Marksburg Castle

On the way home from Cologne we drove down a road next to the Rhine River called Castle Road. This is a very scenic stretch with lots of vineyards and several castles speckled along the tops of the hills. We stopped at one of the first castles we came to called the Marksburg Castle. I didn't know if we would be able to get inside because all my tour books said it closes at 5pm and the last tour is an hour before. We got there around 4:30 and it turns out there was one more tour leaving at 5. It was only in German, but we got a pamphlet in English to help explain what we were seeing. Our guide was a very nice woman and she ended up speaking in English about halfway through the tour. She LOVED Maddox and let him put on a real knight's helmet, hold a sword, and even lock the castle door with a huge key when the tour was over. It was very cool and we got a couple pictures, which you will see later.

Our first view.


Driving past the old town gate.



We had to hike a little ways from the parking lot to get to the castle.


Go over a drawbridge.


And through a tunnel with very uneven cobblestone streets.





Maddox, with his $5 bottle of castle Powerade that we had to get for him before the tour started.


View from the ticket office.


Our friend's son and Maddox playing while we wait.



At 4:57, right before the tour started Carson started getting fussy. I had forgotten a bottle in the car and Ben ran all the way down to get it. I was worried he would get left behind since our guide showed up early and started ushering people inside. Thankfully, she was nice and waited for Ben to make his way back up.

Marksburg Castle is the only hill castle on the Rhine that has never been destroyed. It has been lived in for 700 years. Unlike other Rhine castles that were rebuilt from ruin, Marksburg is quite genuine.

A wall showing the succession of ownership of the castle since 1283 and their coats of arms.


Castle tower with the guard's quarter.



The oldest cannon, from 1450.


The more efficient cannons from 1640.

The view out the opening.


Medieval Garden along the outer wall with 160 plants from the middle ages used for cooking, medicine, and witchcraft. The Schierling (hemlock) is the poisonous one that killed Socrates. We made sure Maddox didn't touch any plants.


After the garden we walked along the outer wall and the tour guide pointed out a brown overhang high up the wall. I heard her say toiletten and later figured out that was an outhouse and they would just let the waste drop to the ground as they went. yuck. Unfotunately we didn't get a picture of the outside of this.

Next we went to the the wine cellar.


Wine has been the traditional Rhineland drink since Roman times. Castle water was unpure, so wine was the way knights got their fluids. The large pitures above the barrels were each knights daily allotment. Quite a bit of wine!


Up the stairs we go to the kitchen with a wine press from 1767.


It has an oven designed to cook an ox whole. The windows were made of thin alabaster or animal hide and the walls are 4.5 meters thick.
Me, Carson, our friend Jade, and Brandon infront of the oven.




On to the bedroom, the only heated room in the castle. Note the tiny bed and bassinet.


The doorways were tiny. Here is Jade's husband, Dale, squeezing through.


This shows some of the materials that the wall was made out of.


Medieval instruments.


Next we went to the Great Banqueting Hall, The Hall of Knights, which had a huge fireplace, and the outhouse!! Personally, the outhouse door was way to close to the dinning table for comfort. This was the portion that was hanging over the outer wall in thin air. When not in use they locked it from the inside to prevent invaders from getting in.




The table top was an unattached plank of wood. After each course the servants would replace it with another premade plank. Even now, when germans are done with a course they have been known to say "Let's lift up the table."


Gothic chess set.


The chapel had painted walls and ceilings and is dedicated to St. Marks (hence: Marksburg).



Even the chapel was designed with defense in mind. There is a short and narrow doorway, which kept out heavily armed attackers (even I had to turn sideways to fit through.)


The staircase spirals clockwise, to favor the defender (assuming he was right handed.) Attackers swords would catch against the wall.


Two thousand years worth of armor are kept in the armory. Because helmets covered the face, soldiers identified themselves by tipping their visors up. This evolved into the military salute.


Our guide let Maddox try on a real helmet that was in the display.


And hold one of the swords.


This is the horse stable, but it shows off crime and punishment things (I didn't really like that part.)


This was the last stop. We headed back out the same gate we came in, and our tour guide let Maddox lock the castle up. I tried to get a picture of this with Ben's phone because our camera battery ran out, but I missed it.

Here are a few more photos from the Marksburg Castle.








I hope you enjoyed your tour. Auf wiedersehen!!

