The Road Less Travelled...Again and Again
Today we picked up a car from the airport and ventured out into the German countryside. I should have know what this trip was going to be like when we struggled with getting out of the parking garage. We made it out of Frankfurt and proceeded in a somewhat southerly direction towards our first stop. It didn’t take long to be driving through open fields and seeing how green and peaceful it is outside of the city. The Mespelbrunn Castle is only about an hour from Frankfurt and right next to a small village. We drove through the town and ended going up a dirt road into the woods. It was a little confusing why we didn’t see anyone else on the road until right by the castle we saw some people walking and giving us some weird looks. We then came to a gate that was easily opened, but showed there was a normal paved road that came right up to the castle in the middle of the town. Regardless we made our way to this neat little castle that had a pond/moat. The walking tour was in German and so I stuck around for a few minutes and then made my way out to walk around the grounds. There were some unique parts of the castle such as genealogy in the stained glass windows that I hadn’t seen before.
The next stop was the very impressive Heidelberg Castle. This is a much larger building that sits up on the side of a mountain looking down on the picturesque town of Heidelberg. We thought we were supposed to go up this Bergbahn to see it, but quickly realized again that this was not the right way and had to take it right back down. We walked around the courtyard, went inside one part and saw a gigantic barrel, had lunch at a cafe in the castle (brats and pretzel for me of course) and then made our way out to the car and the rest of the way to our last destination of the day - Strasbourg, France. We stayed in a place not too far from the cathedral (which I will talk about more in a moment). My room had a little bed looking at three small mirrors each with a word - “you”, “will”, “die”. I thought that’s a pleasant thought to read before going to sleep.
We walked into the town and came upon a river and crossing over was like being transported into Beauty and the Beast. There were cobblestone streets, little shops in the style of buildings that are in fairy tales, opening up onto a large courtyard with a massive cathedral. I don’t know if I have ever seen a church quite this big before. I know there are others that are larger, but I could not believe what I was looking at. There was Sunday mass going on so we didn’t walk around inside, but enjoyed the music for a bit. Outside the bells were clanging and pigeons flying among the statues, the rain was drizzling and I was standing there with my friends just enjoying the moment. We walked around and enjoyed the sights and sounds, paused by a river to just reflect for a moment, and had dinner at a pizza place playing some intense rap music - not exactly what we expected. Back to bed and sleep.
PS it was nice having a regular shower to use instead of doing the crazy maneuvers from the place in Frankfurt that didn’t have a shower curtain.
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