Sunday, August 17, 2008

Hi, this is Carol now a guest blogger for our trip. I will update you on some highlights from my perspective since Sunday. We left Heidelberg and traveled to the beautiful little village of Alsford. It is the location of a Fairy Tale museum. The Brothers Grimm greeted us and told us about some of their favorite stories that they wrote. We saw a church where Martin Luther came to visit his friend who the Pastor. Dr. Luther was a mentor to the young priest of this church and they became good friends. This church was one of the first to change from Catholic to Lutheran after the Reformation. After walking around this village on a tour, suddenly Red Riding Hood appeared. Then the wolf came and next the hunter chasing the wolf. They ran down some streets with us chasing them, too. We came to a little area where they re-enacted the story of Little Red Riding Hood. After the wolf let Red and Grandma go, they invited us to a picnic lunch. Before leaving Alsford, Janet and I had geletto that was made to look like spaghetti. They put the ice cream through a spaghetti maker, add strawberry syrup for the sauce and grate white chocolate for the paremesan cheese. It was delicious.

Next we went to Trendleberg where Rapunzel was waiting for us in the castle tower. She showed us how she let down her hair and then took us inside the castle. The Trendleberg Castle is around 1,000 years old and has been updated for people to stay overnight. We stayed in a huge bridal suite, but I could detect the smell of mold when the room was closed up. We kept the windows open all day, but I was afraid of bats at night since there are no screens. I didn't want an additional guest in the room, especially not a bat. We've discovered that castles are not hooked up to the internet, nor do they have televisions or phones. It was okay for 2 nights. The hit of the castle for Caroline besides Rapunzel was the castle cat. I think she was there for the mouse hunting. Caroline said she was the long-lost relative of Peek-a-Boo.

Jaci's observations:
If I'm not sure what the food is, I refer to it as "schnitzel," and it's usually correct.
Castles are built for defense with walls around them. Palaces were built after castles and we used for the rich to show off the money.
Summer vacation is only six weeks long.
In Germany, German potato salad is NOT SERVED HOT! I asked our German tour guide and she said that it is always cold, contrary to how Americans prepare it.
A "WC" is a water closet - bathroom.
"Berg" refers to "castle of," so Trendleberg is the "Castle of Trendle."
Canopies over the beds were originally built to keep the bugs on the ceiling from falling on the sleeper.

Word of the day:
das Schloss
(Die schloss)
Castle