A castle and more

We really wanted to see a real castle - so we headed to the little town of Braunfels, which was like a fairytale city.  Perched atop the hill in the middle of town was Schloss Braunfels.  And the day was gorgeous.  What more could we ask?  We were able to get a glimpse of life in the era of the castle - existing as early as 1246! We strolled around the castle grounds and visited the Family museum (complete with artifacts of the time), and then the little town, taking in the history and beauty.

Mainz

We hopped the train to go down to Mainz, about 1 hour from Frankfurt.  During that day we strolled around the town, walked along the Rhine River, visited the Gutenberg Museum, and stopped in at St. Stephen's Church where all the windows are by Marc Chagall (beautiful!!!) and ate at a Turkish restaurant for lunch - where Tyler got the hugest order of french fries I have ever seen, and Wanling got the biggest plate of food of all of us.

Suzanne - always in the role of navigator (the first stop in every town is always at the Tourist Information Center to get a map of the city).

Struwwelpeter and Cake

We chose to visit the Struwwelpeter Museum.  Struwwelpeter is a character in a children's book, a boy who wouldn't allow his hair or nails to be cut (see below).  The book was written in the mid-1800's  by Dr. Heinrich Hoffmann.  He wrote the book for his 3-year old son, because he found the children's books of the era very boring, and also because he felt there were many important lessons to communicate to children on hygiene, manners, safety, etc.  

 Wanling and Tyler engrossed in a music video/dance of the book.

 Ironically, Gary's favorite place to grab a coffee at the university is called.....

"Nothing like these hot dogs baked right in a croissant!"

 Hanging out at the market.

 Gary, overwhelmed by his choices at Kaffee und Kuchen time, back in the apartment.

New Guests - Shona and Tyler

The day after our return from Bregenz, sister-in-law Shona and nephew Tyler (Baker) arrived from Lewistown, PA.  Wanling was ecstatic to finally have a traveling companion her age.  Wanling and I picked them up at the airport at 7:00 a.m., we had a German breakfast (not quite like at the Mercure Hotel) and then off we went to explore the city.

 The Alte Oper (old opera house)

 Shona on the Römerplatz, with the cathedral behind her

 Tyler chasing pigeons on the Römerplatz - one of the highlights of the day.

Breakfast at the Mercure Hotel

Anyone who reads this blog knows I like to take pictures of food.  German breakfasts are awesome, and the breakfast at the Mercure was over the top.  The German offerings were:  many types of sliced meats and salamis, smoked salmon, cheeses, yogurts, fruit, juices, müesli, soft- and hard-boiled eggs, juices, pastries and cakes, and ocean of teas, and many coffee options....and prosecco!  The American/British offerings were sausages, bacon, fried eggs, scrambled eggs.  You don't need to eat lunch when you have a breakfast like this.

Prost!!

Bregenz - from the top of the mountain

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After many grey days in Frankfurt we were delighted to see the sun in Bregenz.  We decided to ride the Pfänderbahn (cable car) up the nearby mountain and take a look at the Alps and Lake Constance from this vantage point.  The view was awe-inspiring.  From this point one can see four countries - Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Lichtenstein.  We hiked around, we watched the natives who had come up the mountain to ski and sled, and then we started the hike down, thinking how hard can a walk (supposedly 1 1/4 hours) down a mountainside be?.....

 All the trees and bushes were snow encrusted and glittering like diamonds in the sunshine.

 Wanling was dying to go sledding, but there was no place to rent a sled.

 We start the descent.  you can see the island of Lindau far below (Lindau is in Germany, we were in Austria at this point).

 Now the going gets tough.  Much of the trail was ice-encrusted and narrow.  We did NOT have hiking gear with us.  Luckily in a few places there were ropes embedded in the rock or mounted along the edge of the path.  Wanling developed a (very effective) technique of sliding down on her bottom.

 And as we stumbled down the mountain, the Austrians energetically hiked up, with their boots and their walking poles, it looked pretty easy.  We even saw one man running, in his shirt sleeves.  He passed us on his way up the mountain, and then passed us as he went down again....and he was singing as he ran (we thought that he was just a little crazy).

 This area is very Catholic.  Even in the remotest areas there are shrines.

Needless to say, we were very happy to be down at the bottom of the mountain again, after 2 1/2 hours.  We definitely all had a few sore muscles to remind of us of that hike.  We looked back up the hill (the red and white antenna) and saw where we had been....