I woke up this morning thinking about the things that were going on concerning the computer. While I sat there in bed I wondered what Ahmee and Poppy's reaction would be if Momma pulled out her "ace". I sat there, hoping that Momma had not already sent an email to them that would cause Ahmee and Poppy to think that I hate this trip, or that I wasn't having a good time, or that I wanted them to be happy-go-lucky all the time, or something else but now I can't remember. I was nervous that Ahmee and Poppy thought all I was doing was complaining to everyone else but to them. There are some things that would be difficult for me to share with them, mostly things that occurred in Scotland.
I sat there for at least an hour wondering if Momma hadn't sent them that email telling them she was worried that I was too stressed and she stressed that I am anal about my schoolwork. I wondered what would have happened if these emails hadn't come forth. I've said before in my blogs that what I write in my emails is for those particular people alone, and I expect those people to use the information contained in those emails sparingly, to share them with only certain people. Momma's worried about me based on these blogs, and based on a few emails. All I knew was that if the rest of Europe was just as devoid of wireless connection as this area of Germany had been, then I was going to need to change something. What worried me this morning was that Ahmee had said the night before that she had asked me before we went on this trip if I could miss school for that long, if I would be ok with it. I'd told her then yes. It's still yes. She said that she wanted to plan schoolwork around this trip, not plan this trip around schoolwork.
Before and during breakfast I thought about how that would drive me up the wall. If I couldn't find internet in too many places we were staying what would happen at the end of the grading period when my teachers would be required to send in some sort of grade for me? My grades would suck.
After a nice peaceful breakfast we got dressed, and got on the road. We left early this day because we wanted to check out Rick Steve's favorite castle: Burg Eltz and then get back in time to do laundry so we could get on the road the next day. The drive was a long one and for the second time since we'd been in Germany we saw lots and lots of clouds. None of us were surprised when it rained on us later. While Ahmee and Poppy were navigating and driving, I was in the back seat, thinking and looking out the window.
While on the road I managed to construct a new "game plan" that I knew I wanted to share with Ahmee the instant I got the chance.
We got to Cochem where we saw a HUGE castle on a hill that was right next to the river Mozel (connection to Germany and France). We thought that this castle was the one that Rick Steves had been talking about because it was quite a wonderful castle to look at. Later we found out that we were wrong.At any rate, we thought that this was the Burg Eltz that we had read about, so we found a parking place (took a while), walked to the information center, found out which shuttle bus to catch, ate lunch, and then Poppy went to move the car while Ahmee and I talked in the restaurant. I mentioned in yesterdays post exactly what we talked about and the agreement we'd come to. This made me slightly less nervous, but let me tell you, the fact that I didn't know what was in Momma's email still nagged at the back of my brain. I didn't want Ahmee to think that she was giving them a talking to when they didn't need it.
Moving on. After Poppy met back up with us (took forever since both parties ended up walking in opposite directions looking for the other party) we waited for the shuttle bus and then when it came we went up to the castle. The winding roads were so skinny that the bus driver had to go slow to give people time to get out of the way by standing in shop doorways. I enjoyed looking out the window on this bus, I got a nice view of tons of shop windows that were just begging to be peered in. I also enjoyed watching the kids that were sitting up at the front. There was one loud, black-haired girl who reminded me distinctly of Ella Grace (my cousin). The shuttle bus dropped them off at the "primary school" where I got a peek at the kids playing on their playground. I also got to have a look at the two different schools that highschool level kids go into. One of these schools is more advanced and typically is the one where the kids specialize, the other is just average school. To determine which school you'll go in you get to take one test at the end of what we'd know as middle school. Another little something I know is that Mr. Beckermans kids started school at 8 in the morning and left school at 1 in the afternoon (without a lunch break). People might drop their jaws, but the workload the kids get to take home is scary. Mr. Beckermans kids had backpacks that were as pregnant as mine. All of the young kids have full backpacks when they go home, the older ones-not so often, although I did see several lugging two full backpacks on their way home (both of these were smaller than mine though).
Why do I keep going on about the schools? Because in the town I got to see all of the students on their way out of school, and I also got to see the schools themselves while I was on that shuttle bus. I got to look through the windows of the school buildings there. The blue building I saw had loads of equipment in it, in fact, it looked basically like a college. The other one I couldn't see in due to drawn curtains.
After seeing the schools we were ushered out of the bus where we had a good time walking the rest of the way up the hill to the castle. The view was incredible from that height! We could see for miles! Unfortunately we could only see one direction.
We got the tickets for the tour and when it started we were surprised to find out that the tour would be given in German. In Rick Steve's book he'd said that they had 45 minute tours that were given in English. Here we got to listen to the tour guide make her jokes and ask the kids questions in German. We were given a pamplet that went over all of the key points of each room, but we didn't get to understand many of her jokes. Luckily she didn't leave us out of the loop very long, she always gave us a small sidenote of what she'd just said in English.
The rooms were tiny, and often had many valuable pieces of furniture. We'd been asked not to touch anything in these rooms, but I know that many people found this difficult when they were trying to make room for the other 15 people we needed to squeeze in. It wasn't a deterent for the tour though! Not in the slightest! Whenever our tour guide would point out something the people would divide and make room so that other people could see the article in question.
