Castles and Cathedrals

8 days, 3 countries, 12 churches, 6.5 castles, 1 roman city gate, and 1 medieval village… that’s some good traveling! 

Amy’s aunt and uncle arrived on Friday morning with an open itinerary and request to see castles and churches. They came to the right place! Wherever there’s a castle, there’s a church close by!

We picked Joe and Anna up at the train station, gave them a tour of our apartment, then set off to see our first castle, the scenic ruins in Kaiserswerth, and our first church, St. Suitbertus. We took a jaunt through the local graveyard and enjoyed a delectable ice cream cone from the town square. 

Following a quick stop back at the apartment, we took a walk down to the Rhine and popped open a bottle of bubbly (which they had received from the crew members on their flight to Germany #perksofflyingstandby) while watching the ships cruise by. 

On our way to our favorite German restaurant, we caught sight of the not so local parakeets, swooping over our heads and taking off across the park. Dusk is definitely their favorite time to play!

We spent Saturday wandering around Düsseldorf. We stopped by the local market for a day dog and bought some meat and cheese for our upcoming road trip. We took an afternoon break to sip our perfect hot chocolate and ended the day with one last stop at the Altbier brewery. 

On Sunday, we said an early goodbye to Jeff as he took off for Houston for a work trip, then caught the train to Cologne. Joe, Anna, and I spent the rest of the day admiring the Cologne Cathedral and the Shrine of the Three Kings. We wandered through the artifacts under the main cathedral and climbed the 500 steps to the top of the cathedral tower, taking in a 360 view of the city on a perfect fall day. We continued on, checking out the Roman ruins, the locks on the bridge, and of course sampling Kölsch beer. 

On Monday, we picked up our rental car and continued on our Castle and Cathedral extravaganza. We stopped in the little town of Zons, stepping back in time, and wandering around the charming medieval city. We roamed around the old brick walls and popped in and out of the city gates. We stopped to admire the old windmill and enjoyed a picnic lunch with the pigs. 

We hopped back in the car and followed the Rhine river and beautiful countryside down to Schloss Drachenburg. We took a short hike through the beautiful fall colors, popping out at the castle. We roamed through and around the castle, dodging the camera crew who were setting up for filming, and climbed to the top of the castle tower to enjoy a spectacular view of the valley. With a slight delay on the way down (missing our turn), we gathered a few extra steps and eventually made it back to the car. From here we continued our gorgeous drive, ending the day in the adorable little town of Senheim. As we walked to dinner, we admired the countless vineyards surrounding the town, some of which were turning yellow and red. We enjoyed dinner out on the patio, to truly soak it all in, and not only were the views exquisite, but the food was terrific as well. The burger definitely made my top five list! Plus, we had tasty local wine to go with it. What more could you ask for? 

We continued our road trip on Tuesday, with our first stop in Trier. We took a peek inside the beautiful Cathedral of St. Peter and wandered through the town square to the Porta Nigra, an 1800-year-old Roman city gate. We took our time exploring the gigantic structure and even caught a glimpse of one of the remaining Roman soldiers! 

Trier's Casa Bonita! 

We headed south from Trier, crossing the border into Luxembourg and making our way to Mondorf Les-Bains, in search of the monument dedicated to one of Anna’s ancestors (aka the 19th century strongest man in the world, member of the Marx Brothers and co-performer with Houdini… what a cool ancestor to have!). It didn’t take long for us to find the monument, St. Michael church, and John Grün’s gravesite. 

We stopped in Luxembourg City next, taking in the view of the enormous bridges over the valley and stopping to admire the Cathedral Notre-Dame (no, not the one in Paris, a different one). 

Since we saw so many churches on this day, we had to fit in one last castle before the sunset. We hopped back in the car and hurried over to Larochette Castle. We arrived right at dusk and caught a quick glimpse of the castle in the remaining light, but that didn’t stop us from exploring. With the approaching darkness, we set off and wandered through the foliage and around the castle to get a better view of both the castle and small town. 

We eventually made it to our Leaf Pod in Goebelsmühle and our final destination for the day… it was awesome! A tiny little leaf-shaped cabin, in the woods, with the very basic necessities. Too cute!

