A Georgia Girl in Germany

This past weekend was our castle weekend. It started Saturday morning with a promotion ceremony (for Zachary's Cub Scout den leader) at Schloss Lichtenstein about an hour away. As always seems to be the case with the Cook clan, it was quite an adventure! Benjamin was up during the night before we left then nearly threw up during the ceremony, the GPS was only partly right in getting us there so we missed the pre-ceremony English-language tour (we later did the German-language version with a laminated English translation sheet...but it was still difficult to figure out where I should have been reading from at some points), and Zachary fell into a snow-covered-but-not-quite-frozen-over pond after the ceremony but before the castle tour. Whew...never a dull moment with the Cook clan, that's for sure!!! But the kids enjoyed seeing the castle and the view, and Benjamin particularly liked that there was snow for him to walk in and kick at...which he was allowed to do since he agreed to wear his new snow boots! MacKenzie loved all the "faces on places" in and on the castle (part of what her class has been studying lately: buildings), and Zachary enjoyed being able to wander around the grounds (albeit while wearing wet shoes and socks until we got back in the van to head home).


Fortunately, we had Sunday to recover a bit before getting up early Monday morning to head to Bavaria with a USO tour of two of “Mad King Ludwig’s” castles: Schloss Hohenschwangau and Schloss Neuschwanstein. Fortunately, this trip was less hectic and eventful than Saturday's. Benjamin didn't want to sleep on the three-hour ride there, so he was exhausted by the time we got on the bus to return home (and slept the entire return trip). MacKenzie enjoyed seeing more "faces on places" here, but I think her favorite part of the day was getting to ride in a horse-drawn carriage up the mountainside from Hohenschwangau to Neuschwanstein. And Zachary totally enjoyed trying the local wurst for lunch--he really has taken a liking to a variety of German wurst (so has Benjamin).


I realized with all the photos I took that day, somehow I managed to not have a single one of all four of us with a castle in the background. So, the top photo above is the next-best thing...a photo of all of us taken beside Neuschwanstein, showing the magnificent mountainside behind us. The drop-off behind us was amazing! Zachary and MacKenzie carefully laid on the wall to get a better look, so of course Benjamin also begged "Me see" asking me to hold him up for a look as well. Since I'm sure you'd all appreciate seeing the magnificence of the castles, I've included photos of them as well. The top one is Schloss Lichtenstein, next is Hohenschwangau, then at left is Neuschwanstein.


As a bonus part of the trip, we stopped at a quaint church en route back, and were completely in awe at the inside. It was really magnificent--very detailed statues (more "faces on places" for MacKenzie), an absolutely beautiful pipe organ and a wonderfully-painted dome ceiling! Our tour escort even said the ceiling reminded him of the Sistine Chapel in Rome with its detail and variety of scenes! My photos hardly do it justice, but I did like the one here of all three kiddos at the altar. Unfortunately, MacKenzie--being her shy self--immediately moved out of line-of-sight of my camera after she realized I took this photo. Not sure why she has such an aversion to having her photo taken lately. Anyway, even though we're not Catholic, I really liked this photo.


After three castles in as many days, I think we're all looking forward to the slower-paced upcoming weekend (especially since I followed up the weekend with a day trip on Tuesday to Ramstein!). MacKenzie is cheerleading Saturday morning, but other than that we don't have much on our agenda...although that doesn't necessarily mean it will be a totally quiet and relaxing weekend, as I've come to discover of late. At least we'll be able to keep to our own schedule rather than having to marry up with ceremonies, tour times and bus departures. And, we won't have as many sets of stairs to climb going up and down the castles either! After this weekend, I really appreciate living on the first floor!

Labels: Benjamin, Germany, MacKenzie, Travel, Zachary

I figure since we're so far away from family and friends, this would be an easy way to keep everyone updated on what the clan is up to in Germany. David assures me it's fairly easy to create and manage a blog, so I'm taking his word for it. Since I take so many digital photos, I also figure this would be an easy way to share some of the images of the kiddos so you can see how much they're growing and what they're up to. So, here goes...

Labels: Pam's thoughts