ESPECIALLY FOR KIDS!

Guess who showed up at the Burg Castle? Harry Potter and his mates!

Inside the castle, there were some really cool models and paper solders:

Solingen, City of Blades

This was definitely a guy trip. We went to the Boker Manufacturing Plant where fine knives and scissors, swords, and razors are made. Solingen is about two hours outside of Frankfurt and is the steel capital of Germany. After visiting the knife store, we went to the Burg Castle, built in the 12th Century and restored in the 18th Century. It was a child's paradise for exploring the museum filled with knight's paraphernalia, its high turrets to climb, and the old city walls for viewing. The homes in this area are covered with slate shingles. Many of the homes here actually have yards with green grass, a real luxury in Germany in the cities. Makes me miss home. Sorry!

Braunfels and Castle Philippstein

On Saturday morning, I got to go to the Flea Market with Brother Dearing before we took off for Braunfels. It was cold and misting again, so I mostly stayed under a tent looking through a table of sweaters. I came home with seven new sweaters for 12 Euro. This has made a significant improvement in my wardrobe. Kate was absolutely right when she said, "Don't take anything but the necessities to Germany. They have everything you need there."

Then we headed off to Braunfels to see Castle Philippstein, built in the late 1300's, that has a fairy tale feel about it. The castle is still owned by the family, who still occupy most of the 400 rooms. Interestingly the property was passed down not to their daughter, but to their daughter's husband. There were only three couples on the tour and so the guide spoke first in German and then in English. We went through twelve rooms and were amazed at the magnificent collection of art work, furnishings, and armor dating through the 13th to the 18th centuries.

The family had their crest laid in cobblestone in the courtyard:

We had lunch in a very quaint tea parlor. We had hot chocolate and French Onion Soup.

Temple Night in Friedrichsdorf

We enjoyed going to the Temple the last Friday of the month in Friedrichsdorf, about 25 minutes away from Frankfurt. The sessions are usually just for the Senior Missionary couples and presented in English. Bob likes to listen to it in German with the headphones. He is such an ardent learner, and I admire him for this. After the Temple, we always all go out to dinner together. We go to a beautiful Chinese restaurant, Me-King, with 175 dishes to chooses from. We often share the fried noodles with vegetables and shrimp and have a cup of soup or a spring roll. The food is very delicious. Or else we go to a very traditional German restaurant, where we begin our meal with a German salad bar with potato salad, cabbage, pickles, tomatoes, lettuce, etc. The menu is also very large, and the portions are very large, so we often share a meal of some kind of schnitzel with gravy. These two restaurants have accommodated us by serving us plain tap water. We are so thrilled because in every other restaurant, they want us to buy bottled water. The mix of enjoying a spiritual session and dining with good friends puts the icing on the cake for the month.

A Rainy Day in Wine Country

The weather has been continually rainy and foggy. Frankfurt seldom has a real downpour but rather has wet mists that hang over the land. For our Saturday adventure, we got in the car and drove to the German wine vineyards close to the border of France, the Weinstrasse. The road wound along the foothills and through many quaint villages, including Annweiler am Trifels, where there was an old castle perched on the top of a mountain.Through the mist, we could barely see some other old castles. Vineyards that surround these villages are well-pruned and staked and and seem to stretch for miles. We noticed that the architecture of the houses reflected a more French influence.We found a quaint French Cafe in Edenkoben and ate a yummy Flammkuchen (sort of like a pizza with a flat crisp crust topped with cream cheese and then ham and cheese), before returning home. 

This is what the castle on the hill would look like without the fog: Burg Trifels by Annweiler

We ate in this darling cafe, that could have been in Holladay, Utah:

After lunch, I captured a few shots through a quaint store window. Very few stores are open in the villages in the winter. Window shopping is a great way to save money!