Welcome again to our adventures in Europe. It's Sunday morning and raining--again! We have had a few nice days, but have been overall surprised by how often it has been cloudy and/or raining. It hasn't "rained on our parade" however as you can tell from the pictures that follow.
So many castles and so little time! This is an impressive one about half hour from our home. We didn't stop to tour the inside of this castle in Braunfels; but these impressive, centuries-old structures dot the land here. The town square buts up against the castle walls and gates and is a charming place to have lunch. (or shop?)
This is the small market square, Braunfels. Gary is smiling because he is anticipating a lunch of fresh white asparagus (called Spargle), potatoes, and snitzel for lunch. No, we are not losing weight, but we walk so much we aren't gaining that much either.
This is looking over Speyer, Germany--another town with roots to Roman times and with a medieval history.
As you can see, not every thing in Speyer is medieval. This is a pretty cool shot of a 747 taking off, but it's not really taking off. It's a full size static model which is part of an air, locomotive, and car museum in Speyer.
More of Speyer as seen from a rather old tower over the old medieval gate to the city. All of the old cities were surrounded by a wall for protection with guard towers. This one in Speyer is pretty tall and good views!
On the way back from Speyer we stopped in Lorsch, Germany. You can see that there are still some holdovers from the middle ages in this town. These are locals preparing for a parade through this little town. (Reminded us of the Oakley parade - for those of you familiar with that--at least in the sense of a local, home grown affair) Falconry was big in the middle ages.
Here we have the serfs getting ready to start the parade. They are near one of the towns old wall an impressive gate and watchtower. It is among the oldest in Europe still standing.
Notice the medieval maiden (??) next to the serf. Yes, Mel has this need to mingle with the natives where-ever we go:) This was the staging ground for the parade.
We moved to a better viewing location to see the pageantry. This is a shot of the actual parade: serfs, maidens, knights, princesses, monks and the pope? Sorry, this photo doesn't show the horses and dragon already mentioned.
And here we have the local drum and fife corps. Not exactly the US Marine marching band, but they added nicely to the festivities. Mel finally got one of them to smile! They were taking it way too seriously:)
Have you seen so many castles that they are just like the local grocery store now? Looking forward to your pictures of Prauge.
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