Castle Liebenstein in Kamp-Bornhofen Germany

We got to Kamp-Bornhofen in the afternoon. Our suite was on the top floor of the newer part of the castle, it only dates back to the 16 century, unlike the old part of the castle which was built in the 11th century. Our room was at the top of a very narrow, very tightly wound spiral staircase, then up a short, steep flight of stairs from there. One of the windows overlooked the Rhine river and the neighboring castle. We had dinner there, poked around a bit, Aaron wrangled snails and we enjoyed a wonderful evening. All of us slept well with no ghostly visitors whatever.

The morning brought breakfast, again overlooking the Rhine and the local goat herd. After checkout we headed down to town and booked a cruise on the Rhine. We rode the boat up to St. Goar, did a little shopping, and caught the next boat back to Kamp-Bornhofen.

This afternoon we drove up to Amersfoort in the Netherlands. It's pretty up here, flat and rural, kind of like Ohio or Illinois out in the country. We can also see why so many German settlers moved into the Midwest, it looks a lot like Germany. The traffic here can be horrible, lots of traffic jams around the cities and very little parking room in the cities. It doesn't help that we're driving a van that could pass for a schoolbus! Tomorrow we'll head over to the next town to visit the Knoppert family, friends of ours from when they lived in Colorado.....

Bonners in Aachen

Aachen is a very beautiful and historical city. We stayed at the Buschhausen Hotel, complete with dairy cows across the street. Lunch was at the Albrect Druer cafe, which had great food and was the perfect place to hide from the thunderstorm. We checked out Charlemagnes' "crib." The cathedral was very impressive. Our next stop is Kamp-Bornhofen and the Castle Liebenstein. If we see the Baroness of Liebenstiens' ghost, we'll say hello. Pictures from the top left - A votive candle for you, Gerry Sue; roof of the cathedral; us with the cows; us ready to leave Newark.

Twas the night before vacation.....

...and all through the house we were running around like a cat after a mouse.

Or something like that.

Most of the packing is done (just the last minute items need to go in the bags), the house is cleaned, the note to the pet/plant sitter is written, the mail and paper are stopped, the boarding passes are printed and the bank has been called so that they don't put a fraud hold on the debit card. That would be a drag. Oh, and the pictures have all been downloaded and cleared from my camera.

I think we all have a little case of pre-trip jitters. It'll feel good to actually hit the road in the morning.

The first half of the trip is well planned and the last half we'll kind of wing as we go along. We'll land at the Cologne-Bonn airport Wednesday morning. After picking up the van we'll go to Aachen and explore a bit there. That was Charlemagne's capital city and he's buried there. We'll spend the night there. Thursday we'll drive down the Rhine to Kamp-Bornhofen and stay the night at the Castle Liebenstein and maybe take a sightseeing boat trip down the Rhine. Friday we'll drive up to the Netherlands and spend the night in Amersfoort. Saturday morning we'll make the short drive over to Ermelo (still in the Netherlands) and visit friends of ours there. After visiting and lunch with them we'll make our way toward Bremerhaven. From Bremerhaven we'll go on to Berlin and from there we'll loop on back to Cologne to catch our flight back home.

I've decided not to take my laptop so we'll be posting whenever and wherever we get the chance. Maybe not until we get home ;-).

Getting ready to hit the road....

We're making a list and checking it twice. Packing the treats and everything nice. And on Tuesday we head for Germany!