Saturday, May 31, 2008

Three Amigos in Deutschland

Well, this is well over due, but I have a good excuse. After complaining about Bill Gates for the last 20 years and fighting with my windows computer for the last few weeks, I finally bought a new iMac and finally have everything moved over to my new computer. So, with a not so fond fairwell to Microsoft and Bill, I am finally able to access my pictures from the last month. New pics are on flickr if you care (if you can't see them, sign up for an account and email me so I can add you as a contact).

Three of my good friends Casey, Satch and Tim (names in alphabetical order) came to visit in April. It was good timing because Jami was on a business trip back to the states so I didn't have to sit at home alone. We had a great time, it was really good to see some friends. We did the obligatory tour of Heidelberg the first day.
We decided to take a tour of Würzburg on day 2. The Fortress Marienberg is the castle on a hill across the Old Main Bridge, overlooking the whole town area as well as the surrounding hills. Würzburg's Old Main Bridge was built in 1473–1543 to replace the destroyed Romanesque bridge. It was adorned with well-known statues of saints about 1730.It rained like crazy the next day, so we took it easy and toured one of the local wineries and our local castle, Starkenburg.
Casey treated us to dinner at an awesome restaurent near Frankfurt that is in an old castle/mansion. The food was incredible and it was a great experience. Be sure to ask Casey about the French cheese tray if you happen to know him. I still laugh when I think about it. Tim, Satch and I ordered the chocolate dessert. Casey decided to go for the cheese tray. When they opened the lid to the tray, we all almost fell over from the smell, which was a lot like dirty gym socks. It was fun watching Casey try to pick out the least repulsive cheeses from the assortment to try. Needless to say, he should have gone with the chocolate.

We went to a castle that Jami and I have never been to before, Burg Elz. Burg Eltz is a medieval castle nestled in the hills above the Moselle River between Koblenz and Trier, Germany. It is still owned by a branch of the same family that lived there in the 12th century, 33 generations ago. The Rübenach and Rodendorf families' homes in the castle are open to the public, while the Kempenich branch of the family uses the other third of the castle. It is one of the best preserved castles I have seen in Germany.


We had dinner at Mainz on our way home at my favorite restaurant in Mainz. Der Specht has been a restaurant since the 1500s.
It was a nice visit, just too short. Hope to see you guys again soon!

2 comments:

Sarah said...

Welcome, Steve! The world of Macintosh is a beautiful place!!

Eric G said...

So it's been nearly 2 months since your last post... Have you guys run out of things to do???

Hope all is well!

Eric G.