Cologne Cathedral - Kolner Dom

We had originally planned on stopping in Koln (Cologne), then driving down to the Mosel Valley to spend the night and do some wine tasting, but life always likes to throw curve balls. Our plans changed to only being available for a one day trip so we decided to keep our plans to see the Cathedral in Koln and then drive down castle road (that portion will be in another blog).
A cathedral is traditionally the tallest building in a city because "no one is higher than God." Cologne dates back to 34 BC, the largest Roman outpost outside of Paris and Constantinople. This cathedral was built over another ancient church back in the third century and took over 500 years to complete.
Here is our first view as we entered the city.


We got there shortly after 12 and I was stressing out a little bit. I wanted to make sure I had time to see and photograph all of the major spots of interest and we only had a short window of time between noon prayer and confession (they close the Cathedral to non-members during that time and cathedral cops called Schweitzer, dressed in red robes, push you out and lock gates behind you.) We parked, situated the children, and headed out to the streets. With all the tall buildings and narrow streets, which seem to be common characteristics of German cities, you don't see what your are looking for until you are on top of it. When we walked around the corner the cathedral loomed over us with quite a commanding presence.



There were gates up all around that side and I thought it was closed, but turns out we just had to walk around to the front (we were on the side.)

As impressive as the Cathedral is from the side, it is even more so from the front. I am just blown away with this place. It is so big that I could not get the whole thing in one picture even though I had walked through the square, to the other side of the street, and got down to ground level.



As we walked Maddox found ducks.

And a fountain.



There were people dressed up and standing in the square. Ben said they wanted money.




This guy was a dog.


And chalk drawings.


Here are more views of the front:





I did so much research on this place before leaving and it would take me all night to write about all the history. I'll just point out the major points of interest. There were a large number of tourists there and we aren't even in peak tourism season. My research said over 20,000 people tour it daily.

In front there is a replica of a spire. The originals are 515 feet above us at the top of the towers.


There is also a roman arch from 50 AD which marks the start of 2,000 year old main shopping street.


The nave is built to make you feel small. The ceilings are 140 feet high.


The city was hit hard in WWII, 95% of the city was destroyed and it's population dropped from 800,000 to an estimated 30,000. The cathedral was hit by bombs 15 times, but the skeletal structure flexed and stayed in tact fairly well. Thankfully, they anticipated the bombings and removed the stained glass and art treasures and took them to shelters to save them. Therefore, most of the glass windows are originals with some from medieval times or early renisaissance. I couldn't stop taking pictures of them, they were so beautiful. Some had family crests of donors, but most depicted scenes from the bible.






Next we went to the oldest part of the cathedral, with a mosaic floor from the 19th century.


It shows a saint holding the Carolingian Cathedral which stood in this spot for centuries before this cathedral was built. This marks the entrance of the Chapel of the Cross that has the oldest surviving crucifix from the north Alps, carved in the 970's with techniques 300 years ahead of it's time. I looked all over for this thing and finally realized it was covered up for some reason (I probably walked past it 5 times.) I squeezed a picture from the side. It was much larger than anticipated. It shows Jesus, not suffering nor triumphant, but with eyes closed, simply dead.


Next was the Shrine of the Magi. These are three large elaborate coffins made of gold, silver, and jewels. Inside are the skulls and crowns of the Three Kings (from the Christmas Carol). They were the first to recognize Jesus as the savior and the first pilgrims to visit him. Relics were a big deal in the middle ages and this put Koln on the pilgrimage map and gave them enough money to finish the Cathedral. This also led to the Cathedral's theme: Life is a pilgrimage...a search for God.




Inside the Chapel of the Virgin is the Madonna of Milan from 1290. People used to make a pilgrimage here to stand beneath her for a miracle. We walked right past here, then finally realized it and went back, but the cathedral cops had closed the gates, so we didn't get a chance to stand under her. I was bummed.

This is a mural of the Patron Saints of Cologne, also in the Chapel of the Virgin, but the panels were closed.

Here's a picture of Ben and Maddox under the side with the low ceilings to give you an idea of how big this place is.



The high alter, the Shrine of the Magi is way far in the background.


The organ, one of Germany's biggest, was installed recently, but couldn't be attached to the wall because it would alter the integrity of the architecture. It hangs from the ceiling instead.


After our visit to the Cathedral we stopped at a local brewery for lunch.


