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Belgium, Germany, NL - May 7-18, 2009 |
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We went to visit the Keukenhof ("Kitchen Garden") with Piet's parents. |
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| We spent a night in Maastrict, NL on the way to Germany. | |
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| We did not stay around to watch them light this cake. It was waaaaay windy and we watched some of the lighting "dress rehersal". They seriously had no hope of making it happen. | |
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Next we ventured into the German wine country.... We stopped in Moselkern ("Middle Mosel") to hike up to the Burg Eltz Castle. It was supposed to be a lovely 90 minute walk through town and up to the castle from the train station through a "magical pine forest". We hiked up a steep trail, suffering, sweating and eager to see this beautiful stronghold but when we finally got up to the top of the trail all we found was a sign marked "Burg Eltz" pointing back in the direction we had just come from. Whoops. No matter. There was a restaruant at the bottom of the trail where we refreshed ourselves for the proper walk. |
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| The actual trail to Burg Eltz was nowhere near as steep and challenging as the one we accidentally took (and some parts were magical, I guess). | |
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| Though the actual Burg Eltz trail was less challenging we were no less happy or rewarded to see the castle come into view. | |
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| We celebrated the Burg Eltz adventure with another beer and some cake. | |
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| This guy looks mad that we didn't give him any cake. | |
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| We hiked up one more hill to catch a view of the castle before we started the walk back to town (our path back to town goes down the steps that you see to one side of the bridge in this picture) | |
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| An interesting cemetary in Moselkern. | |
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Next we drove to Cochem.
Cochem rebuilt their castle so it is not authentic or "magical". |
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Wine region don't forget... |
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| and the beers keep getting bigger... | |
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| We drove south along the Mosel river toward the acient town of Trier and found a cloisters (with a brewery, of course) along the way. | |
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| See the wheels turining in Piets mind- he's envisioning his next brewing set-up... | |
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| I took this picture not just because it was the front of the brewery but also because just a few minutes before I snapped it that adorable old dog strolled up to me and leaned her sweet head against my legs and turned her big weepy brown eyes up to me and I could not help but pet her- she saw me coming from a mile away. | |
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| Onto the acient city of Trier. The Porta Nigra (Black Gate) was built around 200 A.D. by the Romans and was one of four city gates. | |
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| Next one of the holiest places on earth... The Orval Monastary | |
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| You can't go in the new monastary but you can peek inside the courtyard. Outstanding. | |
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| The ruins of the original monastary sit right next to the modern one and you can tour the whole thing. | |
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| The spring water used to brew the beer... | |
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| Piet found out we could go into the basement of the new monastary. You know he was hoping to find beer, yeast supplies, secret recipe, etc. | |
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| Instead it was just artifacts... darn! | |
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| Next we went to the Chateau Boullion. This castle was HUGE. | |
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| Piet in prison cell. | |
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| Next to Les Jardins Annevoie... | |
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| Look closely. Silly. | |
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| We cannot possibly visit enough breweries within his lifetime to satisfy Piet, but we do try. Presenting Maredsous Abbye. | |
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| In the abbye's beer garden. That's not coffee in those stone mugs! | |
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| We breezed through Leuvan stopping to do some shopping and enjoy beers and frites in the town center. | |
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| We started and ended our trip to Europe by visiting the Huiberts family. See pictures of the Huiberts family here. | |