Day Trip with Mom and Doreen

On Tuesday, after our couple of days in Embken relaxing and exploring, Mom, Doreen, Mikayla, and I decided to go see the town of Bad Münstereifel while Darren had to go in to work. I had just been there when Brenda and Tony were here, but it was nice to be able to show this cute little walled town to my Mom and Doreen, too. It threatened to rain, like both the other times that I have been to the town, but it held off and we had a nice day there.

Doreen and Mom in Bad Münstereifel

Mikayla in her stroller, "talking" on the phone while we waited for Nana C and Doreen to explore one of the churches in town

Doreen, Mom, and Mikayla with their beverages at a cute little restaurant that we found in Bad Münstereifel. The waitress didn't speak any English, but we managed to order some milk for Mikayla, some Oktoberfest beer to try out, and some yummy shnitzels.

The roses on the table at the restaurant

Doreen and I at our table at the little restaurant

Mikayla, Mom, and Doreen in front of the little restaurant where we ate. Mikayla and Nana C spent quite a bit of time out in front of the restaurant while we were eating since Mikayla didn't want to sit still long enough to eat. She and Nana C "fed" the ceramic ducks that she is sitting next to in the picture. When Doreen and I came out after the meal we saw little bits of leaves on the duck's bills.

It was a fun day. We explored some of the little shops in town, ate a yummy lunch, and walked around some before we had to leave so that we could go pick up Darren from work.

Satzvey Castle and Bad Münstereifel

The Wednesday that Brenda and Tony were here, I stayed back at the apartment in Embken with Mikayla while they did some exploring of the area on their own. I had some things that I wanted to get done around the apartment, and I wanted Mikayla to get a day where not much was happening and where she was able to take a nap in her bed and not on the go in the car or in the backpack carrier. It turned out to be even better that I did stay home, since it rained almost the entire time they were gone. They had wanted to go see the nearby town of Nideggen, but only got as far as the entry gates to the old part of the city before it started pouring down rain and they had to turn around and go back to the car. They did drive around and see some of the Eifel National Park in their car, though.

When we woke up Thursday morning and looked outside, the sky looked clear. I think it stayed that way until about the time we were ready to leave, and then it started raining again. It rained on and off all day, but luckily there were enough breaks in the showers that we could get some sight seeing in. I was pretty excited about showing Brenda and Tony around this day, so I was glad that the rain didn't cancel our plans to go see Satzvey Castle and Bad Münstereifel.

Satzvey Castle is a great little castle located in a town about 20 minutes or so from Embken. I had passed by it before when I was first exploring the area with Mikayla, but had never gone in. Darren and I keep talking about going, but it had never worked out. It is a very well-maintained castle and it still has its moat. We parked and walked around a bit, but soon found out that we couldn't actually go inside the castle since it was closed on Thursdays. There were lots of workers around, setting up tents and booths and things like that for the Medieval Festival that they were having there starting the next day. We were able to get a few good pictures of the outside of the castle (as on the other days, most of the pictures in this post are Tony and Brenda's), but then headed on to Bad Münstereifel.

Burg Satzvey

Brenda and Tony in front of Burg Satzvey

Mikayla and I in front of Burg Satzvey

Part of the decorations for the festival

Map of Burg Satzvey

I was so excited to be able to bring someone else to Bad Münstereifel. I had been there early on in our stay in Germany, but only with Mikayla. And she wasn't nearly as excited to see the cute little walled town as I was. At the time I thought I would be bringing most of our visitors there to see it since I enjoyed it so much, but it hadn't worked out until now to come back. It was fun to be able to share the experience of the town with other people who were enjoying it as much as I did. And we got to explore even more of the town that I was able to when I was there the first time. We didn't even mind the rain that came on intermittently when we were there, since we were mostly able to duck into churches or places like that when it got too wet.

It was a little eerie when we were walking along near the city walls and what can only be described as an air raid siren started. Even though none of us there had ever been through anything that would be even remotely associated with an air raid, we all recognized the sound. It went on for quite awhile, then stopped. I asked my landlady about it later that night when we were back at the apartment, and she said that they do that when there is a fire in the village or if there is a particularly bad pile-up on the autobahn.

Mikayla touring the town in her stroller

Pointing out something exciting... maybe a birdy? Or a doggy?

One of the entrance gates to the walled part of the city

The main entrance to the castle above the town

Brenda with a British style telephone booth and post box... not sure why they are there, but we took pictures with them.

A suit of armor in a window of the castle

A garden walk in Bad Münstereifel

The walls of Bad Münstereifel

Inside the main church in Bad Münstereifel.

More of the interior of the church

Tony on a bridge in Bad Münstereifel

Tony and Brenda walked the walls of the old city while Mikayla and I walked below. This is one of the views that they had when they were up there.

More views from up on the wall

Brenda on the wall

The other big church in town. The one was called built in the Roman style, or at least that was how it was described.

Inside of the church

More inside of the church

The stained glass windows in the church were very unique and modern looking.