Three of my favorite things in that castle were: the mermaid that was meant to protect the castle and who would grant a wish to those people who touched her (I touched her), the hidden door that lead from one room to the bedchambers (tour guide said that when the boss was gone the lover would go up and when the boss came home the lover would sneak out this way), and the suit of armor that was made for a knight that had defended this castle who had the astonishing height of over 7 feet (in that day and age it was unusual to have people over 4-5 ft tall). I'm positively certain that the knight would've terrified any man who came up against him. He would've been a giant compared to all those people!
Something that surprised me was that the castle had not only been captured before, but had also been completely demolished by none other than King Louis 14th (also known as: the Sun King). For those who enjoy saying the French are wimpy I have some news: only in WWII did they seem wimpy. Throughout history they've shown incredible feats of skill in the battlefield. It amazed me that the fortification I was walking in had been completely demolished. It had seemed insane to attack it, simply because I'd walked up the steep hill the castle rested on and I saw all of the vantage points the castle guards had from there. It just had to have been a stealth taking. That castle is too well positioned to be taken down by brute force! If it was by brute force then... wow, that had to be some army.
After this short tour Ahmee, Poppy, and I went back down to the information center via the shuttle bus. We weren't certain that that was the Burg Eltz. Sure enough the castle we'd just seen was the Reichsburg Castle that was owned by the town. The lady at the desk gave us directions to get to the Burg Eltz and told us when they closed. We had a little over an hour before tours stopped so we got in the car and hurried towards this Burg.
When we got there we parked and hopped into another shuttle bus which took us to the edge of the bridge across.
I now must tell you that this castle's story is quite unique (I'm using details I learned on the tour and things I'd learned from Rick Steves). It was built on a hill in the middle of several very close mountains. This is an unusual spot to build a castle because it would be quite easy to lay siege to a castle that's already surrounded in such a way. It was put there because there was a very important trade route that had went through.
For ages it was owned by one family. At one point though three different families came to call that rock their home. The interactions between these three families had to have been interesting. We got to see the section that the silver lion family lived in, and the ox horn family lived in (these aren't the names they're just the flags that they'd had-we never got the names). The golden lion family was the family that lived in the castle the longest and was also the one that remained. The countess who owns the castle doesn't live there but she does send in bunches of flowers.
After going through the treasury we caught the English tour where we and another family of four got to see this castle. It was really amazing. I loved the history in this castle and the view we got to see of the upper classed people who lived back then. The castle had 40 fireplaces (100 rooms total). Like the tour guide said, heat back then was a true luxury in these castles. Another luxury was that there were plenty of toilets in this castle (were flushed when it rained). There was one bathroom for every five people. Pretty astonishing isn't it?
I must tell you that I'm leaving out lots and lots of the tour (like the bow that could shoot 450 meters, and the ruins of the siege castle that stood on the hill opposite the Burg Eltz), sorry but at the moment I'm needing to stop typing soon.
After touring this castle we road back up to the car and got back on the road to head to the Bungalow. On our way back we stopped at the Postilo Restaurant (that's not the name but Ahmee and I can't remember it at all) that's in the town Junkerath. We'd eaten there before and had been in complete raptures with the delicious food we'd gotten there. The chef came out and helped us again by explaining what each thing on the menu was. He then made Poppy an extra potato dumpling and gave us enough broccoli for the three of us to eat along with our meals. The food was the same as it had been before and the word I'll use for it will be: positively scrumptious. After the meal the chef's wife cleared our plates and told us how he didn't cook at home. Later we got to hear how they met in Canada and how they decided to move over to Germany to be closer to family. They were yet another lovely couple that we got to meet, but that we never caught the names of. I remarked on this as we headed out to the car and Ahmee said that that was part of traveling, you get to know peoples deepest, darkest secrets, but you never get their name.
Once back in the room I stayed up typing and then hopped into my little nest. At first, I was frozen, but then the heat kicked on and my small room became a sauna. After the chill of the day, this felt incredible. I have to say that before breakfast today Poppy had said that I was like a snake when it comes to keeping warm. It's completely true. I am like a snake. Cloud coverage, rain, and wind make me freeze. I had on many layers, and when I stepped out of the car into the chill it was fine, because the car wasn't too hot to begin with, but when I stepped out of a hot restaurant into the chill I got major goosebumps. My feet being cold at night has nothing to do with my being stressed, I just get cold very easily (and the bottoms of my socks are actually starting to get thin from all the walking). In the past we haven't realized that we can turn up the heat so in the past I've been clever and taken a shower and then hopped into multiple layers and under many covers (the heat from the hot water warms me up and after I've dried off I jump into articles of clothing to capture the heat that's rapidly escaping-this way I can fall asleep). My room in the bungalow is wonderful. I've created quite a "snake nest" there. The room is small so that when the heat does come on it doesn't take long for it to reach me, and it also is contained within the room, my bed has two duvets on it (comforters), and I wear multiple layers (often I have to strip down to two layers because I get toasty in there). If Iain had been in that room, wearing all the layers I'd had on, and lying under all those covers, he would've been miserable. While I'm easily frozen, he's easily over-heated.
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