101st Post!!!

Well constant reader, it looks like we've passed the century mark... I would have actually had a post celebrating the 100th post if I noticed it when I made the last one, but everyone makes a big todo about 100... 101 is better... hehe

Today was a beautiful day. I slept in a little bit, yet still got an early start on the day. Calvin told me about a sweet burg that he'd visited in his time here in Germany so after finally getting the name of the place from him while I was back home today was the day for the visit. Originally I'd planned on going last weekend, but was totally miserable on Sunday. Still totally miserable, but with some aspirin, I made it down there today. It's called Burg Eltz and is a 12th century castle. It's nestled in a little valley which was a nice hike down, but in my weakened state, quite the pain coming out... similar to Muir valley in the RRG...
I had intended to park in a small neighboring city and hike to the castle, but without addresses, or any knowledge of the area, I simply plugged the castle POI into my navi and let it guide me... well at least until it wanted me to drive through a field with two tire ruts in it (how is such a road on the maps in my navi?). At that point I gave up, turned the navi off, and drove around until I found a sign that said Burg Eltz. I had researched this one so I had an idea what to expect, but was unsure of whether I would have to take a Deutsch tour or I could get an English tour... I didn't really expect there to be that many people, but I was wrong and they had rotating English/Deutsch tours every 15 minutes. After a brief taunting from the rampart... something about our mothers being hamsters and our fathers smelling of elderberries... a brief rain of catapulted cattle, chickens, and swine ensued. Finally we were allowed entrance after being taunted a second time. (name that film)
Since the castle is still privately owned, having one section of the 100+ rooms closed off as the families vacation home, there were no pictures allowed inside. Being part of a small group with the guide always watching I actually abided by the rules this time so no pictures of the 500+ year old furniture, paintings, interiors. Some interesting points were the main meeting hall, the kids room with one of the oldest 15th century beds still intact, and the trophy hall. There was a 20+ point buck antler hanging, as well as an early 1900's elk antler that was bigger than me hanging on the wall. The three families that comprised the original owners of the castle were obviously filthy rich. There were tapestries from Belgium, France, china from China (18th century). After a brief duel between the butler and a Scottish lord regarding the sale of the tapestries we concluded the tour of the castle proper. (name that film)
The last part of the tour was inside the treasury for those items that were, 'so expensive that they required proper containment,' as the guide put it. That was cool. I did take pictures there since there were not any 'no pictures' signs. The highlights of that were the old time weapons that had actually been used and all of the gilded silver items. Again... These people were filthy rich. Check out the 5' tall gilded silver statue (above) at the entrance to the treasury and the full suit of gilded armor. I think they have more gear than the treasury at Aachen, although not quite as historically significant as pieces of Charlemagne.

So I had lots of good history today, now it's time for a nap then I'm going out on the town with Kai. Jokingly she commented that we would leave for climbing tomorrow around 5am. My response, 'so I guess I'm driving then and we're not sleeping tonight?' It was a good laugh. Expect pictures from the Eiffle sometime Monday, or nothing at all should the weather turn bad or I fail to summit any of the routes... in that case expect a diatribe of my disappointment with hippies and pointless protests... though the cops did shut down part of the city as a result of the protest today... still, hippies...