They had unusual food that I guess is traditional for the area such as ox tail soup (with a real ox tail in it) and boiled pig belly. I ordered a fish fillet and suprise!! It was served raw with scales and everything! So raw you couldn't even get your fork into it. At least it didn't have a head. I just covered it up and at the green beans and potatos that came on a sepereate plate. I think I'll stick to the schnitzel next time, at least I know that's cooked!

We could not leave Koln without trying the local beer, called Kolsch. It is only made in Koln and can only be sold in a 20 mile radius.


It was a great trip and I am looking forward to returning at night sometime to see the Cathedral lit up.

Philosopher's Walk - Phew!

Originally I had planned on taking us out to Rothenburg ob de Tauber, but Ben was called in to work around 3am to handle some business with his platoon. He didn't get home until 7 and slept until noon, so I had to make a change in the itineray. I refused to let another weekend go by without any sightseeing so we made our way to a local point of interest called Philosopher's Walk (Philosophenweg). Its name comes from the practice of Heidelberg's philosophers (students) and university professors of walking and talking here. I read in the Heidelberg Tourist booklet that there is a garden, observation tower, an old celtic well from around 200 B.C. (read about this online, but haven't found it),ruins of two monestaries, an amphitheater, and this just in...a bier garden!

After hiking for almost 3 hours we only made it to the first monestary, so we called it a day and headed back down. If we had only known about the bier garden waiting for us at the top we would have trucked on through. I guess we will have to take another trip.

There are two ways to get to Philosopher's Walk and the Philosopher's Garden: cross the Old Bridge and follow the winding "snakes alley" up the side of the hill, or drive. We drove, of course, since we were carting two little bambinos, plus it's a couple hundred steps...no thanks. The roads were very narrow and we couldn't figure out where to park. We saw some people parked on the sidewalk, and, even though there was a tow sign close by, we decided to do the same.
People walked in front of us and weren't in any rush to move out of the way.

Cool garage in the side of the mountain (had to take a pic).

A short walk landed us in the garden. Everything was in bloom, the flowers, the trees. It was absolutely beautiful.

There were benches all along the path for people to sit and take in the view.
Here is the view across the Nekar River towards the castle ruins.

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Maddox enjoyed walking along the garden for a little bit, but soon wanted carried. His hiking legs didn't make it very far.


Carson hagning out in the umbrella stroller like a big boy.

The steps from snakes alley leading down to the street.

The "Post Card" view with 3 of Heidelberg's major sights: the castle ruins, the Old Bridge, and the Church. It's impossible to take a bad picture at this sight.

What started out as a leisurely stroll through the garden turned into one hell of a hike up the Heiligenberg Holy Mountain! There are several different paths to take while you are climbing. We knew there were some ruins and an amphitheater up here and started the search. When the path came to a Y there were stone markers with german words and arrows pointing in different directions. We had no idea what they said, so we guessed a direction. For the most part, it wasn't too steep. There were mountain bikers, runners, and friendly locals going in the same direction. One old local man stopped to chat and when I told him we didn't speak german he tried speaking some english. We couldn't really understand what he was saying but he kept pointing to the boys. I picked out a few familiar words "light", "man", "woman", "good". We just smiled, said "ya", and eventually went on our way. We walked and walked, wondering where everything was. We couldn't even see views of the city anymore. At one point we stopped going uphill and came to a tower. Finally! Turns out we took the long (very long) way around.
Here we are taking a break at the tower. There is so much graffiti all over everything here. That's one thing that suprised and disappointed me.


Ben climbed to the top with Maddox to take a look at the view.

After a short breather we decided to continue upward. We knew we were on the right track to get to the ruins now. The path got quite a bit steeper and, not having had any REAL excercise since Carson was born, I was struggling to say the least. We came to a small observation sight with a bench, so we sat. When we started this excursion I knew we would be doing some hiking, but I had no idea we were going to the top of a stinkin' mountain! If I would have known that I would have packed better. We were bogged down with bottles, formula, diapers, wipes, juice boxes, snacks for Maddox. There was so much stuff in the diaper bag that I didn't bother to pack any water for us. Boy I could have used it. I only packed 2 juice boxes and didn't want to leave Maddox high dry. We opened it up, but limited ourselves to a few sips (this is where knowing about the beer would have come in handy.) While looking out we realized you could see our housing in the distance, so we took a picture.

And we continued on the way up. We have come this far, we had to see the ruins. My legs felt like jello, I was carrying Carson in my wrap, and Ben was pushing Maddox in the umbrella stroller. I was starting to lag behind, so I grabbed ahold of Ben's back pocket to help with the momentum (ok, so I needed a little help with the upward climb. I'm just glad his pocket didn't rip off.)

