Burg Eltz and Frankfurt

 Tom had a conference in Frankfurt a few weeks ago.  They flew in all the sales and marketing teams in Car Multimedia from around the world for two days of meetings.  We left on Sunday after church to drive down and see a little bit of the Rhine River valley on the way.  The Rhine River is known for its medieval castles.  I would be visiting this area with my parents in a few weeks but Tom wasn't going to be able to come with us due to work, so we thought we'd check it out a little first.  We had watched a "Rick Steve" video prior to coming to Germany, and he had recommended seeing the Burg  Eltz because it is one of the oldest and most authentic castles in the region.  It was built in 1472 by the Eltz family and is still owned by the same family today.  The Eltz family controlled traffic on Moselle River, a major medieval trade route.  Even though there were many wars in the region,  it was never captured or destroyed and still has a lot of the original furnishings.  We were able to go on an English speaking tour, which was great and we learned a lot about the castle.  We were shown only 11 of the 80 rooms in the castle.  We learned that at one time it was home to four branches of the Eltz family, ten knights, and about 70-80 servants.  We saw several bedrooms, the Knight's chamber, medieval kitchen, chapel, etc.  It was really interesting.  The Eltz family still have private rooms in the castle as well.  Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures of the inside. 

 Ainsley insisted on taking a picture of Tom with her "Screen phone."  It is a cardboard cutout from Tom's Vodaphone box.  She carries it with her all the time and talks on it.  Tom snapped this pic with his camera by his leg so she wouldn't notice.

Tom picked out a little sword for Sam as a souvenir.  We'll mount it on his wall one day and pray he doesn't get it down and hurt someone with it:)

After seeing Burg Eltz, we drove down the Rhine River Valley.  This river is surrounded by castles on both sides.  You can spot them high on the hillside.  All of these medieval castles used to be owned by German Princes and nobles who would tax the people and boats that traveled along the Rhine River because it was a major trade route. 

This regions is also famous for its wine making.  They built small walls along the steep terrain to grow the grapes.  It was quite a site.  Can't wait to see it when it is greener.  

When we got to Frankfurt, we stayed at the hotel where Tom was having his work conference.  It rained the first day so I stayed in the room all day.  That can get a little boring with a one year old who wants to get into everything.  The next day was nicer, so Tom dropped me off at the train station.  I took the S-bahn into the city.  First we went to the Marktplatz to check out the Rathaus and the two city churches.  Then we caught a city bus tour that took us around the downtown area.  After WWII, Frankfurt chose to rebuild their city modern rather than rebuilt all the historic buildings.  The Rathaus and few half timbered buildings in the Marktplatz are about the only historic buildings in town besides churches.  There are tons of skyscrapers.  Frankfurt is the financial district of Germany and it reminded me a little of Chicago.   

This was really interesting thing I learned about Frankfurt.  After WWII, when they were removing all the rubble, they came across these Roman foundations.  No one knew they were there before the war as buildings were built on top of them. 

St. Batholomew's cathedral built in the 14th century. 

Frankfurt's old historic Marktplatz

Frankfurt's Rathaus (City Hall)

Ainsley on our bus tour of Frankfurt

Frankfurt's skyline from our bus tour

St. Paul's church

 

We found a cute little playground along the river.  It was so much nicer than anything we have in Hildesheim.  Ainsley had a blast and could have played here all day.

After we went sightseeing in the city, we took another S-bahn to a Frankfurt suburb.  Tom was waiting for us with the car there.  We drove over to the LDS temple.  We walked around it and snapped a few pictures.  Then we drove the three hours back home.  It was a quick trip but a lot of fun.