My blog

Tag: Stuttgart

  • Lichtenstein Castle

    Castle Lichtenstein

    The last adventure on my adventure page was the last castle we toured while living in Germany. It was the weekend we found out we had to vacate Germany within 30 days (another story for another time).

    We decided we wanted to visit one last castle before the stress of moving began and we wouldn’t have time to do much sightseeing.  This one is Castle Lichtenstein (not the country of Lichtenstein, of course.) It is in the state of Baden-Wurttemberg.  That probably means nothing to you but it’s near Stuttgart—where Mercedes and Porsche have their headquarters (also another story for another time.) It’s about 40 kilometers from where we live but Julie (our GPS guide) was not helpful.  I had printed out a Google map because I didn’t have an exact address.   We knew it was west of Reutlingen.  So we plugged in Reutlingen and then stopped when we got there and try to find it using the Points of Interest feature on the GPS.  It worked.  The GPS listed the castle. Thank goodness!

    Other Buildings from the drawbridge of the Castle itself.

    As expected, we traveled up a hillside to get to the castle, parked the car and trekked the rest of the way to the entrance.    Enchanted by the German castles, as always, this last trek was no different.  “Castle Hopping” which military personnel and ex-patriots (those who were in the military or civilians who live in Germany or any other foreign country) call visiting castles was our most favorite thing to do while living in Germany.

    I’m always amazed at the size of the grounds and this castle was no different.  The outer bailey had more out-buildings than the other castles we visited.  They had converted one building from a lodge to a restaurant for visitors.  The Tudor type building housed a museum of sorts and a place to buy cold drinks.

    Castle Keep

    The castle itself is a “fairy-tale” castle.  One that easily could have been the subject of a dark fairy tale given where it sits.  It’s on the edge of a cliff and to get to it, we had to walk a bridge to the keep.  It’s smaller than most of the buildings on site but the beauty of the rooms and the artifacts were amazing.  Weapons mounted on walls along with various shields captured my husband’s attention. These remnants of the past are irreplaceable.

    What surprised me was how small the rooms were but they were so ornate.  Every available wall and ceiling was gilded or painted or a combination thereof.  The detail and intricacy of the work made me stop and stare. I didn’t know where to look first.  The other thing I noticed was how many stained-glass windows were in this castle but in the other castles, there weren’t many, if at all.

    An ornate room in the Castle.

    I didn’t have the heart to take the picture but our guide showed us bullet holes where the German army in WWII took over the castle and shot up the walls.  They didn’t see the value in the castle.  Such a waste and so sad.

    After the tour, we had a bite to eat at the cafe.  We sat outside under an umbrella.  We split an order Maltauschen (a rolled-up ravioli with spinach – the Germans call them ‘noodle bags’) with egg and a salad.  It started to rain as we started to eat but we thought we could wait it out and sure enough, the rain was just a drop here and there.

    Thank you for allowing me to share this adventure with you and taking me down memory lane that was an enjoyable and lovely day!

    View from the drawbridge to the village below

  • Moving to Germany

    Imagine my consternation when the company told us we’d live in a couple’s home for three months until our household shipment arrived.  What?  I had visions of us trying to communicate to the owners the toilet didn’t work or trying to prepare meals while being underfoot with complete strangers and an entire slew of other daily issues that could arise.

    Despite those reservations, we boarded a plane at Washington Dulles Airport for the long trip overseas knowing we would not see our family for at least three years.  Thankfully, we brought our VoIP phone system with us and use the internet for overseas telephone calls.  But I digress.

    My husband’s mentor greeted us at the airport.  How he became a mentor to my husband when he had just arrived in Germany a few months before, I’ll never know.  We dropped our luggage at our temporary residence not in Stuttgart proper.  Instead, our mentor escorted us to a small village called Bonlanden in Filderstadt.  The mentor told us we would have to “stay awake” until bedtime to reduce the effects of jet lag.  Well, super. It had been an exhausting month, and I needed to sleep.

    Since I had been in small villages before I wondered about the home we would live in for three months.  Three months is a long, long time. But when we dropped off our bags, we were elated to find our housing was an attic apartment in the couple’s home with our own entrance, kitchen, and bath.

     

    It was small.  Tiny.  But I was thankful we didn’t have to share a bathroom, kitchen, and living spaces with them and the unit was relatively new so that was a bonus.

    The other bonus was the owner’s wife spoke some English and would change our towels and bed linens every week.  Maid service too?  That was awesome.

    My husband’s boss stopped by when we were unloading and wanted to know if the unit was acceptable to us. The bedroom and living room had a vaulted ceiling, but the boss’ concern was the twin beds.  We both were fine with the sleeping arrangements.  The headboards were at the lowest end of the vaulted ceiling.  We couldn’t even stand up straight at the head of the bed and we are short people.  No matter, though, we’d make do for three months.  After all, we were living in Germany.  A place neither of us had been before and it was an adventure in the making.

    And while the living room only had a day bed with a few hard chairs–no comfy sofa for us – but the bathroom more than made up for it.

    The kitchen was adequate, and we even had a little balcony overlooking their cute garden.  We knew God took care of us with our housing needs.  Has God ever met your housing needs in a great way?