Tonight We Sleep in a Castle

This morning the kids got to experience their first hearty German breakfast - slices of meat, cheese, buns, granola, cereal, milk, yogurt, sunflower seeds, raisins, nutella, jam, flax seeds, and, of course, to drink - delicious and healthy Multivitaminsaft!
We left Rothenburg early to make our 10 AM appointment to tour the inside of the famous Heidelberg Castle - a ruin that has been partly restored to its former glory. Most people had a good sleep and are adjusting to Europe time nicely - the bus rides are eerily quiet though, as many nod off any time they get a chance to sit down (very different atmosphere than the ski trip bus!). We had our driver drop us off a few feet from the entrance to the Heidelberg Caste (something that might irk some of last year's travellers who didn't enjoy the walk up the hillside from the river last year, right DB? Don't worry though, I'll find some stairs for them yet!)
Above: Heidelberg Castle
Bacharach, a small town on the Rhine River, is a new stop for the LFMS Europe trip, and I chose it kind of by default - our usual stop at a castle hostel is in Ortenberg (a small village just outside of Strasbourg), but when I tried to book the Ortenberg Hostel way back in MAY 2006 it was already full! So I searched the internet and guide books for another possibility, and found this amazing picture of a castle on a hillside surrounded by vinyards just above a quaint German village on the Rhine. It is as beautiful as it looked in the pictures, and the inside has been renovated very nicely (so even though we're in a castle that is over 1000 years old, we have running water and electricity, and we're not sleeping on straw - well I'm not anyway).
I lost the attendance sheet for the trip, and can't recall from memory everyone who is supposed to be on the trip - if possible, could you check this picture out and tell me if your son or daughter (or husband or wife) is missing? I think we might have left a couple people in Rothenberg this morning...
Actually, I'm joking. this is us (minus me) in front of the oldest house in Bacharach (see the date 1368 near the top? Man, I thought my pre WW II house in Mission was old!
Here's the hostel director explaining to us how to get to our rooms in the castle:
It's very complicated.

And here's a REAL picture of the castle we're actually staying in:
The building at the top of the hill is Burg Stahleck, a youth hostel since 1924.
In the town of Bacharach, the main highlight for the kids was seeing two goats and having to walk through a chicken coop to get to a public washroom. The adults liked the half timber houses, the chapel ruin, and the view of our castle up on the hill (probably some of the kids did too, but they were just so excited to see two goats and some chickens - isn't Langley a rural area?)


We just finished final lights out check, and I'm heading to bed. Later,
Craig