Our European Adventure draws to a close . . .

     It is Saturday evening. In less than 31 hours we will be leaving Bruchsal for the last time. It has been a truly amazing summer. I am blown away by all the things that we have been able to see and do. It really has been a dream come true. I can't begin to express how richly blessed I feel.
     Here's a few sunset pictures from a walk Andrew and I took one evening near our flat.

    Just behind our flat is the beginning of the countryside - houses with more property and orchards and crops. When we first got here, cherries were in season and we picked wild cherries on our walks. Then we found wild strawberries along the path and now apples are starting to ripen. It has been so much fun watch things change as the summer progressed.
    With our coming departure approaching so soon, we decided we should finally take a look at the sights that Bruchsal had to offer so last Tuesday the kids and I ventured out to the schloss (or palace) here in Bruchsal.

Gate house in front of the palace
The door on the right isn't real - it's painted on.

Front doors of the palace

     The palace was also the home of the German Mechanical Instrument Museum. Self playing instruments have been around for 350 years. In the museum we saw example of all sorts of mechanical instruments - more than just music boxes and player pianos. There were violins, harps, and even horns.

This one played the bells.

The "birds" in the cages sang. 

Piper did a little dance to one tune. = )

A musical desk

Music boxes with figures that "play" the tunes

Player pianos

    The silent movies of the early 20th century used mechanical instruments to provide the music during showings. There were some models that played many different instruments at once.

That one is a mechanical harp!

Mechanical horns

Mechanical violins!

Variety of musical boxes and books

     After we finished in the museum, we explored the palace. Maybe we should have visited the palace earlier in our time here. We probably would have been more impressed.

     The original palace had been constructed in 1720 as the home of the Prince-Bishops of Speyer. But it was almost completely destroyed during WWII. We saw pictures - it looked pretty bad. They have painstakingly restored the palace to it's former glory but some of the magic is gone when you know that all the artwork you are looking at was done in the last 50 years. Still it is very beautiful.

This is the front entry way.
The entire thing is painted on -
even the grooves in the pillars is just paint.

     Directly opposite the front doors, on the other side of the entry way, is the grotto, a circular room painted in earthy colors. It is suppose to give the impression of an earthly zone, the world of the common people, as contrasted with the splendor of the noblemen's level above. We kinda liked the earthly zone.

The bench isn't real - just painted on = )

     Walking through the grotto, we came to the Garden Hall. This room looks out into the palace gardens. Unfortunately, they did not have photographs of the painting done in this room so the restoration is not complete. You can see in the picture below - the ceiling is mostly bare.

I don't know what room this was, but I like the walls. = )

    Then we headed up the Treppensaal (or staircase). There are two sets of stairs - one curving up along either side of the grotto.

The grotto viewed from the stairs.

Taran found a great little hide-out on the way up. = )

The stairs lead to a circular room right above the grotto. The painting on the ceiling shows scenes from the history of the Bishopric of Speyer. On one side of the circular room is the Marble Room and on the other side is Prince's Hall.

The Marble Room
Taran looks like he's really enjoying himself, doesn't he?

Painting of the Perseus myth
in the Prince's Hall

The Prince's Hall

     We then went outside to look at the back of the palace.

They look so regal, don't they?

     Then we wandered through the palace gardens. There were several great statues. Not sure if they are original of reconstructions. But here are a couple of my favorites.

This one has a strange looking bird for a pet.

This one looks like she's afraid someone
will steal her basket of fruit.
She shouldn't worry - she's got a lion with her!

       We wandered into the trees and found a duck pond and a great tree for climbing. Actually, all you had to do was walk up it like a ramp.

The palace from the garden

Duck pond

     When we'd had as much fun as we could manage at the palace, we walked into the downtown part of Bruchsal looking for what my map called the "Big Bridge". This is what the "Big Bridge" turned out to be:

The Big Bridge

     Hmmmm . . .
     We spent the rest of the afternoon poking around in shops and eating gelato.

The town church in the middle of the shopping area.

     On Friday, we went out and about in Bruchsal again. This time we made a visit to the town garden and Belvedere.

View of Bruchsal from garden

We had no idea what a Belvedere was. It turned out to be this thing:

Piper and the Belvedere

     It was originally built as a hunting lodge. Now it just sits in the town garden looking pretty. Piper really wanted to climb one of the Belvedere's Chinese style towers but, try as she did, she could not find a way in to the stairs.

She even tried the windows!

     The garden had some lovely flowers, peaceful green spaces, and a great fountain.

Notice the grafitti on the pedestal.
It's a cat below that's just catapulted a mouse in the air with a spoon.

     Today, as our last day before "crazy packing" day, we went back to Heidelberg. That is the town we visited on our first weekend here in Germany. We only had time to see the castle that day, so we decided to go back and explore the town a bit.

I can't believe the leaves are already
starting to turn colors!

Bridge over the Neckar River

Strange baboon statue near the bridge
I need to research the meaning . . . 

Statue on the bridge

The kids are wearing the hats I just finished making for them.

Heidelberg Castle on the hill

City gate at the end of the bridge

Another statue on the bridge

Her shield has a rather strange face on it.

     The first thing we did when we got there was climb the Philosopher's Trail. The Romans were the first to build terraces up this hill to plant vineyards. It got the name Philosopher's Trail in the 18th century when it became the favorite stroll of certain notable poets. (Well, notable to some - I had never heard of them.) The walk offered gorgeous views of the town and the river.

     On the way up, we stopped at a little alcove for a snack and some practice in thinking philosopher thoughts. It went well . . . I think.

A little unsure at first . . .

Taran gets going. Piper's still stuck.

Taran looking very poetic . . . Piper giggling.

Taran reaches his conclusion . . . Piper, uh, totally agrees with him.

     The trail led to a little garden on the side of the hill. It was a beautiful place full of flowers, tropical trees, and, to Taran's horror, bees.

Chillin' in the Philosopher's Garden

     Back down the hill, we walked around the old part of town, mingling with the hordes of tourists. We got some lunch at a kebap restaurant. Taran got a pizza (surprise, surprise) and the rest of us got yufkas. They are wraps with roasted goat's meat, lettuce, and a yogurt sauce. (You can also have tomato and onion on it but why would you want to mess up a good meal?) This version also had some kind of cheese in it. Very yummy.

Lunch

      We looked at souvenirs, got gelato for the kids, tried out a Schneeball (pastry dough strips made into a ball then baked - ours was also coated in chocolate),and picked up some German gummy bears. The lady in the gummy bear store spoke perfect English so Andrew asked her where she learned English. She answer that she grew up in Texas. Turns out she is from the Dallas area too - she is doing her master's degree here in Germany. Small world, aye?

     We also found the "Fresh Tea Store" with dozens of flavors of iced tea. We've been missing our tea place back in Texas so we just had to try some.

I think she likes it. = )

      A couple more pictures of medieval Heidelberg and it was time to call it a day.

     On the way back to the flat, we stopped by IKEA. They had finally finished remodeling the show rooms so we had a good time looking around and brainstorming ideas for our house back in Duncanville. It was a great way to end our adventures - it got me excited about going home and got my mind off being sad about this adventure drawing to a close.

     Tomorrow I have to find a way to fit all our stuff back into the suitcases. It should be interesting . . . Pray for me . = )