25Apr2009: Day 334: Castles in Germany

We got another free breakfast at this hotel in Frankfurt but Makenna ate nothing – a couple bites of cereal. When we got to the car to leave for our sight-seeing, that’s when she decided she wanted to eat. I ran back in and got a cup full of Sugar Smacks. I can’t believe those still exist!

We started off at Schwetzingen Palace and Gardens which was 45 minutes south of Frankfurt. We got there in time for an 11am tour but it was in German. We agreed to do this tour as the first English speaking tour was at 2pm and we didn’t want to wait until then as we wanted to go on to other places.

Let me mention that as soon as we got out of the car to walk to this place, I sprained my stupid left ankle…again. This was the second time in three days. I did it back in Innsbruck but not as bad as today. I have no idea if I tripped on a bee or if a ladybug pushed me down or what! I really thought I was going to be out of commission but I just used the pushcart as a crutch and kept walking on it. It seems to help if I just push through the pain and don’t sit and let it swell up. This is a bum ankle that I’ve sprained way too many times and Chris wants me to get it “fixed” when we get home. The orthopaedist back in the states said I’ve just stretched my ligaments out too much and that’s why it’s weak.

Okay back to today. So off we went on our German speaking tour. Luckily the tour guide handed us a laminated explanation of the rooms. It was brief compared to what he seemed to be saying but we got the gist. The original palace that was here was destroyed in the 30 Years War and was rebuilt starting in 1656. It was somewhat destroyed again in another war and rebuilt by another guy who added some more to it. In 1731 it was expanded even more by the new guy living their and used as a hunting lodge from May to October. The gardens also became more of the main focus more so than the palace.

One of the owners who was an Elector (one of seven families who was responsible for electing the emperor) was married to his cousin who he was betrothed to when they were very young. She was older by four or five years and demanded respect from her husband. He basically did anything she said in order to keep the peace (hmmm). She eventually took on other lovers and left her husband and he found someone better.

The rooms themselves were okay. They didn’t have really anything spectacular or ornate and there were no “wow” ceiling paintings or anything. We weren’t allowed to take pictures but I did sneak one of this chandelier like thing that was in most of the rooms as I found it quite unappealing. Not something I would have in my rooms.

One description we read was of how the women of the time would paint themselves white and actually add blue to enhance the veins in their neck. This was to distinguish them more from the labourers who were tanned. One of the rooms was a powder room for the women’s wigs and they would use bellows to puff up and powder the wigs.

We did decide to walk a bit in the gardens as they were really nice. There were a lot of nice fountains and flowers. In fact, the grounds had a lot of huge lilac bushes which smelled awesome.

Makenna was pretty well behaved in this castle. She didn’t wander too far from us and she was more interested in the papers we were given, or the book on the place that we had bought. At one point, she kept going into my pocket or Chris’s pockets to pull things out. He had our passports in his back pocket and she kept pulling them out then looking at one and handing it to me. I would then put it back in his pocket and this cycle continued repeatedly until she got bored. I don’t think she noticed me putting them back in Chris’s pocket and thought it was an endless supply. In the gardens she started picking up rocks (another new thing she keeps doing this week,) and wanting to throw them into the water. We let her throw a couple into the fountain. There was one duck in one of the fountains and it almost ate out of our hands. Makenna thought it was funny how close it got to her. Out on the grounds she wanted to run away from us more and since we were on a tight schedule of sorts and I had the bum ankle, we put her in the cart and she fell asleep pretty quick as we continued to walk on.

We walked to the Mosque on the grounds and went inside, but there was nothing too outstanding about this building. It says that it’s not a reflection of any particular denomination but for all to worship as they wish. We walked back towards the house hoping to see the palace theatre but we couldn’t find the right building and we ended up stopping in the lapidarium which is basically a room with a lot of statues and sculptures. The doors were actually closed to the room so we just looked through the doors. We then left and headed off to another castle which was about an hour and half away in Braubach.

We stopped at a gas station and Chris went in and decided to buy a couple of Frankfurters. Got eat one while in Frankfurt! They were actually pretty good and what shocked us even more is that Makenna ate some. She tried a bite without much hesitation and no coercion what so ever and then wanted more. I’m not too hip on hot dogs as a main staple of food as they are usually very fattening and unhealthy but the fact that she ate it without thinking twice about it was shocking.

Marksburg, is one of 40 or so castles found along the Rhine river. This castle is unique in that it’s over 700 years old and has never been destroyed and rebuilt as the other castles have. That being the case, it’s not as ornate or richly decorated as the others are (according to what the pamphlet says). We got here just in time for a 4pm tour, again, in German. We got a paper from the gift shop that gave us a brief explanation of what we’d see on the tour.

We almost missed the tour as we saw a little train ride that we thought would take us up to the castle and we hopped on. It immediately started taking us downhill. We quickly got the driver’s attention and hopped out and walked back up the hill and then up the steps to the castle. This was no where as near as bad as the other day when we had to go up a hill to the castles. It could’ve been if we parked at the bottom of the hill.

This was more of an older castle and had a lot of uneven terrain and steps made right out of the bedrock – just my luck with my ankle. I went pretty slowly and Chris was basically in charge of Makenna. The castle was on top of a peak and the keep was inaccessible as you needed a 30 foot ladder to get up into it which is good if the castle was under siege.

The one bedroom that we saw had wood panelling and was the only room with a stove in it. It had a little chapel area where there were paintings directly on the rock of the castle. They also had a room with different armour dating back to 600 BC! It showed a range of armour from that time up to 1400 AD (I think).

Makenna was fairly well behaved in here too. She tried going off on her own a few times but we had told her before the tour started that if she was a good girl during the tour that she could have ice cream after. She had seen some before the tour started and we decided to use this as leverage to our advantage (okay bribery). She was again interested in picking up all the rocks she could and throwing them here or there. Since we couldn’t understand the tour guide we just basically let her wander within reason as long as she was near us and near the tour. She got her ice cream.

We left and headed off to Brussels – our last stop before heading home tomorrow. We thought we’d eat “light” tonight and went to Burger King. I know, this is pretty bad food fare for us but I like it ten times better than McDonald's and we needed something quick in order not to get to our hotel too late. Makenna was quite upset that she didn’t have more chicken bites than what we had bought (which was 6 nuggets!) We got her to eat some potato wedges and that seemed to calm her down. Then we finished our trip and got to Brussels between 8-9pm.