Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Castle in the Sky


Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Tonight we are sleeping in our castle in the sky. Castle Schönberg is at the top of a hill overlooking the town of Oberwesel on the Rhine. This was the last big splurge for our trip. The rooms are really expensive, but they didn’t disappoint us. They are beautifully appointed and really cool. Ed and I are at the top of a turret. Our roof is slanted around the entire circumference. It is all done in cherry wood and very rich. The bathroom fixtures are all gold (color, not the mineral). We have a tiny balcony overlooking the Rhine River. It’s quite fabulous. The girls are at the top of the next tower over at a lower level than us. They don’t have an elevator like we do. We only had to climb two flights. They have to climb 4 flights to get to their room. We used the porter service to have our bags brought up this time! Tomorrow is our last day in Germany, so it’s nice to go out in style!

We left Appenweier this morning with fond memories. We felt at home there. We got to know the hotel staff a little after staying four days in the same place. We had lunch at Sue Patchell’s house. On the way there we stopped at Ohren, where Maria Margretha Laucs was born (or our best guess). We went to the cemetery and found a lot of Leukels, but no Laucs family. I talked with some ladies in the cemetery. There are always a lot of people watering and weeding the graves. And none of them ever speak English! They thought I should get in touch with their local historian. I told them we only had 15 minutes in town. So, they took my email address to give him. Ohren was having a 75 year jubilee this year, so I thought it was a young town, but one of the ladies said it was 750 years. Maybe they forgot the extra “0” on their sign. Ohren did not have an old church, but a new, modern one. We took a few pictures, just like we did in the villages in Denmark.

We had lunch with Sue Patchell, her husband Brett Hamilton, and the missionaries assigned to the English-speaking ward. We stayed for quite a while. Sue wanted us to convince her husband to join the church. We tried, but weren’t successful. I think we’d need a little more time. He was nice, though, and we had a good visit with them, as well as the missionaries. Sue went all out on the dinner. It was sweet and sour pork, some kind of paella dish, nachos and guacamole, and Pavlova for dinner, which is baked meringue with whipped cream and fruit on top of it. It was a real treat for us. They were listening to a Whistling Prairie CD when we got there, I guess to get in the mood for us! They had a nice house on a hill with a pretty view from the balcony. Brett was from a small town outside Havre, Montana. Sue grew up 22 miles from his town, but they met in Germany. They’ve been married 24 years now. He has a job teaching college classes to military people, but also sings professionally. That’s how they met. They were both in the same opera.

After lunch we hustled over to our castle. We’re pretty thrilled with it. We left it long enough to go down the hill for dinner tonight. Tomorrow we’re going to take a Rhine cruise to Braubach and back. That is the town Johan Peter Wagoner lived in. We’ll have a couple of hours there before we can catch the boat back to Oberwesel again. It’s great that we have a purpose to be there now? We’re going to look for the street where he lived (Dacksenhaouser).
Sorry about the late posting. The castle is great, but it's internet is spotty. Imagine that! This picture is a view of the girls' balcony from one of our windows.

1 comment:

  1. Did you mention to Sue and her husband that you were born in Browning? The castle is so pretty. It is better to have a purpose, it keeps you busy.

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