Still walking around town we went into a church and saw beautiful stained glass windows. The unusual part is the shadows the windows made inside the church. Look
More pictures, they don’t all need comentary
I told her she was going to America. She gave me a big smile
Today we went on a walk of about 6 or 7 miles. It was beautiful. It took a lot longer than we thought it would because we kept finding things, besides walking, to do. Like picking blackberries.
we ended up with enough berries to give some away and still have berries for cereal for 3 days (then we found some more)
Here are some scenes from our walk to Bergoff.
an association with our country. 2 km from our farm, in Osweim, we saw this plaque. Small world.
Tomorrow we leave here for Copenhagen. We get a ride to Germany, remember just across the bridge in Echternach, 3 km away. There we take a bus to Trier, Germany. Then a train to Koln, Cologne to you, then another overnight train to Copenhagen, where we spend the night before boarding the Emerald Princess for our cruise toward home.
We have mixed feelings about getting nearer to the end of the European part of our journey. We have seen so much. Castles and churches and town walls and wonderful people. We hate for it to end, but on the other hand, we look forward to seeing Scotland and Ireland…..wait a minute, isn’t that still Europe? And then we go to Iceland and Greenland. Still, this train travel part is almost over. Some days we are looking forward to returning home, other days we would just love to keep on keeping on. I guess it depends on what time it is and how tired we are feeling.
Now that I have caught up on posting the next post will probably be from the ship. Sorry I got so far behind, but as you can see, we were busy.
France? you say. We did not know we were going to France. We set out to see views from the top of the alps but the weather, though not rainy, was overcast enough to limit your view. So we headed for France. It is amazing how close countries are to each other.
And again we were looking for castles. Found some….
and some churches that could be castles.
We could not believe what we saw right after we got into France
Yup, that is the back of a replica of our Statue of Liberty. We got it from France, so I guess it is OK for them to have kept a copy or more for themselves. There is one in Paris I am told.
At a stop light we were entertained by this guy
Riquewihr is another lovely town.
You entered the town through this tower which had a pointed wooden gate that was lifted via those wooden beams.
So, if the smelly moat didn’t deter you, the pointed gate would.
We ate tarte Flambee for lunch. It is like a pizza but with a crust as thin as a potato chip. It is a local favorite. We liked it, too.
Here is a picture of the scenery we passed through. That is one thing we just can’t convey, how green and beautiful the countryside is.
One of the most interesting things we learned has to do with the Danube. Here in France is the continental divide, like the ones we have in Colorado. The water on one side goes to the Black Sea and the water on the other side flows to the North Sea. All the water does this EXCEPT the water of the Danube.
The Danube starts right here in Donaueschinger, Germany at a spring in the castle there. See it behind the fence?
It was once thought that the source of the river was on the other side of the continental where it would empty into the Black Sea, which is where it does empty. Ordinarily if the river started in Donaeschinger it would empty into the North Sea since it is on the other side of the continental divide. So, what’s up?
The Danube starts in Donaeschinger and then disappears underground and comes back to the surface on the other side of the continental divide so that it empties into the Black Sea. They were able to verify this in the 1930’s when they put some dye into the water at the spring and it showed up in the Danube. Isn’t that interesting?
To another subject, we have never seen a dog that looks like this, like a tiger.
but we have been living with a dog, Collin, who looks like a lion
And finally, I just love this picture
Arleen stayed back at the house to work on the pictures and find a place for us to go when we left Germany in 2 days.
Duane went with Bill, Eileen and Kai to Heidelberg (with Arleen’s camera).
In Germany, most older cities have a castle or palace that served as the residence of a prince or a duke. Many of Germany’s castles were destroyed in WW II because they were in the industrial regions and therefore had to either be restored or abandoned.
Heidelberg was different in that it had no war related industries which would have been targets of Allied bombings. Therefore, Heidelberg Castle has remained as is without being restored.
To enter the castle you had to pass under a gate with a coat of arms above it. The Heidelberg coat of arms included two lions.
Once inside, there was a large main square with buildings on all sides.
These are some pictures of the palace in the castle.
It may sound strange for stone buildings to burn, but fire was also a major cause of destruction of castles. This castle had one wing that was destroyed by fire and this is what was left.
The palace is on the left and the destroyed parts are out of sight. In the center of the courtyard were the gardens.
In order to maintain the palace and castle, the lord of the manor collected tithe from all of the farmers he protected. He would take a tenth of everything that was produced on his land. That included wine. The square hole in the floor opens up so that the winemakers can pour their wine down into a huge barrel underneath. We couldn’t help but wonder what you got when you mixed all those wines together. 
And, of course, we saw another castle on the way back to Kai’s home.
