could spy where my parents were. We looked around for probably twenty minutes…I was sure they wouldn’t have left without us! But sure enough…when we finally left and walked back down the (rather large) hill, we found them camped at the bottom with my uncle (who had stayed behind with Falco). The day was beginning to become really warm, so we drove a bit further down the hill and had lunch at an outdoor café in Vianden. The main street, up to the castle, was extremely narrow…really only room for one car comfortably, so we were really glad to have found a parking spot right by the café. The Tour de Luxembourg had just finished up, and the tour bus for the Italian bikers was parked right across the street from us. Kenya went up to the group and asked them to take a picture with her…she is so brave! We found out that the bus has two kitchens, a washing machine and dryer, beds and bathrooms! We saw one of the managers bring a huge bag of cooked pasta into the bus from the café where we were eating. We did not see Lance Armstrong, who was there, but the Italians were plenty nice to look at!  The outside of the buses were spotless…the manager was polishing it when we arrived!

Anyway, it was fun to watch their comings and goings while we waited for our food. My mom and dad, and my aunt and uncle all ordered the same thing…a Luxembourg specialty…melon salad with prosciutto and fries…sounds weird…right? Well I thought so too, so Kenya and I ordered Wiener schnitzel and fries. Well when we got our food, I was glad I had declined the local specialty…I really am not a fan of prosciutto…too salty. There was loads of it on their plates plus melon (cantaloupe) and lemon wedges. The waitress brought the fries out “family style”, and we all ate it with ketchup and mayonnaise….yummm!!! We even got seconds! Delish! Afterwards, we had our requisite espresso and itty bitty little cookies. 

When we were ready to go, my mom, aunt, and I decided to walk the rest of the way down the hill (approx. ¾ of a mile). My dad, uncle, Kenya and Falco drove down to the rivers’ side to wait for us. We took lots of pictures of the beautiful, pastel colored buildings, the interesting tiny little doors that led to that building’s basement, the cobblestoned alleyways that led off of the main street, the gorgeous flower baskets displayed everywhere, and the river below. Those little doors I mentioned…were seriously tiny! I wondered how a full size person could get through…I took a picture of my mom next to one…she is 5’2”, and the door only came up to her chest!  I also mentioned before that the street was quite narrow…the sidewalks were just as narrow…probably not even 2 feet across! So half the time, we were actually walking in the street. A dangerous feat I tell you, because the locals drove up and down it like bats out of hell! Wasn’t too unlike Italy!  We got near the bottom of the hill, and were passing an outdoor café that was recessed in a shady courtyard, when we heard the loudest “WOOF!” ever! The dog that came with the sound was the absolutely biggest dog I had ever seen! It was almost like a husky shaggy haired Great Dane…that is the only way I could describe him! He was sitting on his haunches, but his head reached the shoulder of the man sitting at the table next to him! I have ALWAYS loved Bull Mastiffs, but I think I found a new favorite! Unfortunately, we did not want to get too close to ask the owner what kind of dog he was, but wow!!!!! :0

When we finally got down to the river, we were pretty warm! We saw a few outdoor cafes lining the river and several gorgeous swans swimming down in the distance…very serene! There were also two walking/biking trails lining each side of the river…I would love to experience biking through Europe one day! Can you imagine?

So we loaded up the car, and I thought we were heading home…but a different way. My uncle was driving through the back roads, winding our way through farms with livestock and wind farms (farms with huge windmills). We came across this little pasture on the side of the road where there were about a dozen pure white cows milling and laying about. I don’t think I’ve ever seen pure white cows before, so I had my uncle stop, so I could take a picture. As soon as I opened the car door, all of the cows perked up and probably were thinking…”afternoon entertainment!!” LOL I went over to the fence to get a closer shot and boy, they wanted to get a closer look at me too! Pretty soon we were nose to nose and I had the best time just talking to them and taking their pictures…I wondered what made them so curious about me, maybe it was because they were so bored sitting around in the pasture all by themselves! Hee hee… everyone in the car was laughing…it was pretty funny seeing them all racing towards the fence to see who could get to me first!!

Back in the car again…we drove a couple of miles further and saw a bunch of goats in another pasture. Now everyone wanted to get out and take a look…I was first of course, and just as before with the cows, they all came racing over to see who could say hi first! LOL I reached over to pet one on the nose…when suddenly…ZAAAAAAAAAAP!!!!!!!!! Whoa! All of a sudden I am laying on my back, hair smokin’, eyelashes singed, and a puddle forming around my legs! Haa haa...just kidding on that last sentence, but it did make a funny visual…huh? But seriously! I did get zapped with the electric fence just as I was petting the goat on his nose, my forearm touched the fence and gave us both a jolt! Poor thing! I wasn’t so popular anymore with the goats….but…just then, we saw a tiny itty bitty little baby goat! We think it was just born, because the mommy goat was nudging it up on its feet and when it did get up, it wobbled all over the place before it got steady enough to walk over and start nursing…oh, it was the cutest sight!!! Then we saw another baby in the grass, and its mommy was nudging it, but it wasn’t moving…we thought that it was even born right before we had driven up, because the afterbirth was still hanging from the mommy goat. We sat there entranced and were all willing that baby to at least move and get up! It took probably a good 15 minutes before it stood up! Boy…all of us were getting quite anxious and worried that it was a stillborn, or that something was wrong with it because it barely moved, even when the mommy goat kept nudging it! Wow! What an amazing experience to see all of that and be a part of it! I even got it on video!!

Well, what was funny about this stop is that my uncle had a big surprise planned out for us, and we didn’t even know it! That little surprise in the pasture was a great segue into our next adventure! We all hopped back into the car and drove around the corner to the farmhouse and barn that that pasture belonged to. The owners were goat cheese producers! My uncle had arranged for us to get a private tour of their facilities and find out how goat cheese (chevre) was made! We had to wash our hands first, and then we went into the building that housed the goat cheese operation. This was a family run operation, so it was small and intimate. The three rooms where the production happened was pristine and all white tile. I can’t remember all of the steps, but really, what they do is milk the goats, put the milk into containers (to mold the cheese into certain shapes), and let it sit for a day or so. Then they filter the liquid through a cheese cloth and pop the mold out of its container and let it sit on the cheesecloth and drain another day. Then the molded-form cheese is left out for 6 days to form a soft crust around it, and viola, it’s done! We got to sample the fresh cheese, and I have to say, that I liked the one that was flavored with honey stone mustard the best…by itself, it is a little strong. But it was sooo cool to eat it so fresh from a farm!

After the tour, we got to go out to the barn and play with the baby goats…we got to hold babies that had just been born the day before…I got lots of pictures of us doing that, and my favorite one is of my dad, literally nose to nose with the baby goat, and it stuck it’s tongue out just enough to lick my dad’s nose! Oh, sooooooooo cute!!! There were some older goats in the barn too, and they were all clamoring to come over to say hi too…there was one that had us all cracking up…it was actually grinning from ear to ear, with his teeth showing! Got some great pics of him too! We called him Cheshire! There were also quite a few barn cats around, that Kenya loved to see and pet…she missed her kitties at home! There was one cat that had 3 legs and absolutely no voice, but he mouthed the “meow” word a lot! It was the weirdest thing! But he was very cuddly and loveable! Falco, who we had witnessed previously chasing cats to heck and beyond, did not quite know what to do with all of these cats around. We were all surprised when he went up to one and sniffed and sniffed and it did not run away!!! It was super funny to see his confused expression, like “what the heck do I do with this thing rubbing against me?”

Boy, this day was a day to remember! What a special surprise that was to get to come here!!!

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