View from the room at the Worst Western
Towel Jane burnt on her lamp.
It was an ELEVEN RUIN DAY! A personal best. We climbed 4 of them, did drive-by shootings on several others, some were in better shape than others, but I swear they were all ruint when we got there.
We got up in the morning. just in time for the elevator workers to start making an ungodly noise - glad we didn't plan to sleep in or anything - and went to breakfast on the 19th floor. There was only one other person there. It was a pretty typical German breakfast buffet - good bread, lunch meats, cheeses, joghurt, muesli, hard-boiled eggs, but also there were American-style breakfast foods such as real bacon, sausages and jumbled eggs.
Packed up and went to the front desk to check out. Told them about the broken shower and the inability to reach anyone. We didn't even get a flippin' apology! Best Western heads are going to roll.
We threw our junk in the car and walked over to the German Museum of Gems and Minerals. It was fantastic! There was a lot of interesting info about the gem cutting industry which made I-O what it is today, plus room after room of beautiful gem and mineral specimens and also incredible things made of stone - sculptures of birds, bowls, cameos and, of course, jewelry. We watched a movie about the South African diamond mining industry, too.
We finally made it to the gift shop where Jane picked out a pair of earrings for herself and a red jasper cat figurine for her neighbors. I found an area that looked like a beading table - a bead board, strands of beads, stringing materials, etc. There were prices on the strands of beads, and that would be the perfect souvenir for me - not a finished necklace, but something I could make myself. I chose a strand of black & white agate and a cool wire bead made of sterling. We were told we had to wait for the bead stringing colleague to come. She finally got there, and she wanted to cut the beads apart and string them for me! We had a hell of a time convincing her otherwise. It was interesting to me that the only stringing material on her table was fishing line, and you had to pay 5E (about $7.50) for her to string your beads.
We left the museum and drove down to the pedestrian area at the other end of town. We parked in a parking garage and as soon as we walked out, I fell down. Just tripped and boom, I'm down on my hands and knees with a skinned knee and burning palms. It was a re-enactment of last summer, thankfully without a broken arm. We didn't get it on film, either.
We climbed up to the Felsen Kirche (Church in the Rocks). While we are both used to climbing and walking, we were having a hard time - it was so so hot. We made it up to the church, where the cashier gave us a €0.50 discount for being Americans. Go figure. We shoulda been penalized. The church is very small and pretty, with a natural spring, which bubbles up in an alcove. There is a myth about the church that two royal brothers, who lived in the castle above, were fighting over the same woman. One brother pushed the other out of the castle window, and was so guilt stricken that he carved a niche with his own hands into the rocks where his brother met his death, and built a church there. Good story but completely bogus, and if you believe it you are bogus too.
We left the church and continued our climb up to the large castle ruin (Neues Schloss). It is quite large and a great deal of it has been restored. From the town you can see that a large portion of it is still under reconstruction and covered with a blue tarp. There is a nice little restaurant there, owned by our friends from the Zum alten Goten. The owner was there, the man who took care of Pat and me and the kids 8 years ago, and his wife had told him about Jane and me the day before. We ordered a couple of huge Radlers to cool off. The owner told us about his other restaurant - how it is only 60 years younger than the castle!
We still had our wits about us and didn't want to overeat (we still had another castle ruin to climb up to) so we asked if we could order one thing and share it. Not only did he agree, but he also prepared two separate salads for us, and had the chef (who he contacted by cell phone on another floor) halve our meal and put it on 2 plates. We had a delicious Schnitzel in cream sauce with Pommes. And 2 more Radlers. It was exactly enough food for us.
After we ate, the owner took us over to the castle, handed us the key and let us loose! It was very cool. The castle had been restored, even down to the furniture. The restored section is quite small so we were not in there very long. There was even the "bathroom," which in castles consisted of a seat with a hole in it, which extended beyond the castle walls. Later we told the owner we had used the bathroom while we were up there - he said he hoped we didn't catch cold.
When we came down the owner showed us the area where there is the grill for the Spiessbraten, and an oven they still use for bread. We had been puzzled about the "spiess" part - Jane says it means "stick," but I thought maybe it meant more like a "spit" like a pig roasted on a spit. Then it turned out that the meat is cooked on huge hanging basket-looking grills. The owner explained that when the Spiessbraten was first made, it was made on a forked stick! So that explains it. It is a true local delicacy, like stuffed ham in St. Mary's County or Calabash seafood in Pawley's Island.
We got back on the path and walked over to the next hill where there is yet another ruin (Altes Schloss). Not much to look at there, but a good view and another ruin to put in our book. We climbed back down to town, ready to leave as we had a long drive back. We stopped at Zum altenGoten to say goodbye to the wife-owner.
We mapped out a slightly different route back, mostly through a lot of little pretty villages. We saw a few ruins on the way through, but didn't stop. We took only one wrong turn and quickly fixed that. After we passed Burg Ruine Hardenberg we knew we needed to start looking for Ruine Limberg. For something so large that it rises well above the top of the mountain, we had a heck of a time finding it, driving up a series of switchbacks. When it was finally revealed it was breathtaking - a former castle, then a monastery, it dates to 950 AD. It was first a castle for the royal family, but when one of the children died of malaria in Italy the king had the castle made into a church and monastery. We got some super pictures there.
We got back on the road, finally made it to the Autobahn. Along the Autobahn we saw numerous castle ruins. Jane was driving 170 kilometers per hour, and there were cars in the left lane that passed us in a blur.
Got home, warmed up the Schupfnudeln and Jane made us mixed-berry frozen margaritas. We called and called, but could not find G, even though the neighbor said he'd been around earlier. We watched Cliff Richard on Dame Edna and went to bed. Still no G.
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