After a day or so of touring Luxembourg's castles and seeing the beautiful Koln Cathedral, we had one more full day of birthday trip left. We got up Saturday morning in Vianden, Luxembourg and headed down to breakfast and took a seat by the window. Glancing out into the parking lot, I was struck by how many bright yellow cars were in the hotel's tiny little parking lot. I mean, how often do you see bright yellow cars?! Eric also started staring out the window and then got really big saucer eyes as he began counting... Look at the LOTUSES!
More than twenty of them were parked right outside our hotel. It didn't take us too long to discover that the German Lotus Club was actually staying at our little hotel, too! They group was on a driving holiday (surprise, surprise) and everyone was driving their favorite Lotus. The Lotus drivers were really nice, I chatted with a couple of them after breakfast before we took off. This was our favorite car... fun fun! But probably not a good family car, we kept reminding ourselves.
*** Parents, please stop reading now, and skip ahead a couple of paragraphs. ****
Speaking of cars, note to self for the future - don't rent a FORD when you're driving through Germany. Plunk down a few extra Euros and spring for a German-made car with a good engine, so you can enjoy the Autobahn properly.
Eric floored it several times while we were driving on the Autobahn and was sorely disappointed that he never got our rental car any faster than some of the speeds he drove during high school on the Ohio interstates!
I took this picture as Eric drove. This is approx 160 kilometers per hour - just under 100 mph. And yes, it is legal to drive as fast as you want on the open road, though they do post "suggested speeds". The only actual speed limits are when the Autobahn takes you through urban areas. And the Autobahn isn't a specific road, as I had previously thought - it's basically just like our interstate system. Autobahn = Interstate... Only with more BMW's zipping along at 100 miles an hour. Surprisingly, I never felt un-safe, even with the other drivers passing us at top speeds. There seems to be a good balance of folks knowing their appropriate limits and getting out of the way of the speed demons. I can't explain it, but somehow it works.
*** Okay Parents, thanks, you can join us again! ****
We drove to Heidelberg, to visit their lovely ruined Castle destroyed by the French during the 30 Years War. One of the tour tidbits that we heard was that the castle was much more beautiful as a ruin than it ever was intact. There was certainly something quite haunting about it. And the rain and fog cleared just in time for us to enjoy the mid-day tour with some patchy sunshine.
This tower is just MASSIVE, and it looks like someone just took a big knife and sliced off one side, like a pineapple. Amazing! The portion of the destroyed wall is still intact and is leaning precariously against the tower, looking like it just slide right off last night.
We got the audio guide for the castle and grounds which worked great for Castle #2 the day before, but there was NO way we could share this one (not enough volume, way too wordy, etc). Instead, we took turns listening to the commentary and giving each other summaries of what we heard, while the other one snapped photos, enjoyed the views and entertained Brooks. We eventually got to the point where we turned 10 minutes of informative narration into this: "building on left constructed by Fredrick in the 1600s, who married English princess, Elizabeth, great royal wedding, lots of kids, lots of love, then he ticked off the French, who blew up his castle"... We definitely lost some of the finer points, but at least we were able to get through the whole tour with a squirmy Little.
Brooks is looking pretty calm in that photo, but I've gotta tell you, he LOVES the wrap (thank you Emily!!) ... He enjoys being up at (almost) eye level with folks on the street and whenever Brooks is strapped in and riding in front, we get lots of smiles from complete strangers! And when he gets tired, we can turn him around and he can curl up for a nap right there on our chest. It's fantastic.
After Heidelberg, it was time to head to Dusseldorf and Duisberg, where we were staying for our last night. There were a lot of "miles to go before we sleep", but we knew that one of the best drives in Germany was a small road that paralleled the Autobahn right along our route. We decided to take the scenic route, lengthening our trip but providing some breath-taking views. We drove an hour or two along the Rhine river valley and saw one castle and fortress after another just up from the water. It was really spectacular. Here are some highlights.
In the above photo, note the terracing on the hillsides on the left... that's for the vineyards - they grow grapes for their yummy German wine up on the most rocky, steep hillsides. How did they plant all those vines?! And the tracks that carry the grape harvesting carts up and down the mountains were amazing. Definitely impressive German engineering! :)
These aren't the best pictures - most are snapped from a moving car, but I love the way the movement of the clouds and the bright afternoon sun impacted the mood of each of the palaces and ruins. It was really beautiful!
When we finished the drive, we made our way out of the last town, up to the ridge line of the western hills to cross over the countryside and jump back onto the Autobahn. At the top of the hills, we spotted a dramatic view point and decided to jump out of the car for a few final pictures. I have never been more pleased with a spontaneous photo shoot in my life. I admit, I got a little camera happy. Those photos will come in my next blog entry, but let me just say here, that that moment was one of my favorite from the trip. I often tell Eric that my favorite time of the day is the glooming - the day is fading into evening, and everything is warm and bright. To me, it's the light of heaven. As I'm snapping pictures of Eric and Brooks (who's SO happy to be out of his car seat!), the clouds part and the sky just poured out happiness on our little family. JOY! I only wish that I was a better photographer, as these photos hardly do justice to the *feeling* that I had on that mountain top... So alive, so free, so at peace with my husband and my child and my life in general.
Thank you, Lord, how could I ask for more...
The rest of the day was more driving, getting really lost and then eating pizza in Dussledorf (pizza fixes a lot of troubles in the Wheeler family!), driving circles through German towns in the dark with no clue as to where to find our hotel (the directions were printed out ahead of time but left on our kitchen table back home). Finding our hotel, collapsing into bed for a 3 hour nighttime nap. Then, waking before the sun on Sunday (Eric's actual birthday), loading a very sleepy baby back into his car seat, driving 80 km back to the Weeze airport (again, WHY is this airport way out here?!), stressing that we were going to not be able to find a gas station to fill up the rental car before turning it back in, then stressing that we were going to run out of gas before we made it to the airport, then earnestly praying for extra fumes as the gas light came on (Eric HATES the gas light, and never wants to see it lit, ever), then turning one of the last corners and discovering a beautiful modern gas station that is A) not only open at 5:00am on a Sunday but is also B) freshly stocked with delicious warm croissants! When is the last time I described a gas station pastry as "delicious"?! Um, never!! But it was! Oh my! What a birthday gift!
Overall, the trip was fantastic. Eric and I realized when we got home that we probably can't keep up this fantastic travel pace much longer though. As Brooks gets older, he gets more ... opinionated... about how we spend our time and more, um, VOCAL, about his needs. No more just strapping on the baby and going, whenever and wherever we want. Plus, by the end, WE were exhausted! So happy, but exhausted. We spent Eric's birthday in London (we were home in our own flat by 10:30am) napping, unpacking, and then eating steak in honor of his big day - it's not a birthday without steak. It was a good thing that we had a post-trip recovery day at home, because going straight from all those travel adventures right back to work might have a bit too much! Anyway, we're loving the fact that so much wonderful stuff is just right around the corner or a quick flight away from London. And we're definitely taking advantage of it!
Happy Birthday, darlin'. So glad that you were born!
2 comments:
I can't remember what non-German engineered car we rented, but I feel your pain. I managed to get ours up to 180 kmph, but was still having BMWs FLY by me :0) Looks like such a wonderful adventure!
Oh, this is so late, but happy birthday, Eric! Wish we'd been with you to celebrate, but it looks like you had a great weekend with your little family.
(Hope you stay well!)
Post a Comment