Heimbach with Brenda and Tony

After their weekend spent watching the Belgium Formula 1 Grand Prix, Brenda and Tony were ready to start the more relaxing part of their vacation in Germany. On Monday, while Darren had to go to work, the rest of us slept in late (I entertained Mikayla in our room for a bit after she woke up so that they could sleep a little longer), ate a leisurely breakfast, hung around for a bit more deciding what to do that day, ate lunch, and then finally headed out the door to visit Heimbach. It was a beautiful day and we thought we would do some hiking around the town there and explore a bit.

We did a little bit of hiking, but then saw that the castle was actually open to visitors. Every time that Darren and I had been there before it had been closed for construction, so I was excited to get to look around a bit. We were walking by the river looking at the castle and I was in the middle of saying how the castle wasn't open to visitors due to construction when we looked up to see a man walking around the top of the tower. And since Brenda and Tony love to tour castles, we cut our hike a bit short to head back to the castle. Here are a few pictures from our time in Heimbach.

The Rur River in Heimbach with the castle in the background

Brenda, Mikayla, and I in front of the castle gates

Heimbach Castle

Looking down the spiral stairs in the tower of Heimbach Castle

Mikayla and I

A view out over Heimbach from the top of the tower

Mikayla eating an ice cream cone. She is getting pretty good at eating the cone and not getting too messy. In fact, she didn't even get her shirt dirty while eating this cone. Tony, however, did need to use some of the wet wipes we had with us to clean up a bit after his cone exploded all over his shirt and hands.

It was a good day. We had fun doing a little exploring of the town and castle, then heading back to our apartment in time for Darren to get home and make a little dinner. We made them some German sausages with sauerkraut so that they could get a little taste of Germany. We also followed it up with some nice chocolate for dessert.

Dinner out in Heimbach

Here is Darren to talk about the dinner that he had with his parents. I stayed home with Mikayla so that they could have an evening together.

I asked my parents, "What would you rather see, a castle on a cliff or a castle by the river?" There were mixed results so I was the tie-breaker and I chose to go to Heimbach on the Rur River. It is a beautiful little town in the Eifel wilderness (I believe Tracey wrote about it some time before) and is not very far from our village.



We tried to go to a good little restaurant that Tracey, Mikayla, and I had been to before but it was closed. We knew that when we saw a little old lady trying to get in through the front door but not having any luck. There was another restaurant nearby that was open so we went there instead.


Afterwards we headed to see the castle, it was cool to see in the dark and not too spooky (See the earlier post of Heimbach to see a full picture of the castle). We took off down a path that led to the river and a sweet playground. The best part of it was the zip-line that my Dad and I took full advantage of. By then we were finally tired and headed off for home. It was a nice evening with my parents.

Heimbach

On the first Sunday that we were here in Germany we decided that we wanted to drive around the area a bit to get oriented. We went on a long walk around our villages and to several of the neighboring villages the day before, so we felt like exploring a little further. We first went to Nigedden, which is a bit larger than the village we live in, Embken. The address of our house actually says "Nigedden" since our village is incorporated in the city of Nigedden, even though it is about 8 km away. Nigedden is supposed to have a nice castle you can hike to and tour around in, so we decided to start our day there. Unfortunately, it was raining really hard when we got into Nigedden and didn't show any signs up letting up. So, we continued driving past the town and into the Eifel Wilderness area. It was a very beautiful drive up and down mountains, through picturesque little villages, and over and around the river Rur. We enjoyed the drive, even though Mikayla got a little stir crazy being cooped up for so long and she hadn't yet adjusted to the time zone here.

And then we got to the village of Heimbach. We drove into it by accident, looking for the right road to get us back to Embken, and we were glad to have stumbled upon it. It is nestled along the banks of the Rur, in a little valley that offers many hiking trails. When we first drove into the village it was having some sort of festival that looked like a lot of fun. We thought about stopping, but we needed to get Mikayla back home and into bed. So, we put it on our list of places that we needed to get back to and really explore.

We ended up getting back to visit much earlier than expected. The next Thursday we went back in the evening after Darren got home from work and had dinner there. Going back to Heimbach was great, not only because we wanted the chance to explore the village and its surrounding areas, but also because it gave me the chance to get out of Embken. I really enjoy the village where we live, but I had been going a little stir crazy that week. It was Darren's first week of work, so he was gone all day with the car and tired when he got back. I think that was the first time in my life where I had been truly stuck in a place and not able to get out and do something if I wanted to. It is amazing how trapped I felt, even though Mikayla and I went on a walk every day for at least an hour. But not being able to communicate with most of the people that I saw and not being able to get out of a few-mile radius got to me after a few days, especially since at the time I didn't see any other options for the time that we are here.

So, getting out and going to explore Heimbach and eat out was a very exciting thing. We still need to go on some of the trail hikes that are offered around there, but we had fun walking all over the village and looking at the castle that sits above the city.

Darren and Mikayla with Burg Heimbach in the background

The River Rur at Heimbach

Fiddler Statue by the river

We had a wonderful dinner at a little restaurant called "Zur Alten Muhle", which means "The Old Mill". The building, when it was built in 1657 was a mill and even has the old water wheel on display inside. We ate outside in the patio area since the weather was nice and it gave Mikayla a place to run around. I enjoyed my Jagerschnitzel, which was the first truly German food that I had had since I had cooked most of our meals since we arrived. Mikayla ate most of her sausage and fries, and Darren enjoyed his meal, though neither of us could remember the name of it after he ordered it.

Darren practicing German phrases so he could talk to the waiter

Our meal

Mikayla

Mikayla wandering in and out of the restaurant after the meal. The waiters were really understanding about a little one underfoot and even smiled and tried to get her to talk to them.