Schlosses Galore!

We said goodbye to our Prague apartment and caught a bus to Nurnburg, Germany. The kids were thinking school bus or Greyhound and were delighted when a two-story, land yacht of a bus pulled up in front of the station. We then transferred to a high-speed ICE train for the next leg of the trip to Cologne. The ICE trains are very modern and luxurious, yet affordable. They are so smooth and quiet that you don't realize how fast you are going until you pass cars on the freeway and they look like they're standing still--and they're on the Autobahn! .


















It was in Cologne that we met handsome 25 year old Dagobert--our blog's namesake. He's a character, to say the least. This was an internet romance so we had butterflies upon meeting him. Picture us in the Cologne train station parking lot waiting for a stranger, exchanging vast sums of Euros, and getting the operating instructions in broken English. That's only the prelude to jumping in a strange car and trying to navigate out of one of Europe's most crowded cities with an iPad app that we had never even tried out before. Marital bliss I say. I'm just glad I fed the kids a couple of McDoubles before we hit the road.

We were hoping there was camping on the Mosel river and took some back roads to get there. As we passed through a picturesque farming town I realized that we had no food for the next day. We swung into the only grocery store we could find, which turned out to be a canned foods warehouse type of outlet, at 5 minutes until closing. I grabbed a handful of edibles and raced to the checkout where I realized that I had only a few Euros left. I had to save some for camping so I put away the cookies. We managed to find a campground and a fitful nights sleep. There was no coffee the next morning as I didn't realize the stove needed a lighter but we managed and headed off to Burg Eltz, an outstanding castle.




Unfortunately, they were replacing the roof and siding and much of the outside was covered. That damn slate only lasts a few hundred years and then it's kaput! This castle is unique in that the same family has owned it since the 1500's and the interior is about as original as you can get. There were original tapestries, beds, a kitchen, suits of armor. We could write an entire book about this place, but suffice it to say that it was one of the most awe-inspiring things any of us have ever seen. Except Noelle, who really wanted to get back to that trampoline at the campground.