Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Rheinfels

On Saturday we made a daytrip to Rheinfels Castle in St. Goar. (It's just over an hour away.) The day was kinda chilly and overcast-- which is really perfect for tromping around an old ruinous castle, I think. The ruins are massive, and apparently the place used to be 5 times bigger than what is left there now.
Only a few steps remain in this tower. Charlotte decided she was the princess since they didn't already have one. And she talked non-stop the entire day about how the castle was broken and somebody should "bix it."

I love this little man.
That's all. No other comments required. ;)

The Rick Steves book describes the ruins as a "dead pit bull." I guess because it was big, and scary, and stuff, but now is just a shell??

They have a lot of tunnels at Rheinfels. We didn't go into the underground ones, but this was one interior tunnel. They dug them and filled them with gunpowder (at some point in history) so that they could blow up any invaders or defend against the French attacks that sometimes occurred.
This area is near the underground tunnels that you can explore. But it is muddy and dark, and not really our cup of tea.

The beautiful Rhein, and many more castles to explore.

On the way home we stopped at IKEA to buy some shelving and left Charlotte in "Smaland" for the first time. (Their in-house daycare for 3-7 year olds.) I was nervous. After all, everyone else speaks German there and she isn't usually left with strangers. But, of course, she loved it. When we came to get her an hour later she was watching UP (in German) and refused to leave. I had to go in and get her. Seriously, where did she come from?!? She is so different from Rob and I! But we adore her and I really admire her outgoing, ready-for-anything personality. She's amazing. :)

2 comments:

felicity & nathaniel said...

that place looks awesome! i want to go there! next month! ;)

Mandy said...

Oh i remember that castle! I went in 2006 right before Sam was born...but it was hot, and I was so hugely pregnant I opted to have a loooong visit in the gift shop instead of seeing the castle. But the little town sure was cute. Looks like you had a great time! I just dropped Sam off at the playplace at our Ikea for the first time last month. He was eager to go...then when I picked him up he was in time-out and had been crying! I guess he didn't want to follow the rules or something. ah well.