Sabo was our alarm clock.
We checked out the Merienkapelle interior while we waited for our host to meet up with us.
Bob shows off his German side with a Beer for our meal with Mike and Rudy.
Mike gave us a tour...and then pulled some strings, I think he gets a kick out of this, and so do we! The main conference room reminded me of the UN, but on a smaller scale, and with a HUGE mural on 3 of the 4 walls depicting German history in different tones of blue and white...QUITE impressive, but my photo-montage of it won't load, so you'll have to ask me about it later on.
We have really gotten into the castles here...and this one is no exception, even in the driving rain in which we climbed the hill, pictured above, and walked in a complete circle around the outside of the fortress just to get in! There were hardly any people and there was no charge, that we know, because the ticket office at the entrance was blocked off. The coolest part, for me, was the well in the center of the castle which was 5 meters wide and deeper than a football field into the center of this huge hill to an underground water source. Unfortunately I don't have pictures of this or any other cool things inside because I neglected to charge my battery and the camera wouldn't turn on.
I did manage to get the camera to work for this picture of Bob and Tom guarding the SECOND fortified wall of the castle...yeah--it was pretty intense. They had the angles of the outside wall calculated so that attackers were visible from all points because the walls were battered, meaning they slant outward at the bottom.
Cool lookout point over the major fortified wall.
This is the city...some of which we are now familiar with, most of which we can't hope to see in the few days we are here.Went back to the house and cooked dinner for Mike, the boys, and Bob and Tom. Papa rellena-Thanks to Jung-and fried apples with icecream. Good times.
Mike took us to the base tonight. We were technically on American soil...which is weird. They don't even use Euros on the base, but US dollars...I was completely blown away but I refrained from Americanizing my experience here in Europe...or at least tried to. It was eery to be on this almost-empty base at night, to think about home and how this compared, to be on an army base in general was just intriguing. It is its ow secret society in a way. We know about it but we don't, really.
We have to get up early tomorrow to go to Heidlberg.
