Family Vacation!

So I got my lifetime wish at last:  John, Derek, and I finally had our family vacation. The last time we went on a family vacation away from home was when Derek was three years old.  He is now twenty-three.  Twenty years since we've gone on a vacation away from home.

Now we're in Germany and at last, at last we're visiting historical places and going to different cities.


But first, the Alien Child wanted to see a grocery store, saying that he figures you can tell something about a culture by their grocery stores.  He is quite right about this.  I took him to the local Edeka store, and he pointed out that the shelves are organized differently than in the U.S.  We organize food by type of food:  meat, vegetables, fruit, canned, boxed, etc.  In Germany, they organize by meal:  breakfast, lunch, dinner, and then by type of food within those meal types.  As a result, you will find the bread shelves close to the coffee and tea, and cream and condensed milk close to the tea and coffee.  So we went, and he was quite busy looking at all the labels and figuring out how things were laid out, as well as admiring the meat section with its huge display of different meats and wursts, not to mention cheeses, both pre-packaged and big wheels from which the butcher would cut pieces.  He also noted the very inexpensive prices on beer and wine, as well as the availability of hard liquor instead of having a separate liquor store.

Then the touring began.  Of course he had to see a castle.  We went to the nearby Hoensbroek castle, which is pretty much in our minds what most Americans think of (aside from the Disneyized kind)  when they think of castles, and that is something that originated from the medieval era, with moats and a dungeon.  Hoensbroek fulfills all these criteria, and in fact has three drawbridges you have to go over before you reach the castle/donjon proper.  John and I have been to this castle before and I've mentioned it on this blog, so I won't go into depth about it because you can read about here, and here.  Here is a photo of John and Derek after crossing the first drawbridge.  The building in the background is the castle itself.  The tallest tower is the medieval portion, and yes, at the very bottom of it is the dungeon.

This particular suit of armor has apparently sprouted rabbit ears, and also needs its nose picked.  Guys.  Sheesh.

Here is Derek studying the guidebook in, I believe, one of the dining areas of the 16th century portion of the castle.

And here are the guys next to a small medieval suit of armor in the oldest part of the castle.  There is no way either of them could fit inside that armor.  They would have been considered very tall, big men in those days.  Heck, I would have been considered a normal height, even somewhat tall woman back then, instead of short.






This time, however, there was more than usual at the castle.  The castle organization (I'm guessing) had hired some artists a wonderful sand sculpture exhibit, which showed the history of the Limburg/Brabant area (mostly Limburg, I believe) of what is now the Netherlands.