Vastine adVentures: Germany

The next stop on the Knepp's trip around Europe was Bacharach, Germany. This was a new place for our family as well, and Chris loves all things German, so we were excited to join in on the fun.

Here's our stop for lunch. Adorable!

It felt a little like we were eating in the princess castle at Disney. But this was a real life place, and it wasn't a castle…..never mind.

Our waitress took this group photo. She was a lovely German woman who appeared to be on speed. She never stopped rushing around, and of the 20 pictures she took in about five seconds, this was the only one that was kind of clear. Good enough!

Our goal on this trip was to ride the riverboat and see the castles along the Rhine. Well, the weather wasn't great and the next boat wasn't in the near future, so we decided to drive up the river and then ride the boat back. Forget about the two cars we drove up the river. More on that later….

We stopped at Burg Rheinfels…a REAL castle! So our visitors were excited.

Obligatory pics

The view of the Rhine from the top.

They loved exploring.

And, the gold medal for the parallel bars goes to Chris Vastine!

Monkey see monkey do….

The lovely Knepp family!

We were able to catch the last boat tour for the day by just a few minutes. We only had this day to do it, so this was our only option. We would take the boat cruise back to Bacharach, the guys would take the train back to get the cars, and they would drive the cars back. Thanks guys! Good thing it was only about 11km.

This part of the Rhine River is Rick Steeve's favorite! He raves about it in his travel guides and TV specials. I am sure it is quite lovely on a beautiful, sunny day. It is a bit less impressive on a gloomy, rainy, windy day. But, we did enjoy it, and it was even more fun with great company.

Andrea and I got quite good at the selfies. It's like Pinterest though. This is the picture you hope for…..

But this was usually the picture we got. Love that wind! This would be a Pinterest fail.

No explanation needed….

This is the stretch of the Rhine with the most castles.

Andy is prepared for the weather. Chris is not.

Edited with my favorite app Snapseed. Get it now!

When we checked into our hotel, they only had us down for four people total with each room accommodating two. This obviously wasn't going to work, and thankfully they could move us to larger family rooms. After seeing the Knepp's room, I was scared. What were they charging us for these huge rooms?? This was just one of the two bedrooms they had. The other was just as big. These were the biggest European accommodation I've seen. Our room was nice, but not this nice. Thankfully, it wasn't too much more than we were already paying. Phew!

Jagerschnitzel….one of the greatest meals served in Germany. Leksi vowed from this day forward to eat or drink anything with the word "Jager" in it. We quickly informed her that she would not be doing that….at least not anytime soon.

On Sunday morning, Andrea had one goal, and that was to find real German pretzels. I think we found the place.

That is the face of a very happy American!

The rest of us opted for this deliciousness.

Of course we made the kids pose for pics around Bacharach. It's what we do!

Trying to get the perfect jumping picture.

Summer's here and the time is right for dancin' in the streets….I know you're singing that now.

He handles the "only boy" thing well.

We grabbed some pics overlooking the city.

On our way down, the kids discovered these. In less than ten minutes, they all had names.

And, this became their favorite part of the weekend.

We said farewell to Bacharach, and we set off to find Burg Eltz Castle. This has been on my list for a while, and I couldn't wait to see it!

We chose to walk through the woods to get to the castle. The other option is a shuttle bus (boring…)

The tour gathered in the inner courtyard of the castle. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed inside.
There was a lady on our tour that looked just like the funny blonde lady from the Target commercials around Christmas. I was just sure it was her. Andrea is the gutsy one. She asked her. I was dying because that could be taken as an insult. But, it wasn't her, and she got a laugh out of the fact that we thought she was famous.

Those looming dark skies.

The two of us trekked up the hill to get shots of the castle from the other side while the others ate lunch. By this point, the sun was out, and it had warmed up considerably. I was dying from the heat, but the shots were worth it. I only took like 70. Seventy shots of a castle that doesn't do tricks, doesn't smile, doesn't move. I'm ridiculous.

Voilà! There it is! And, it was totally worth the wait!

The drive home was beautiful! And, it was even better chowing down on those German pretzels.

We were home just in time for the Knepps to repack their bags and get to the airport. Next stop for them was Rome! We decided to sit this leg of the trip out since we've been to Rome three times. I promised myself I would only go back one more time to take my mom to the Vatican.

That evening, we had the Moss family over. It was our last night together in Brussels. They were the best neighbors. Due to an unfortunate situation with their first house in Brussels, they were forced to move to another property. That was a benefit to us because they found a great house in our neighborhood! We started to carpool, the kids could ride bikes and scooters to visit each other, and dinners were impromptu and always so easy. It was the best case scenario, but the time was just too short. I can tell you it is already not the same without them. They are missed, but I am so thankful for their friendship and the time we had together. Even though it was short, it was priceless, and we gained lifelong friends.