Maddy's visit, part 3

On Saturday I wanted Maddy to try one of the best things about Germany - fresh rolls from the bakery. I let her sleep in and went and got a bunch of different varieties. Then I went to Aldi to get stuff to put on them. I even splurged and got cream cheese and smoked trout (I was the only one who liked that. Well, me and the cat.)

They enjoyed their rolls the normal way, with cheese and salami. Then I made a few more sandwiches for the road and told Maddy we would have a full day ahead of us.

My man had too much schoolwork to prepare to accompany us so we took off for the castle on our own. Again I tried to get a ride on the chair lift to the castle, but again it was closed. I give up.

I know Schlossburg pretty well now because it was my 3rd visit.

We really enjoyed the wall paintings of horses. This painting caught our attention because of the terribly impractical pipes and the funny looking people. Actually there are a lot of really great paintings like this in there, telling stories in vivid detail.

About the knights' armor, Maddy said, "Imagine the rash or sores you'd have after wearing metal clothing all day , not to mention fighting in it!

This is where Maddy dropped a penny and it fell in between the floorboards so you can see it, but not retrieve it. I said I'd check for it on future visits. Look at the bedroom scene - there is a brass bed warmer device that supposedly you put coals in. I don't understand how that doesn't ruin your sheets (it had little holes).

I like the "Former wildlife of Germany" section featuring elk, bear, and wolf. What a pity, the wild boar is the only scary thing out there at night.

On our way to the lookout tower we saw the archery slits in the walls, saw the little hole in the wall which was the way toilets worked back then - you just let your business fall several stories to the street below. Imagine the smell of that place back then.

It was a very windy day so it was thrilling to be up in the tower.

I thought well it's been here since the 12th century, it won't fall now.

We checked out the torture chamber/cells for punishing thieves and such. This place is pitch black and you can't see anything until you take a flash photo. I thought they could have done a better job with the fake blood on the walls.

Maddy got into the stocks for a photo.

Leaving the castle. I like pictures of people taking pictures.


***

Since we did the castle tour in record time, I knew my husband wouldn't be done yet, so we went to Muenstener Bruecke too. That's the big railway bridge with a park underneath.

Maddy enjoyed the riddles, trying her best to solve them. After a while I realized no train was gonna cross over - it is being renovated now.

That's good, it was always freaky to see how much the train slowed down on this bridge because of safety concerns.











Standing directly under the center of the bridge.

***

Finally we went home and I fried up some Reibkuchen (potato fritters) for lunch.

We got my man and all headed south to the great city of Cologne. The cathedral was spectacular, even in early evening, and we went in and discovered it was really cold in there, and dark! I'd never been there in winter, it was colder than outside, despite several hundred candles burning. There was no way to get a good picture of the stained glass windows, *sigh*.

We tried to check out the fancy graves (each grave has a separate ornate room), but these red robed priests were shooing the tourists out for a service. I thought how utterly cool it would be to manage to break into the storage area behind the underground bishop graves, and crawl around in all the old junk. Unfortunately the iron bars were locked up tight.

As Maddy was lighting a prayer candle, I saw a guy with a big bag of Dunkin Donuts (you can see it in the photo). I was like "Omygosh I wonder if he's from Berlin, or if there's a Dunkin Donuts around here." So we headed to the main train station across the Platz. Outside the doorway to the station was a large group of tall people. At first I didn't notice, but Maddy said, "Look at how TALL these people are!" and I said, "Well they must be Dutch cuz Germans don't come that big."

Then I got a good look at them. They were all unbelievably tall, like basketball players, but they didn't look like athletes. I stared. I noticed other people staring and hurriedly passing by. I heard them speaking German. Well, I guess I was wrong about that. In this photo you can see a normal sized lady passing by them.

We went in and tried to find a Dunkin Donuts but there was none. Oh well. We came out and found ourselves next to that group of tall people again. We stood there watching them as they passed liquor around amongst themselves. One huge man had a plastic jug full of eggnog or something, another huge man had a box full of tiny liquor bottles, and another had champagne and little plastic cups. They all seemed to be celebrating. I tried to eavesdrop. Maddy was in a paroxysm of curiosity. "ASK THEM!" she told me, "Is it a tall people club!?"

Then we had to pass through them, for some reason, and suddenly these tall people surrounded us and I will never forget it - one man was so tall that my face came up to his waist. We were beside ourselves with wonder, clutching each other, "OMGOSH," she said, "My face came up to his belt buckle!" It was an uncomfortable feeling, being so small, like being a child again. My husband had really had enough of our staring and freaking out, but we just couldn't leave. We went up on some steps and looked down at them and saw all the "tiny people" passing by them. Finally we saw a couple of them holding signs that translated "tall-people.de" and we saw a WDR TV camera interviewing them for their tallness.

It was such an odd experience, we couldn't stop talking about it.

***

Here's Maddy on one of the Rhein river bridges that has locks all over the entire length of it. The locks have couples' names on them, professions of love. (I had to brighten this photo cuz it was too dark out for no flash.)

I found a really big lock. It must belong to one of those tall people.

After a long day we went to our local famous pancake house, a traditional German restaurant that serves crepe-like pancakes full of gravy, meat, veggies, cheese, whatever you like. This is one of the few places in Germany where you need to ask for a doggie bag.

Then we were pretty tired but I found myself in on Maddy's bed watching Charmed and she joined me. I told her she has Piper's hair - you know the hairstyle with straight bangs that come right down to one's eyes, almost touching the eyeballs? When Maddy blinks, her bangs bob up and down, just like Piper. It's very cute.

To be continued..