Wednesday, October 8, 2008

We left Europe from Dusseldörf, Tuesday, saying good-bye to renewed and new relationships, wonderful sights, delightful events, and much sight-seeing. Words will never be able to fully express the events we experienced in the last four weeks. Our Dutch daughter, Ilona, may have said it best, ". . . .too much to tell. No words, no stories would be fully understood by the ones that didn't share them. The best memories are the hardest ones to explain. They are kept in the heart."
To all those who made this possible, our families and friends in the USA and our European families and friends, we can say only, "Thank you".
Peace,

Mike & Marcia Biklen

October 6, 2008 - Rhine River Valley

Our final days.
Icing on the cake.
A cruise on the Rhine River preceded by our stay in this "hotel"; a restored old wine storehouse from the middle ages; in Bacharach. The room was wonderfully appointed. The propriatress is Philippina.

This section (which includes Bacharach) of the Rhine is a mountain valley populated by a large number of picturesque castles overlooking the river.

They were of local rulers who would string chains across the river to extract tolls from those who travelled the river. Wars were fought between these local rulers as well as between nation-states: Rome, France, Prussia, Germany. All but one of the castles were destroyed by Napoleon but have since been rebuilt and restored.
Even though it was cloudy and rainy, the fall colors were spectacular.

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Yesterday and today, we drove to Carmen and Sebastian's hometowns; Bad Arolsen and Fritzlar.
These are Carmen's parents with Marcia, Carmen and Lene.


Bad Arolsen has a quite ornate castle through which we toured. The paintings and the decorations were really exquisite.


Today, before we went to Fritzlar, we went to Wilhelmshöhe Castle (Kaiser Wilhelm's castle in Kassel) which has an art museum with Europe's largest collection of Rembrandts along with many other painters, including Van Dyke, Rubens et al.
This is Fritzlar, Sebastian's hometown. The original town is still virtually walled. And it is quite quaint, typical of an earlier age. Fritzlar is much larger and "modern", but this area is still completely used with shops, cafes, and residences.

Tomorrow, we leave for Bacharach, where we stay overnight before taking a cruise down the Rhine River.
As in Holland, the hospitality that we have experienced here in Kassel has been wonderful. We have had the opportunity to meet the families of Carmen and Sebastian and have had some wonderful food and fellowship.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Yesterday, we explored Kassel. It is the home of the Brothers Grimm, of Fairytale fame.
This is the Brothers Grimm museum. Almost everything was in German; we had to use our German/English Dictionary and our imagination, a lot. There were a lot of illustrations from a wide variety of artists (including Japanese), and it was fun identifying the tales from those drawings. It has renewed our interest in the work they did.
We also had the fun of exploring Kassel by tram (another excellent form of travel in Europe).
Today, Carmen and Sebastian took us to Waldeck where there is quite a castle of the Waldeck family. This view is from the dam at Edersee, a resevoir on the Eder River, that was also impacted by the destruction of the dam during each of the two World Wars, with the loss of a lot of lives.
The castle included a museum that went through torture chambers which included this cage/jail which spun around to make the person inside very sick.
Any explanation for why Marcia is smiling and Mike is crying for help?