February 8th, 2016
While Anna was visiting us, we wanted to share our everyday life around our village and also play tourist. Thankfully, she is both adventurous and easy going which turned out to be a great combination when you are new to a city yourself. E had school during the day, so S and I became her tour guides. We walked around our village and ventured further out as well. Anna even helped us learn a few new sites. Thanks to Anna, we now know where the butcher is!
On Wednesday, we drove to Landstuhl to tour the Nanstein Castle. According to Wikipedia, Nanstein Burg originally dates back to around the year 1162. Emperor Frederick I demanded its construction as additional defense for the Palatinate. A portion of the castle was eventually inherited by a German Knight, Franz Von Sickingen, in 1504. He acquired the entire castle in 1518. Its crazy to see places so rich in history!
When we arrived, a group was just leaving. As we walked up, the rain started but we came prepared with rain jackets and our sunshine umbrella. Other than one other tourist and the ticket man, I think we had the castle to ourselves. This gave us the freedom to roam wherever our four year old wanted to explore. Perfect!
When we left the castle that afternoon, it started to snow. We hit a Stau (traffic jam) on the Autobahn. Thankfully, it cleared quickly and we headed home. I dropped Anna and S off at our house and drove to E’s school to pick him up. Here’s a picture of the scenery on the way to his school…
On Thursday, we met up with Cassie, our mutual friend from back home. Cassie was part of the High School youth group at our church when hubby and I were volunteer leaders, back in the day. She has since graduated, gotten married to a pilot and has lived in Germany for a year now. It felt very surreal to hang out at our favorite coffee shop with Cassie and Anna…HERE…in Germany! Surreal yet sweet. I loved catching up as the hours slipped by.
On Friday, we headed to downtown Kaiserslautern. After we figured out the parking ticket machine, we strolled down the streets. The official city symbol of Kaiserslautern is the carp which makes appearances all throughout the city. S was motivated to keep his little legs moving by finding pictures of fish in the streets. He also found a map of the city that he used to show us where we were. Before we knew it, we needed to head home, pick up E from school and take Anna to the train station. Sad…
The more we learn about our surroundings, the better we are going to get at this tour guide gig! Would you like to sign up for one of our tours? You can get the Bed & Breakfast package deal that Anna took advantage of. Our rates can’t be beat and our schedule is pretty open right now. Just let us know! =)
