We were home for another whole week, which was pretty quiet, followed by a busy weekend. It’s still been pretty chilly here, and although we’ve had some cloudy days, it’s been mostly sunny with no rain! Very strange for Germany in the Spring! The pollen is piled up everywhere in thick layers, and we are all suffering at various levels.
The rapeseed fields have been starting to bloom over the last two weeks. I have wanted to get family photos in the golden fields since we moved here. Still, busy weekends and questionable weather were starting to make it look like we would miss another opportunity this year.
On Wednesday afternoon, it was cloudy, but no one had activities in the evening, so we packed up the camera and tripod and drove out to Grafenau, where there are many golden fields. We drove around a bit, looking for a good spot before settling on one. While we waited for Matt to get the camera and tripod set up, the sun made a miraculous, brief appearance, and we got the lighting we wanted, too! The pictures turned out great despite being such a last-minute idea!
Friday was my day off, and I started it by meeting a friend for coffee at Kevin Kugel’s Chocolate Shop. After our coffee and pastries, we tried out their new drink, a choco-spritz, which is flavored with cacao syrup- so good!
After Kevin Kugel’s, I got the dogs situated at home and set off on my own adventure. I’ve been trying to cross as many items off my Germany “to-do list” as possible and using my Fridays off to complete the items I know would bore the kids.
This Friday, I started with Mosbach, a town about an hour and a half north of us in the Northern part of our state, about halfway between Stuttgart and Heidelberg. The drive there was the best part as it wound along the Neckar River and the ‘Burgenstrasse,’ or ‘Castle Road.’ I didn’t even know Baden-Württemburg had a Castle Road. It was very similar to the more famous one along the Rhine River, with several castles, monasteries, and abbeys only a few miles apart up and down the river.
Mosbach is part of the ‘Fachwerkstrasse,’ a network of preserved half-timber towns. When I arrived, I grabbed a coffee and walked around the town, which was setting up for its own Springfesr. It was cute but reminded me of Sindelfingen, another Fachwerk town, only about 15 minutes from our house. If I didn’t have other places I wanted to visit in the area, I would not make a trip here just for that. Thank goodness I did not have Matt and the kids in tow, or I would have been in trouble for picking such a ‘boring’ destination. 😉
After I left Mosbach, I made a brief stop at Ehrenberg Castle. The castle itself is just a ruin, but it has beautiful views over the Neckar River below.
The final stop of my day was Bad Wimpfen. This was definitely the highlight and a place I would return to with Matt and the kids. It’s a medieval walled city perched high on a cliff above the river below. Its main attraction is the Blue Tower, an old watch tower within the city walls. Currently, the tower has one resident, a woman in her 70s, who lives in an apartment at the top. There’s no elevator, and she takes the steps up and down. On some days, she opens the tower and allows visitors to climb to the viewing platform on the top. We will have to come back another day to do the climb.
Friday night, we met a friend, visiting from Wiesbaden at Schlossgarten Biergarten in downtown Stuttgart.
Saturday was the final home game of the softball and baseball seasons. Unfortunately, both teams lost both games against their biggest rival, Ramstein High. It was a beautiful day in the sun, though, and we loved being outside and watching our kids play.
On Saturday night, Brooklyn and her friends dressed up and went to Frühlingsfest while the rest of us recuperated at home.
Sunday was Mother’s Day, and I requested a full day of adventures in Alsace, France, without any complaining, and it was wonderful! All the places I wanted to visit were within a few minutes of Sélestat, most of which were on the side of Koenigsbourg Mountain. We left early in the morning and made the two-hour drive west.
We started at the top of the mountain at Chateau du Haut Koenigsbourg. We parked slightly downhill and hiked the rest of the way up.
Alsace is a strip of land west of the Rhine River that has been heavily disputed between France and Germany for centuries. The Chateau was originally French and was built in the 1500s. In 1677, it was burnt to the ground in a battle with the Swedish (who knew they came this far south?). It was left in ruins until 1871 when Alsace was ceded to Germany following the end of the Franco-Prussian War. In the early 1900s, Kaiser Wilhelm decided to reconstruct the chateau and make it into a museum, and it was reopened in 1908. After the end of World War I, Alsace was ceded back to France, and the castle has remained French property since.
We took a tour of the castle, which is now furnished in the medieval style and gives a good idea of what life would have been like perched on this cliff. Then, we had lunch in the castle cafe before moving on.
Next on the itinerary was Montagne des Singes, or ‘Monkey Mountain,’ a barbary ape sanctuary down the mountain from the Chateau. This park was very similar to the one just across the river in Germany, which we visited two years ago on my birthday. But there definitely seemed to be way more apes and way more activity, with the apes all running and playing with each other. It was so cute. We walked through the park and then headed to the next destination.
The next stop was Volerie des Aigles, or ‘Birds of Prey, ‘ which is a wild bird sanctuary that offers several shows each day featuring its menagerie of birds.
We timed it perfectly to catch the show, which featured several eagles, owls, falcons, and vultures. The trained birds flew and swooped over the audience while a naturalist taught about each bird. I’m making this sound like a boring class, but it was actually really cool!
Our next stop was Sélestat, a cute half-timbered village. We had ice cream and then walked around the town center.
The final stop of the day, and perhaps the highlight, was dinner at Buffalo Grill. Buffalo Grill is a French chain restaurant that we have driven past in almost every city in France we’ve been through. It was founded in the 1980s, and the theme is American Roadhouse. Needless to say, we were anxious to get a French take on that style. 😅
We ordered something from just about every part of the menu: steaks, ribs, and barbeque. It was so good, and the spritzes they served made it even better. It was a great dinner!
It had been a very long day at that point, and we started home. We were all so tired that we actually had to stop for about ten minutes and take a nap in the car; we were so drowsy driving home! We made it, though, in the end and were ready for the week ahead!
Links:
Chateaux du Haut Konigsbourg: https://www.haut-koenigsbourg.fr/amp/1062/en/
Volerie des Aigles: https://www.voleriedesaigles.com/en
Montange Des Singes: https://www.montagnedessinges.com/en/
Gilcrests Abroad 