We made our way north to Bruges, Belgium on Wednesday. Along the way, we stopped in Ghent to view the incredible 15th-century Adoration of the Mystic Lamb Altarpiece at St. Bavo Cathedral (the Alterpiece was stolen at least seven times, including by Napoleon and Hitler, and, to this days, is still missing one panel). The detail in the altarpiece is stunning and given its history and influence, it is truly a masterpiece. 

Next, we wandered through the town square, over the cobblestones to discover Gravensteen castle. We hustled our way through the main gates, collected our audio guide, and spent our time roaming through the castle and enjoying a fantastic audio tour of this 12th-century fortress. The tour included an opportunity to sit on the windowsill and “stare into our lovers’ eyes” (just like the original residents did), look through the grate and down into the dungeon while imagining life with the rats, and some hilarious information regarding the septic system during that time. It was a great tour! We appropriately ended our time in Ghent with our first melt-in-your-mouth Belgian waffle, yum!

We hopped back in the car and continued to our last destination, the loveable Bruges (one of Jeff’s and my favorite cities so far!). We arrived in Bruges, just in time to settle into our unique guesthouse, with the best staircase around! We chatted with our host, then took off to dine at ‘t Zwart Huis, a traditional Flemish restaurant that she recommended. ‘t Zwart Huis not only had great food, but the atmosphere was engaging as well. The restaurant is housed in an old-style building and decorated with jazz décor and had jazz music playing in the background. The Flemish beef stew (which was just meat and sauce) was so tender and saporous, and the Belgian fries that came with it were nearly just as good. 

After dinner, we wandered through the darkness, exploring the town. We came across the old city gate and the famous windmills. It was here, that we saw in the darkness, a silhouette of a mystery animal bustling across the street and into the hedge. We quickly followed the creature and tried to catch a better glimpse, but to no avail… however, we’re quite confident that what we saw was a real hedgehog scurrying to the hedge! 

Talk about a public bathroom! 

We woke on Thursday ready to conquer the city. We started the day with breakfast at a local café then admired Saint-Salvator Cathedral. We took a detour to peek through the windows of ‘t Brugs Beertje (the origin of New Belgium Brewery) and chuckled at the name of the restaurant across the street, “De Hobbit,” whose menu was a newspaper called, “The Daily Hobbit,” so fun! If the timing worked out, we would have stopped by for a meal… next time!

So many tasty treats!

We continued on to the Church of Our Lady Bruges, which houses Michelangelo’s magnificent Madonna and Child as well as recently discovered murals from the 14th or 15th century and several relics.

We took a break for lunch, soaking in the perfect fall weather, and enjoyed a picnic by the water, followed by a canal boat tour around the town. 

Before we left, we had two more items on the list, one, stock up on some Belgian chocolate, and two, visit the Basilica of the Holy Blood. We conquered both, first, tasting the numerous truffles, tiramisu chocolate covered almonds, and the unique cuberdon (aka neus/nose candies). And then, with a little difficulty, we found the Basilica (the outside does not look like your typical church). We admired the beautiful murals and architecture inside the church and marveled at a drop of Jesus' blood. 

We spent our last day of travels back in Düsseldorf searching for more castle ruins. We started at Hohensyburg Castle, first moseying around the old church and graveyard, then checking out the castle ruins. While we were wandering around the ruins, our beautiful sun disappeared, then we heard a crack of thunder, and shortly after, the rain began. We took off running to the car and managed to only get a little wet. We decided to take a short break to let the storm pass and indulged in kirschstreusel (cherry crumble), a blueberry muffin, and a chocolate croissant at a local café. Yum!

Next up was Hardenstein Castle, our 6.5 castle. We plugged the address in and followed the GPS. We drove up the hill, through the farmland, and down unpaved roads. At one point, we were stopped by a local and told we were in the wrong place, so we turned around and took another road, which lead to a dead end… finally, we decided it had been a great quest, but a lost cause. Who knows where the magical castle lies? And just like that, our wonderful castles and cathedrals road trip came to an end. Another excellent adventure for the books!