Hangin' With the Guys

Sunday was a rest day and we enjoyed hangin out with the boys at home. We went for a walk and Everett, Sunny and the boys rode their bikes. Then we played outside. Here Kevin is deep in thought about the next item he will build in his "workshop". He thens loads the items up in his carrying case (see box) and brings them to me to store in my shop.

Ethan was king. (here he is building a sailboat/house decoration)

However, he soon was overthrown by the new ruler! Ah-ha!

We cooked brats for dinner, which tasted a lot like the brats we eat at home, except we were eating them in Germany, so they were waaaay cooler.

Yes!! The purple bigfoot shirt made it to Europe!!

Everett and I took long walks every day to see the local area as we traveled. One of the paths near Keith's house had lots of apple trees. Yum!!

I think we are heading south tomorrow. That will give Keith and the boys a break and we can see another section of Germany.

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Lichtenstein Castle

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Today we drove up to Lichtenstein Castle.

We drove up the mountain and bought tickets to take a tour inside the living quarters.
Sunny, Ethan, me, Everett, Keith and Kevin
The inside was very cool. Everett and I really liked the armory. Lots of cool weapons and suits of armor. I think he has his blacksmithing plans made for the next 5 years, now.
We ate schnitzel at the cafe at the castle.

Then we took the boys to play on the playground, which was on the castle grounds.

Everybody played.
Everett is a hit with the boys. Ethan is permanently attached to him.
When we got back to the house, Everett and I walked into town and had ice cream then walked around the streets just checking out the houses and talking.
The boys told Everett he should shave that hair off his face. :>) They just don't know how cool an 'oatee really is.

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Holzgerlingen, Germany

We arrived at Keith's house late last night and stayed up even later visiting. This morning we got up to walk my two nephews, Ethan 6 and Kevin 8, in to school. The weather has turned colder and we are wearing jackets. AWESOME!!

For lunch we all went to the italian place right down the road and Everett and I ordered pepperoni pizza. In Germany this is what you get. A pizza with peppers on it and very salty and strong flavored fish. Interesting.

Everett and my brother Keith.

Ethan and Kevin.

Next, Sunny ( a friend who is living with Keith and his family) walked with us into town and showed us the bank and we stopped at a farmer's market.

The church right in town.

Their mascot is the bird. So, these sculptures are everywhere around the town.

Farmer's Market. The veggies and fruit are great.

There are so many breweries here that the choices are endless. I stopped at the little grocery store near Keith's house and picked up whatever beer had a cool looking label. It's cheaper than soda.

In the evening Everett went to the computer room with Keith, Kevin and Ethan and they all played video games together.

Ethan

Keith

Everett and Kevin

Sunny. She is a great cook and keeps up with the boys while MiNa is in South Korea for a while looking after her parents who are ill.

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Luxembourg Redeemed and on to Germany

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After hitting Luxembourg at "rush hour" yesterday, I was a bit concerned with the crowds we might find today when trundling through the city. We were happy to find that mid-morning was perfect for our adventure and we had a wonderful time!
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We had a nice breakfast at our hotel that was decorated in Ikea colors....white, yellow and blue. Then caught a bus into the center of the city, to the "old town" section. Luxembourg was basically one huge fortress with two large gorges. It's really pretty cool to see.

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First we stopped at the Dukes' Palace.




Then we walked over to the Notre-Dame Church. (which has been renamed like 5 times)

They are very serious about their organs here!

I think this was the sarcophagus of John the Blind, Count of Luxembourg and King of Bohemia?

Crypt of the Bishops and ducal family. (this crypt and the sarcophagus are both underneath the church, so you travel down a couple flight of stairs in to these chambers and they are the size of a church themselves)

Cool door.

One entrance to the cathedral.

Eye catching architecture.

After touring the cathedral we walked through a few really cool alley-ways and then entered the casemates, which is a series of tunnels that were created for defense of the fortress.

The tunnels were built in 1644 by the Spanish, then enlarged by the French and Austrians.

We had a great time exploring and Evertt thinks we need to build this system in our backyard. (I think they said there were 17km of tunnels left to explore!)

Next, we walked through the city and on to the train station to catch a train into Germany.

We stopped for sandwiches and pastries at the station in Trier, Germany. We had planned to head south to the Black Forest and into Switzerland, but decided to head on to my brother's house near Stuttgart, instead. We have not seen him in a few years and are anxious to spend some time visiting.

So, on to Mannheim, Stuttgart, Boblingen and the town where Keith lives. (can't remember the name, right now)

**Stuttgart train station

We arrived at the station near Keith's house and walked a short distance to his address. We are looking forward to chillin' with my nephews and catching up with Keith.

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South to Luxenbourg

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We loved Brugge so much we decided to stay another night.

Another yummy breakfast....even our butter is pretty. The same older gentleman stopped in for breakfast. You can tell he is a regular and we listened to him while eating and pretended to understand. :>)

We love this word. Plopsa just makes you smile.

We woke up very late and packed quickly after breakfast, then headed over to the train station to head south. I am so glad we got the first class tickets for the train. It is incredibly peaceful and we have much room.
The train ride from Brussels to Namur was cool, but the ride from Namur to Alon was AMAZING! This is known to be one of the most scenic routes in western europe and looking down upon the small villages, with stone houses surrounding their centrally place church, then passing through the beautiful hills and farms in the valleys, was a great highlight. I didn't even think about taking pictures, but it reminded me of the first view of the town in the movie Chocolate.
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There were a couple villages I wanted to stroll through, but Everett had passed out on the train (it is hard to stay awake with the gentle rocking motion and light background noise) and it seemed cruel to wake him. He did wake up before we hit Alon and we jumped off the train and had lunch in town and took a nice walk around the center.
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Doesn't the guy on the right remind you of......
This guy..................
You can always see the steeple of the local cathedral, but we were worried there would be a crowd when we saw all the cars around it.

Fortunately, we had the place to ourselves. Very quiet and quite impressive.

Check out the pipes on that organ!

After Alon, we took the train into Luxembourg. I did not realize the size of the city and we arrived here too late to feel comfortable moving on to a smaller town. So, we are in a hotel in Luxembourg and plan to hit the fortress, Dukes Palace and cathedral tomorrow, then get the heck out of here. Too many people and too french for us. (yes, there is poo on the sidewalks and yes, we miss all the bicycles)

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