vacation

Traveling along the Rhine River from Frankfurt toward Cologne last week, we simply couldn’t keep up with the cameras. There was a castle (or two) around every corner. Some small ruins and some fully preserved.

You can’t really tell from the pictures, but the Rhine really is a massive, fast-moving river. We saw many barges transporting materials up and down the river, going through locks and keeping commerce moving in a very traditional manner.

After a lovely traditional lunch of schnitzel, pommes frites and beer, we went up to this castle for an afternoon of exploring. This is the castle Schoenburg, in Oberwesel, right on the majestic Rhine River.
This is where we ate lunch.
How quaint this doorway is.
I’d have a hangover if I drank this whole glass of wine!
And this is the farmhouse at a place that that raises and shows horses.

Struggling a little with photo programs since my DH flew home a few days ago and we are working with an unfamiliar PC program and not my normal Mac, but we’re figuring it out. Tomorrow is our last day and we’ve planned some light sightseeing in Frankfurt and some shopping.

Most of the churches we’ve seen on this trip have been Baroque in style, but on our way out of Trier, we stopped to see the city’s famous Rococo church.

This is the St. Paulinus Church, which looks very simple, albeit elegant, from the outside. Only the ornate doorway gives a little hint of the amazing decor inside.

These beautifully preserved churches are amazing, not only for the craftsmanship and the talent they display, as well as all the years in the making, but I am also in awe of the idea of the wealth and power of the church in those times, when it was also the center of government.

Here you see my little munchkin dwarfed by the grandeur of it all.

And then we left for Weilerswist and my cousin’s house. Here Kallie is getting a tour of the garden when we arrive. If I can manage the techno piece when my husband leaves this week, I will have many more garden photos to come! Wish me luck on that!

This is the St. Mathias Church, built around 1500. This is the church my mother and her family attended when she was growing up.

The original church was built between 1127 and 1160, and was named the Eucharius church, built on an ancient Roman cemetery outside the city’s fortifications.

But, when it had to be rebuilt, they discovered the tomb of St. Matthew buried on the site of the former church. So they rebuilt and changed the name to honor St. Matthew.

The church site also houses the crypts of Trier’s first bishops, St. Eucharius and St. Valerius that were buried at the site in the 4C and 5C.


We were lucky enough to be in the church for a rare treat, as the organist was meeting with some people and she played a little while we were inside. It was truly inspiring. And we were also there to listen to the bells in the bell tower as we were entering the church.
And this is my grandparents’ grave. We came to pay our respects and to tend to the grave, as that work is typically done by family over here. Since there is no more family here in this city, our relatives now use a service that comes a few times a year, but I was so glad to be able to come and help just a little. I pulled some weeds and dead leaves out and planted the sweetest little mum with miniature yellow mounding blooms right in the middle of the gravesite.

It’s cathartic – tending to this little patch of garden that means so very much to me – and honoring the family that came and went before me.

Tomorrow we we leave Trier and move on to visit my cousin and her husband in Weilerswist, a small town outside of Cologne. I’m very excited about getting to see them. She’s like a sister to me, and he has the most amazing garden I can’t wait to show you — be sure to tune in tomorrow!

Oh – and these were the most beautiful flowers I saw in the cemetery – a lovely splash of color.