Yesterday we had a free day, where literally nothing was scheduled. One group of students and faculty was going to Bonn to see Beethoven-haus and Drachen Fels, one faculty member was going to Cologne, etc.
Our group was going the more rural route: We rented a car, and drove to Burg Eltz and the small town of Beilstein. It was absolutely gorgeous. The word "magical" even was mentioned a few times throughout the day. Many stairs and hills were conquered.
Burg Eltz is actually a very large castle with three distinct castle sections. It has a fascinating history, being one of the few castles that has not been destroyed at any point since its construction. Well, in its defense, it's not near any large metropolitan areas, haha.
More info here: (They explain it well.)
http://www.burg-eltz.de/e_index.html
Burg Eltz was beautiful. After touring the inside, during which time we were NOT allowed to take photographs, we toured the Armoury and Treasury, so I took many blurry pictures of fascinating things there.
After leaving Burg Eltz, we traveled to this town called Beilstein. It is beautiful also -- I would love to come back here sometime. We walked around town, ate ice cream, hiked to the top of the castle, then the top of the tower... Then left to come back to Saarburg.
Gabby and Ansgar, a wonderfully sweet couple whom Jennifer met three years ago here, were our tour guides for the day. They graciously had planned to cook dinner for us this evening! So, after a day at seeing beautiful castles, we relaxed at their house for the evening. First, we took a short walk through the forest, and fed the deer. (The deer were captive and being raised. Very interesting creatures -- I think they are smaller than white tail deer, shorter and stockier. And, the adults have spots on them also. I'm not sure what breed they are, exactly.)
After the short walk in the forest, we were definitely hungry! The dinner was fabulous and the company was wonderful. We all really enjoyed chatting and getting to know one another. Another family, friends of Gabby's, visited too, so all the young ones played together in the back yard.
So, leave time for castle: 9:17 am. Return time from dinner: approximately 10:45 pm.
All in all, a tiring, yet also very restful and peaceful, day.
I couldn't have thought up a better free day!
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