OLD times...good times!

"The Key is not spending time, but in investing it."
                           -Steven R. Covey

As promised, here is a picture of my new favorite OLD thing.  Olaf delivered my clock on Monday.  It is all original: face, parts and longcase. It is a Gustav Becker, made in about 1910.  It gongs on the hour and half hour.  It's has such a loud and beautifully deep gong that we have been having to remove a weight at night to stop the gonging....however for some reason, that stops the clock about two hours later.  They are pretty tricky to get working perfectly, so it may take us a month or two to figure this OLD puppy out.  


That was my first foray into "OLD things"  this week, but hang on because this week was a step back in time almost every single day.


Warning!!!   There are lots of food pictures this week, so don't read this blog while hungry....you will drool all over your keyboard.

I had a girls lunch in Kairserslautern and we wanted to go to a very good german restaurant on the walkplatz.  It is in the OLDest building in Kaiserslautern.  Too bad it was closed for lunch during the summer months.  I wanted to get a picture but the girls were hungry and quickly passed it by looking for another place.  


We found this place and it was pretty good.  
We ate inside because it was raining and the tables were wet.  
In the picture are my friends Lorana, Susan, Karen and Yvonne.


The OLDest sighting this week was Burg Eltz.   My brother, Casey popped into town for a quick one day visit.  I picked him up at the Landstuhl Hbf on Wed. night...well it was supposed to be on Wed. night, but he never got off the train!   Mike and I came back home and I waited to hear from him.  Finally around 1:30 a.m. I got a facebook message (he didn't have a phone card) saying "I'm at a the McDonalds in Landstuhl".   There had been a train wreck and they had to divert all train travel around it by bus, so he had quite an adventure traveling through the german countryside by train, bus and then train again. 

Travis and Casey at our table.

We got up after just a few hours sleep and Casey, Travis and I drove to a cute inn and restaurant just a few kilos away from Moslekern, which is a little village close to the castle.  It was about a 2 hour drive from Spesbach.  
We had a great lunch outside.  The owner was so friendly and we really enjoyed our lunch and the service.

Kartoffelnsuppe..Potato soup.  Travis really liked the bowl.

Casey had a Gemüse (vegetable) Quiche

Tomaten Bruschette

Some farm equipment by the hotel

Reminder: You can click on a picture to make it bigger!

After our lunch, we started our hike up to the castle.  It's about a 40 minute hike (more of a walk) through the forest and alongside a stream to the castle.  The weather was really nice.  Sunny and warm, but just right in the shade of the trees. 

BURG ELTZ-  This is Rick Steves' favorite castle in all of Europe!  It is tucked away in a mysterious forest.   The first record of a castle here is from 1157.  By the mid 1400's the castle looked much as it does today with the home of three families surrounding a small courtyard within a strong and very defendable fortification.   It is one castle that has never been destroyed although it did survive an attack that lasted five years!   The Eltz family still owns the castle and still lives in it when they are in the area.  This branch of the family has had sole ownership since 1815.  

This window is in a small chapel 

Original catapult balls

We waited about half an hour for an English speaking tour and it was so worth it.   You are not allowed to take pictures inside the castle, so I can't show you how breathtaking some of it was.  There were rooms with the original decorative painting over all the walls and ceilings.  They were painted in the 1400's.  It looked like wallpaper!   The original beams and floors from the 1400's were also amazing.  Some of the furnishings were the OLDest I've ever seen, including a huge  raised platform bed made in 1540.  Travis wants one just like it!  After the tour...big surprise...but Travis was hungry again!   He got some pommes (french fries) at the little food place out on the castle terrace....what a view!!

Then we hiked back to the car and drove Casey to meet his train to Dusseldorf at the Koblenz Hbf.   I loved this picture of all the bikes at the train station and these very unique "flower towers" that lined the streets by the train station

It was so fun to spend the day seeing a very OLD castle and spending time with my brother.  Thank you Casey for stopping in and visiting with us again....we love it when you do that!

The next day, I went to another of my favorite OLD places...Fishbach.  I went with some of the girls:  Missy, Karrie, Sharma, and Becky to see what OLD treasure could be found at my favorite antique dealers shop.   Yep...we went to see Olaf!   I only found an OLD medium sized cream colored crock and a big metal washtub...both for 15 euro.   I was happy!   Becky grabbed an OLD doll cradle from about 1860.   It was way too cute!

Olaf's shop in Fishbach

One of my favorite "door pics" of all time!!

After Olaf's, Becky told us about a little village about 8 clicks further down the road that had some very OLD timber framed buildings and a good place to eat an authentic german lunch.  So we headed over to Herrstein.  It was like stepping into a picture book.  

Becky, Sharma, Karrie and Missy

 We at lunch at an OLD tithing barn that the owner's dad told us was built before Columbus sailed to America.  We all chose a traditional german dish for lunch called Kartoffelklosse mit Speckrahmsosse-which is sausge stuffed potato dumpling swimming in a bacon cream sauce.  They were so delicious, but so big.....not one of us could eat the whole thing.

After lunch we explored the village a bit and stopped in a cute little antik shop.  Another great day in Germany!

Mike and I discovered a new Italian place to eat in Landstuhl called Gabriela's.   We had a nice al fresco dinner and just laughed when a very OLD german tractor drove by within 10 feet of our table...now that's german ambiance!

Italian sausage and Tuscan potatoes

Farfalle pasta with pecan crusted chicken

I finished off my week by going to the Frankfurt Temple early Saturday morning.  It was just so pretty with all the flowers around it.  I always feel so peaceful when I am in the temple.  It renews me in so many ways.  

The steeple with Moroni on top was deemed too tall for the area and wasn't allowed to be placed on the temple, so it is on the ground in the walkplatz in front of the temple...interesting, huh?

Okay....that's about it for this week....lots of OLD stuff.  


This is the last week of summer break.  We are looking forward to a visit from Pat, Natasha and granddaughter London.  They will be here at the end of the week!


love and miss you all,
-corri