Burg Eltz

Day 2 with family saw us at Burg Eltz, an amazing castle 1.5 hours away from Luxembourg City. The castle and the landscape were very reminiscent of Neuschwanstein (where we were, coincidentally, last year.) As with Neuschwanstein we were impressed with the castle, but completely taken away with the gorgeous autumnal landscape. The yellows and oranges were indescribable. I think the highlight of the castle was the 1km trail we took back to the car park. Stunningly beautiful.

I'm really not trying to torture you with beauty, but day 3 . . .well, you'll be tortured. Just sayin'

Scenes from a long weekend

Friday: Europapark

Saturday: Strasbourg, France

Sunday: Nancy, France

Please join me this week for a series of posts all about kids - crafts, projects, traveling, a tutorial and more!

A break

into real time for a minute. Had a wonderful day trip today, must tell you about it while it's fresh in my mind. I simply love these school day get-aways, definitely a perk of being an expat. Can't imagine stealing away at home, back in Seattle to explore.

The destination today was Saarburg. A darling little town on the Saar river in the Rhineland state of Germany. Perhaps the most special feature of this town is the Leuk rivulet that flows right through the Old Town. There are small metal bridges over the Leuk that connect a "piazza" on either side, giving Old Town the title of Little Venice of Saarburg. From one of the iron bridges you can see the Leuk cascading into a waterfall, crashing some 17 meters. Very impressive, indeed!

We climbed 107 steps up the tower of Saarburg Fortress to enjoy the view of the Saar river valley. We perused the cute shops lining Old Town. We lunched by the side of the Leuk. {Insert satisfied sigh} Another great get-way!

P.S. I'm honored (and honestly quite surprised) to be in the top 3 of a blog post competition on Expatica Luxembourg. If you're so inclined, click here to vote for me (scroll down and go to page 2.) You have to register with the site to vote. Only takes a sec, tho. Just sayin'

P.P.S Prague posts are on their way (unless something earth shaking aka blog worthy happens in real time again. )

Now, where were we?

Oh, yes, back from Prague. Before I can go on and tell you about Prague I must tell you about the impressive little town we stopped in on the way - Rothenburg ob der tauber (yes, all 4 names are important as there are other Rothenburgs in Germany.) Rothenburg is a perfectly preserved, walled medieval town. It oozes German charm with it's cobble stone streets, pastel colored buildings and street side fountains. Rothenburg is a very popular stop along the Romantic Road.

A gate on the western side of the town.

A view of the wall and the town.



The town's signature sweet - Schneeballen (snowball) They are basically wadded up balls of pie crust with icing or sugar on them. As impressive as they looked, they fell short on taste. Audrey enjoyed hers, at least the chocolate part.

Walking inside the wall.

Looking out from the wall.

The main square.

After a restful night sleep and a bit more site seeing we were ready for our journey to Prague.
A few more pictures here.

Fussen (It's in Germany)

We made Fussen, Germany our home base. It was a 10 minute drive to the castles and only 5 minutes from the Austrian border. Fussen had a cute little pedestrian zone and an interesting looking castle. We had heard mixed reviews about the castle's interior but decided to go inside anyway. It was closed but we enjoyed looking at the castle's courtyard. In it was a small modern sculpture park. We were also intrigued by the window and door adornment that was painted on. Was this typical of castles from this era? Hmmm. We saw some similar adornment in Innsbruck.

View from our hotel Fussen Castle Castle's Courtyard. See the sculptures? Pedestrian zone in the city center. Great pastel colored buildings. Another view of the pedestrian zone with tower in the background.

See more pics from Fussen and Neuschwanstein here
Innsbruck pics here

Next, I'll be moving you all back to Italy as I finish sharing photos from my Italian get-away.

p.s. I updated my link list for you. I'd love to know what you're reading these days.

Neuschwanstein Castle

Neuschwanstein Castle is Germany's most photographed building. It's really not that surprising now is it? Look! Like it's right out of a fairy tale. In a way it sort of is. Neuschwanstein was Walt Disney's inspiration for Sleeping Beauty's castle in Disney Land. That fact was a good lure to excite the girls about our road trip. It worked. They were excited.

This castle was commissioned by King Ludwig II of Bavaria. He was a great admirer of the composer, Richard Wagner and had the castle built in Wagner's honor. Building began in 1869 and was still not completed in 1886, the time of Ludwig's death. Poor Ludwig only spent 11 nights in his precious castle. Because of Ludwig's untimely death only 1/3 of the castle interior is finished.

The castle tour takes you through the finished rooms. The girls were so perplexed that the throne room didn't have a throne. Ludwig died before one was built. We also got to see Ludwig's treasure box. Sadly it was empty. My oldest and I inquired about the contents and were told they are housed in a museum in Munich.

The whole castle experience was great. We took a horse carriage up to the castle and enjoyed the glorious autumn foliage along the way. After our tour we hiked up a bit further to Mary's Bridge for a great view of the castle.

View of the castle from Mary's Bridge
A quiet moment on the carriage ride The castle is set against rugged mountain terrain View of Hohenschwangau Castle (Ludwig's boyhood home) from Neuschwanstein. Mary's Bridge

Horse Carriage Walking to Mary's Bridge