FLASHBACK: Friday, October 1

On Friday of our trip to Germany, we decided to drive about one hour to a very famous castle: Burg Eltz. While JB and I were excited about the adventure, the boys were less than thrilled from the onset. Not sure what bee crawled into both their bonnets this morning, but it crawled in and stayed there intently. Once at the castle, we were presented with two options: a ten minute walk to the castle or a 45-minute hike to the castle (1.5 miles each way.) Wanting to instill in our children a love of activity and the outdoors, we opted for the hike. (Five minutes in, when we realized it would be quite muddy, we rethought and STILL opted to proceed.) It was a beautiful hike and the way there was okay (despite the fact that Elijah wanted to be carried on my hip and not on my shoulders which is quite hard to do while hiking), but on the way home Isaac decided he didn't want to be carried, didn't want to walk, didn't want to ride on shoulders, nothing. Any position I put him in, he cried for a different one (which, when granted, resulted in more crying). A 1.5 mile hike carrying a crying child, is not pleasant. Add to that the fact that JB was toting our backpack and Elijah on his shoulders, and it was a really long adventure. I wish our boys could fit in those handy-dandy back-packs. But they are just too big for them. Any other ideas for how to get them from place-to-place in a world of no stroller access?

Here is a video of the boys once we reached the top:

The view from the castle, when we finally arrived, was amazing. Breathtaking! We enjoyed some water while we recovered from hiking while holding heavy children.


Isaac wasn't tired at all. What's so bad about hiking when you get carried the whole way?


Here we are while waiting for the English tour. All the tours were in German except for an occasional English attempt by a German-speaking young person. We found (and I am not sure if this is unique to a touristy area or Germany in general) that the young people often speak two languages (German and English) but the older people only speak German. Jenny? Do you concur?


An attempt at a picture outside of Burg Eltz.

Both boys in one shot! A rarity.


Touring the treasury on a self-guided tour. We should have stuck to self-guided (but they weren't allowed at this castle.) A tour with two toddlers is not advised. Elijah and I ducked out only five minutes into it, and JB and Isaac had a fairly miserable experience since Isaac wished he had ducked out with me the whole time that remained. Since we were the only four people on the English tour, it didn't make for a great time for JB's tour guide.

A shot of me in the courtyard Elijah and I hung out in while JB and Isaac toured. I'd like to say Elijah was well-behaved while we waited, but he wasn't. He insisted on his strong desires to find any unsafe place that he could fall from and die and attempt to do so. If I failed to allow him this pleasure, he'd sit down and scream. The only highlight to our wait for the completion of the tour was petting some of the dogs taking the tour. (Yes, the dogs took the tour. Dogs are welcome everywhere in Germany it seems. On our boat ride, restaurants, hotels, you name it.)

Friday wasn't the best day for the boys as far as travelling went. But after an AMAZING dinner downstairs again, they curled up in their flannel pj's (they fit great this winter Joni) and watched some PRAISE BABY as if it had been a glorious day.