Wesel & Schloss Burg

 Our hotel room backed onto a little grove of trees, and Em's bed was right next to the window. When I woke up, she had been watching the animals in the grove for a while. I got up and watched with her while Max slept. We saw lots of birds and a mouse, but the coolest was a deer. It was hard to get a good picture of her, because she blended in so well. We could really only see her when she was moving. Em did get one good picture, though.

She's curled up in the middle

We were seriously under dressed for breakfast, but oh, well. On the tables, there were pretty little votive bags with Easter poems on them. Em was able to read the whole poem.

One thing I loved about the hotel was that it had little bookshelves hanging all over the place in the halls.

There wasn't a whole lot we wanted to do in Wesel, but we really wanted to find the sign that said it is sister cities with Hagerstown. We figured that a main road into town would be the best place to find the sign, so we went back around to a main road from our hotel (normally, there are back roads to get into town proper from the hotel). We found the sign no problem, but the lighting was horrid.

Then, Max reminded me that there might be a Hagerstown Street in Wesel, like we have Wesel Blvd in Hagerstown. I remembered that there was! I had looked it up a few months ago, when we were first thinking about going there, but I had completely forgotten about it. So, we programmed Hagerstownstrasse (street) into the GPS, and found it!

We also found another sister city sign. But, in both cases, the lighting was again terrible. Ah, well. We still saw them.

Then it was time for Schloss Burg. I love Tudor history, as you may remember from our trip to the UK last year, and even more if you read my blog from our trip to England in 2009. Schloss Burg may or may not be the castle where Anne of Cleves grew up. There is very little information on her childhood. Schloss Burg isn't actually in Cleves, but the records have her parents as being there. But there's no mention of her anywhere in the castle. The only place I found that said she grew up there was Wikipedia, so who knows if that's correct.

But anyway, it was a great castle visit, nonetheless. Today was Easter, so there were special celebrations. The castle grounds included several little pieces of village - shops, restaurants, etc.

I thought this guy looked like a depressed French painter from the late 1800s

There was a man in an Easter Bunny costume handing out eggs. Em was a bit creeped out by him.

There was a cool carousel that said it was a steam carousel, but I don't know if it's still operated by steam or not.

And, lo and behold, there was another falcon show. Well, this one wasn't really a show, it was falcons that you could hold for 3 euro. Maybe they had a show before we got there, but holding them was just fine for Em! She held a medium-sized falcon,

while Max held a big eagle

In the inner castle courtyard (the part you had to pay to enter), there was a medieval camp set up, complete with people cooking

And sword fighting

Em got put in the stocks

From the courtyard

From inside

The castle itself was one of the most homey that we've seen. It wasn't huge, and it was very much more of a castle than a palace. The rooms were still large and pretty, but more simple than some that we've seen.

The main hall

The walls were beautifully painted and carved, but not so ornate.

In the chapel. I love that even angel babies give kisses by eating your face

There were scenes of family life that I really enjoyed.

A little boy playing horsey on somebody's shoulders

After the castle tour, we were hungry. We went to Der Waffelhaus for lunch.

Max & I each ordered what we thought was a little lunch plate. It said it had some toasts, a pretzel, coffee or cocoa, and a waffle with milk rice and hot cherries. Em got a waffle and a cocoa. The cocoa was lovely. We each got our own pot and bowl of cream. It was probably the tastiest cocoa I've ever had in my life. The cream was real, and the cocoa was thick and wonderful.

The first thing that came was the waffle. Holy crap, the thing was huge. I couldn't finish it. We ended up taking most of the toast and pretzels home, because there was no way I could eat them. Max was pretty full by the time they came, too.

After that, we started home. I was exhausted, so Em went up front to keep Max company, and I fell asleep in the back. I woke up when we were almost home. We were passing through Mainz-Kastel, the town on the other side of the river from us, when we saw signs for a Medieval fest. Max really wanted to go, so we did.

It was fun. There were a lot of booths to visit. I got some homemade yarn, Max got a boar skin to hang on the wall in his Pirate Room when we get home, and Em got a little scrap of fur from something's head. There was a whole basket of fur scraps, and she picked the one she liked best. And, there were more falcons! Apparently, Easter is falcon time in Germany.

A hand-cranked ferris wheel

Checking Facebooke

After that, it was time for home and sitting. A lovely weekend.

Emma says-  I saw a deer, a bunch of falcons, a weasel, rabbits, and a mouse on this trip. So many falcons! I was in falcon heaven! I liked the castle, it was fun. It wasn't like all of the other castles we've been to. It was more open and just felt different. And, there were a lot of people there for Easter. Oh, and I got an eagle pendant. The waffle was so good, but it was so filling. I was sad when I wasn't able to eat the whole thing.