Castles

What would a trip to Germany be without castles? While we didn't get to Neuschwanstein, we did see some cool places.

Meersburg, on the Bodensee

Bacharach-Rheingau

Random castles

Seriously. There are random castles all over the place. Drive on the autobahn to someplace and I guarantee you will pass by at least one castle on a hill before your destination.

It just illustrates how important Germany in general has been over the years and also how difficult it was to hold various spots; each castle, however close-seeming, protected a specific kingdom.

Der Bodensee

Otherwise known as Lake Constance.

This is the largest (I think) lake in Germany, located in the most

southwest part of the country, where it borders Switzerland and

Austria. Italy is down there, too, and France is just a bit northwest. All in all, it's close to a lot of other countries (within a couple hours, at most, I'd guess).

Jan's parents retired to Ueberlingen, one of the towns on the north side of the la

ke. They have a lovely apartment with great lake views:

The town of Ueberlingen is lovely. It has a great promenade/boardwalk along the lake with many restaurants with outdoor seating.

This was our favorite spot. Apparently Jan's parents also like this place; too bad we didn't get to enjoy it with them.

The beginning

Why do we keep going back to Germany? This was the third time in six years. Well, our dear friend Jan lives there, and we miss him. We also love Germany. And traveling. And each other. So when we realized, after months of talking about where to go for vacation this summer, that we just wanted to go back to Germany, we looked at our finances and our child care opportunities and made it work (thanks, Tim Gunn!).

What really made it work is that we had generous relatives to watch Oliver and free places to stay once we were there. Without either of those, we would not have been able to go.

So again let us thank those who enabled us to take this great trip, about which we will be thinking and talking for a long time to come.

Your bonus pic: This is inside the castle in Meersburg.

Our Germany trip

I've been trying to figure out a way to 1) show those who want to see them our many pictures of our trip, and 2) convey a sense of what it was like.

Should I group photos/posts by day? By place? By experience (food, drink, castles, water, etc)? Maybe all of the above?

While I ponder this, here are a few pics to hold you over.

This is the cathedral in Freiburg. Very Gothic, as you can see. Great gargoyles and flying buttresses. I'll do a post just on this one for sure.

This is called Imperia; it's in Konstanz, Germany, and "... refers to a short story by Balzac, La belle Impéria. The story is a harsh satire of the Catholic clergys' morals, where Imperia seduces cardinals and princes at the Council of Constance and has power over them all" (Wikipedia). It was made by Peter Lenk and erected in 1993 to commemorate the Council of Constance that took place there between 1414 and 1418. The figure is a prostitute who is holding the king in her right hand and the pope in her left.