We're on a mission!

Saturday afternoon was so nice that we decided to venture out again to find castle ruins! We left home and first headed to our Parsberg castle. The castle itself is very pretty, with a cobblestone "street" inside the entryway. However, the castle was all closed up and the castle museum is only open for a couple hours daily. The museum gives you an idea of life in Parsberg from over 100 years ago - the different types of textiles made, furniture produced, their "handiwerk" and their religion. Someday we'll check out the history of Parsberg. We couldn't figure out how to get to the top of the castle where the ruins of an old tower are. So we moved on...

Off to Prunn to discover the castle ruins that were listed in our "An Hour or Less Away from Hohenfels" booklet. Apparently our little booklet is outdated because when we arrived the Prunn castle ruins were in the middle of further restoration! Anyway, on our way to Prunn we drove through (actually above) a beautiful city called Riedenburg. There was a lookout that Brian pulled off into and I snapped a couple of pictures. We'll go back to the area someday to check out their market square and see if there are any restaurants over looking the city and the river.



As I mentioned above, the Schloss Prunn was undergoing a makeover. However, you can enter the castle for 4 Euros and tour the museum and see historical pieces throughout. There is also a restaurant on one of the castle floors. We didn't stay - we were close to the castle closing time and besides, we were there for ruins! We'll go back another day. From Prunn, we headed to Essing and low and behold, we found castle ruins! Below is a picture of the ruins from the street below and a few up close. The castle looks amazing up close, you can see how old each and every brick is and feel the history. Unfortunately, this castle ruins has operating hours (who knew?) and we arrived too late. So here is are pictures from the outside and of the front door (original front door I might add).

What is this you ask? Well, it is the castle moat (bottom of picture) and the castle wall (middle) and the view of the river from way up high.

While we were in Essing we kept seeing people walking by us, all headed in 1 direction. Turns out everyone was going to the local restaurant up by the castle. So we decided to join them. We ate cordon bleu - made with pork instead of chicken - and schnitzel. The food was very good and the view from the restaurant was beautiful. I snapped a picture of the sun setting.

By the time we left the restaurant it was almost dark so ended our ruin finding mission. Next time we'll have to research operating hours - ha! Today we headed to Kelheim, land of the Hall of Liberation (remember that?) for a Trol and Floh Markt - which is an antique and flea market. It was at a huge lot along the river and there were many, many stalls. Once again, it was fun to walk the aisles and see all the wares people had for sale. We ended up with a German soup tureen and cups (made in West Germany! circa 1910-1940) and an oil painting. Both were a steal and we left pretty pleased.

The weather today was amazing, even better than yesterday. It was in the mid 60s and when we got home we all went to the backyard to play. Luke had a great time running around with all the neighborhood kids and there is an enclosed trampoline in the community backyard and Luke climbed right on up and in and bounced around with the other kids. Another great day in Germany.