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We just finished up a delightful and fun-filled week and a half with Tony's parents, aka Grammy and Pampa. The original plan had been to do an epic road tour through central Germany along the castle road to Prague, and then driving all the way back home through Germany. That plan was eventually scrapped, both because it involved too much driving (an average of at least 3-4 hours per day) and because we were in the middle of house hunting and didn't feel like we could be gone for a week and a half.
However, our amended trip turned out to be even better. Here's the concept document I created to introduce the idea to Tony's parents, of which I was rather proud:
Grammy and Pampa arrived on a Thursday. Tony took the day off work to pick them up from the airport and take them to the Van Gogh museum. Then they picked up the Bobbles and headed over for scones and clotted cream at De Bakkerswinkel, on of our (many) favourite Amsterdam cafes.
Later, I met them at de Hollandsche Manege, the beautiful 19th century stables where Axa and Raj have horseback riding lessons every Friday.
The next day we were off to Germany. One of the advantages of living in a small country in Europe is that it only takes a few hours to get over the border into a different fairytale with interesting new food, a new language, and another style of beautiful architecture.
We were a bit disappointed that we didn't even see a sign on the road to tell us we had crossed an international border (although in general we love the EU open borders, and we really appreciate not having to change money in every different country we visit). However, it was obvious we had left the Netherlands at some point, since the flat scenery had given way to lovely rolling hills, and all the signs had changed to German.
Our first stop in Germany was a little town whose name escapes me, where we stopped for lunch, chocolate, and to soak up some interesting local scenery.
Then we pressed on to our first castle, Moyland castle, which is not only a lovely castle in its own right with an interesting history including Winston Churchill, but has been converted to a modern art museum.
The castle is guarded by four fierce statues, the most deadly of which is this pug:
We weren't allowed to take photos inside, but I figured they wouldn't mind one of Tony playing blocks in the kiddie room.
After planning his strategy in the playroom and then successfully storming the castle with his retinue, Tony paused to take a selfie from the tower.
We ended the evening at the impossibly adorable little house in a darling, typical German town where we would be spending the next couple of nights.
Doesn't it just look like a fairytale waiting to happen?
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flash back to Milano Cathedral, Italy |
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