We finally made it up to the first ruin, St. Stephen's monestary! Woo - hoo!! That took long enough. Honestly, I was huffing and puffing, didn't think I was going make it. I even got snippy with Ben and threatened to go back down (not cool, I should apologize).

Are you ready for the icing on the cake? As we climb relentlessly towards the ruins, vision blurring from exhaustion and dehydration, what do we see...... A PARKING LOT!! We could have driving up this thing? Seriously?

Oh well, it was a good workout. Here is the tower, which Ben climbed.


Stairs? No way, not after that hike! The boys and I waited at the bottom.

The views were fantastic.

We had been hiking for hours and the kids were going to have to eat soon, so we decided to head back down, which was much easier, and much faster since we followed the correct path. We will drive up another day to see the other sights (and visit the bier garden!)

Was the car towed? Nope! Our lucky day. But, how to get down this narrow road to the bottom? The road was way too narrow to turn around, so when there was a break in the mobs of people walking up and down the hill, Ben expertly drove in reverse all the way down. He said his ATED (anti terrorism evasive driving) skills came in handy. Whatever it was, excellent work, hun.

Potty Training - Yeah Right, Mommy!

Maddox is now 2 years and 4 months old. I bought a potty and pull ups when he was 18 months and wanted to start potty training then. Everyone told me he was too young, not ready, and I needed to wait until he was older. Well, my question is, how much older?

A few days ago he was in the tub for only a few minutes before he stood up and started to pee. So Ben and I whipped him out of the tub and tried to sit him on the potty. He started screaming for a diaper and would not continue to pee until his diaper on.

This is when we decided that it was time to start. He obviously knew he needed to pee and had the ability to hold it when he wanted to, plus he was starting to show a dependency on diapers.

So the next day, Maddox and I went out to the PX by ourselves to get some potty training essentials. We bought something called a potty caddy that is a little box with special toilet paper, toddler magazines, a book, and a sticker chart specially made to entice the tiny tot to go on the potty. In addition to this I bought M&M's to reward him when he goes and he picked out a dinasour book that came with little dino toys as a "prize" for when he consistantly goes. The idea was to keep this visible, but only give it to him once he had mastered going on the potty for a whole week. Yeah right!

As soon as we got home he started throwing a fit because he wanted the M&M's AND the dinosaur book. He could have cared less about the toddler magazines or potty book, but was interested in the stickers. I held firm on the candy, but broke down and let him play with the dinosaur book ONLY when he was sitting on the potty. He must have sat on that thing an hour the first time! And we had success! Twice! But he also peed all over the house the rest of the day. Here is break down of our potty training experience:

Day 1: First time in the potty! Woo-hoo! I hope those dinosaurs stay interesting. 30 minutes later, he peed in his room. Ate lunch and sat him on the potty again - no go, even though he sat there for a half hour. Another accident in the living room. Ate dinner - sat on the potty infront of the tv pretending to be playing to Wii for 45 minutes - Success! We put up the sticker, gave him the M&M's and thought, this might work....and another accident. Time to get ready for bed and put a diaper on.

Day 2: Sat on the potty first thing, but pinched his little booty in the seat. No more potty sitting for that boy! No way, Mom. Cried for a diaper all day, finally gave in and put one on. I don't think it's happening today, let's go to the park.

Day 3: Bribed him to sit on the potty by giving him an M&M for just sitting on it. Had to put it in front of the TV and give him the dinosaurs to play with. He sat on it several times, but with no success. Tried letting him wear his "big boy, Mickey Mouse undies" he picked out instead of the padded training underwear. Told him not to get Mickey wet and tell me when he needed to pee. Didn't work. I might need to buy more paper towels and put a heavy duty shower curtain over the couch.

Day 4: Let him pick out which underwear he wanted to wear. Set a timer for every 30 minutes and pumped him full of juice. When the timer ran we sang "It's potty time" song. He would jump around singing, but had no desire to use the potty. Later on, he sat on it for a long and talked to Grandma (Maw) on Skype in Japan. Did he go potty? Nope. Let him off the potty. 20 minutes later I ask "Do you need to go potty?" "NO PEE PEE!" is the answer I recieve. Not 5 minutes later, you guessed it! Time to clean up again....and again...and again.

Day 5: I'm done. We'll try again later. OH - and he's been holding his #2 this whole time...great....