That evening, after Darren got home from work, we decided to go try out the little restaurant in town. Darren and I had never been there before, but heard good things from people around here. The one time we had tried to go before, it ended up being closed, so we were glad that it was open this day. Our land lady had a menu from the restaurant in our apartment, so we spent awhile before we went interpreting the menu and figuring out what we wanted. When we got to the restaurant, though, the owner didn't give us menus, but rather asked us if we wanted the Rahmschnitzel, which is a schnitzel with a cream sauce. I think it was the only thing being made that day. Luckily, that is what I had decided that I wanted, and the others were agreeable to trying it out. We were the only ones in the dining room the entire time we were there, and it was a nice place to eat. And they made the one dish well. It will be interesting to see, if we do go back, whether or not it is always that same schnitzel that they serve or if they rotate it to the other things that the menu said they had.

The Palandar Hof, the restaurant in Embken.

Our Next Visitors

The week after my brother Nate left was a quiet one for Mikayla and I. We spent the week mostly at home, taking walks around Embken, cleaning, and getting ready for our next guests. On Friday evening, our friends from near Oxford in England arrived. I had gone to school at Oregon State University with both Tony and Brenda the year that I transferred there. Tony was there on an exchange program from England for that year only, but I had classes with Brenda both years I was at OSU. She moved to England about five years ago to be with Tony and try out life in England. They just celebrated their second wedding anniversary. Brenda and I have stayed in touch over the years, so I was excited when I found out that they were going to be able to visit us while we were here in Germany.

For the first Saturday and Sunday that they were here, they had tickets to go to the Formula 1 Belgium Grand Prix, which was located just across the border in Belgium and not too far from here. So, even though we had visitors, we had a pretty relaxing weekend. We saw them during the evenings when they got back from watching the race, but had the day to ourselves to hang around Embken and do a couple short day trips to places nearby. Although Mikayla and I had had a relaxing week the week before and were mostly rested up from our crazy schedule, it was good for Darren to have the weekend to relax and not be working or traveling.

Tony at the Belgium Grand Prix

Brenda at the Belgium Grand Prix

On Saturday, after a lazy morning and after Mikayla’s nap, we decided to go back to Vogelsang IP, which we had visited shortly after we first arrived in Germany. This time, we were sure to get there earlier in the day since on our first trip we had only about 15 minutes to explore the place. We got there at a little after 5, and it was nice to actually see other cars in the parking lot when we got there. We did get there after the closing of the main office, so we weren’t able to get any tours of the place, but we had time to wander around and see many of the buildings. We found out that you can’t actually go into any of the buildings without paying for the official tour, but we tried to peek in windows where we could. It was interesting to read the signs and learn a little bit more about the history of the place. It was also nice to just get out in the sunny, though a little bit chilly, weather and hike around a little bit. Here are a few of the pictures that we took while wandering around.

A view out over the Rur River valley from Vogelsang

One of the main buildings at Vogelsang

Mikayla and I in front of a cat mural. The mural was made up of tiny individual tiles with pictures of things in the area and also of people's names from all over the world who had been there to dedicate Vogelsang IP (which stands for International Place) as a place of peace. Mikayla really loved the "kitty."

The track at Vogelsang. In the background there are the remains of several sculptures showing the "Ideal Man" in different athletic poses. This was a common theme in most of the sculptures and monuments left over from the Nazi era at Vogelsang.

A closer look at the sculpture. All of the statues are missing their heads and various other body parts since the occupying Belgian soldiers used it for target practice.

On Sunday we went to one of the swimming pools we kept hearing about that are in the area. The one we chose to go to was called Eifelbad, which was located near the town of Bad Münstereifel, although not in the walled part of the city. It was a lot of fun to see Mikayla’s reaction to seeing the swimming pool. She squealed in excitement when we walked out of the locker room and she saw the water. She had a lot of fun climbing around the kiddie pool area and was fascinated by watching the older kids go down the water slide. Darren took her down the slide a couple of times, and although she wasn’t really sure about it at the time, she has enjoyed talking about it in the days since. She keeps saying “Pool. Slide. Daddy. Splash.” It is fun that she is talking more and more and putting more concepts together.

Mikayla in the kiddie pool

Bad Münstereifel

On the second day that the car was available to me since Darren was carpooling to work, I decided that I needed to go somewhere and not waste this opportunity. I thought about just driving around and looking at some of the little villages that are around here that I hadn't seen yet, but then I talked with Mary, our land lady, to see what her recommendations would be. The first place that she recommended was a town called Bad Münstereifel. I looked on the map and since it looked to only be about a half-hour drive from Embken, I decided to go. I got a little bit later start than I had wanted since Mikayla woke up late, but a little before noon we were on our way.

It was my first time really driving by myself with Mikayla to somewhere new, but the trip was pretty easy and the town was a big enough destination in this area so that there were many signs pointing the way. It was well worth the trip. The town was amazing, even though it rained quite a bit of the time that . It is a historical spa town (thus, the name "Bad" in front, which means "bath") located in the Eifel mountain range. The town has kept its medieval walls intact, and the whole town is confined within those walls. It is small enough to see everything by just strolling around it.

Mikayla and I had a good time strolling around, taking pictures, and just enjoying the town. We ate at a little pizza place called Pinocchios, where Mikayla made friends with a nice couple that spoke a little English and flirted with the waiter. We bought an umbrella after we were forced to wait out a downpour in a bookstore, but mostly we just looked at the sights.

The entry gates to the city

Our first view of the city

Mikayla at the restaurant

The restaurant

More of the city

Waiting out the rain deluge

The inside of the city walls

A cross bow window in a gate tower