July 11, 2019
We said goodbye to our family and drove to Pearson Airport in Toronto. Dad got us passes to get into the lounge where we got a great buffet lunch and we could watch the planes take off and land up close. We flew out on Condor airlines, flight 2403 at 7:50 pm. The flight was very quick, seats were comfortable and it had great snacks! I had the window seat with my mom beside me, across the isle was Liam Brendan and my dad.
We all fell asleep, except for my mom. We arrived in Frankfurt and it was about 9:45 am. Picked up our bags and got our rental van. The van is really comfortable and I like that there is lots of space for each of us.
We drove to Decathalon store where my mom and dad bought us blow-up mattresses to sleep on in our tent. Then we drove to Neckarmund – and we are camping beside the Neckar river. Every few hours a big barge runs up and down carrying sand and gravel. People use the river for cruises as well.
We set up camp and went out for dinner – we thought we were really hungry, but when it came it was toooo much! My dad had sausages made into noodles and fries and my mom had pork chops, potatoes and bacon. My brothers had soup and I had come of everyone’s food! It was very good, but there was so much food!!!
We went back to our tent and we were exhausted, we all went to be early! In the night, the was a huge lightening and thunder storm! But our tent stayed dry.
July 12,2019
This morning we got up and it was raining a lot. Had cereal for breakfast. I felt really good this morning, the birds were chirping so loudly and it was beautiful to hear. The scenery was beautiful and there are so many different types of trees here. There was mist along the top of the river and it was beautiful.
We went to visit the Citadel of Dilsberg. It is an old walled castle on a hill near to where we are staying. The Castle was built in 1208. We were able to explore the old ruins and we discovered that the people in the town who took the bricks to build their houses ruined the castle! We climbed up a huge tower and were able to see the whole valley below. We also spotted another castle across the valley. In the center of the castle there was a very deep well. We discovered a secret tunnel that was dug in the 1600’s that went under the mountain, it was built as a ventilation shaft in order to deepen the well. It was very interesting how it was dug and you could see all of the carving marks. I was a little scared, my Dad and Brendan were being silly and trying to scare me.
After lunch, we drove across the valley to find the castles that we had seen. We found many beautiful castles. The first was called The Hinterberg. It was built by Gerhard von Schauenburg in the 1200’s. It was ruined in 1630 during the Thirty Year’s war. That castle had a dark stairwell that was scary to walk up inside.
The next castle was the one that we spotted earlier in the day. It was called Castle Schadeck “The swallows nest” It was a tall beautiful castle that was built in 1335 by Archbishop Balduin of Trier. It was built to collect tolls from the boats on the river. The hike over to the castle was through huge beech trees that were hundreds of years old. The castle tower had a scary wooden staircase and it was raining and was very slippery!
What an incredible start to our trip!
Tia and Mari
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