Kaub adventure

On Saturday our wonderful friends Kay and Petra invited us to their parents restaurant and for a little tour around the area.  Kaub only has about 900 inhabitants and it belongs to the World Heritage site since 2002.  This area has been inhabited since prehistoric times.  When they were excavating they found a tomb dated from around 500 BC. 

On the Rhine River there are only three bridges that cross it, so most of the time you take a ferry across it.  This is a picture Mom took on the way across the river.  She didn't know that we would be hiking up to the castle that she took a picture of.

We are at the bottom of the hill looking up, you can see how steep it is.

The boys at the beginning of the hike - they are off and running and ready to go!!!  Just wait till the end of the hike - they weren't running as much.  :-)

On the way up the boys found out some rock will write on the road.  They thought it was awesome!!!!

A view from the top of the hill - breathtaking!

Grandma, the boys and I at the castle.  This castle was actually used as a hotel for the longest time.  Petra had friends who lived in the castle when she was young and used to come up here to play.  How cool is that to say you played in a castle as a kid?!?

The boys found some larger rocks that they could write on and called it their "tablets."

There used to be a wall around the city of Kolb - this is where one of the gates where to get into the city and a watch tower.

This is another castle in the middle of the river.  We were planning on heading down there, but we were enjoying our stroll too much to hurry.  :-)

My goofy boys were having some fun with the camera!!!

I LOVE them so much and all their crazy selves!

Mom, David and Kay heading down the mountain.  It was so nice to have a personal guide through the city!!

My boys with the vineyards behind them.  Interesting fact with the vineyards around the castle are fairly new.  They had to draw lots to see who would get which part.  There are at least five or six different vineyards up on this one hill.

I hadn't seen these before in the vineyards.  They said they are a different way to irrigate and help the grapes grow.

This is the start of what is left of the wall around the city - it doesn't go really far, but cool that it still exists!!

This is Gebhard Leberecht von Bluecher who was a Prussian General Field Marshall.  In the war of 1813 he was the general who took the French army by surprise.  He came here to Kaub and crossed the river, which no one suspected they would come from that direction.  He led the final overthrow of Napoleon's victory at the battle of Waterloo.  He and Napoleon were two at the time most popular war heroes of the wars of liberation in Europe.

Back a few century's ago they used slate for their roofs.  It was a specialized job that took years to learn.  It died out until about ten years ago.  When the town was declared part of the UNESCO world heritage site, they said any remodeling must be done with slate, so they have re-opened some of the mines.

Our wonderful guides - Kay and Petra!!!!

So Mom had never been on a Rodabon before, since there was one close by we decided to take her.  :-)  AJ said he would take it easier on her since it was her first time.  ;-)

Mom and AJ coming down the line!!  Mom said she LOVED it!!!

Of course David and Michael wanted to go as well and had a blast like always!!!!  My boys sure do love these!!!

Then we walked Mom over to the Lorelei.  We had been there before, but it is so beautiful and we were right there so we took Mom over to see this beautiful view!!!

I love spring time and trees in bloom!!!!

David always cracking jokes and making people laugh!!!  I love it!!!!

So Petra and I decided to take the boys down the hill by walking - they were fine with the downhill and wanted to beat the others down.

Michael checking out what is in the water.  It is a little inlet by the Lorelei.

The rest of them was about ten minutes behind us.  Michael ran to the car to make sure they knew where we were.  :-)

Michael showing us his strength pulling up a chain where boats tie up to.

The main Lorelei statue - this is on the island from the picture above.

Such a handsome young man!!!  He is getting way too big!

My little monkey climbing the wall.  I really believe Michael was a monkey in a prior life.  :-)

We had done a lot of walking up and down this day and Michael was content holding his dad's hand and walking slow.

Next I was excited to take Mom to Petra's parent's restaurant!!  They have such AWESOME food there and they are soooooo nice!!!  The five of us outside their restaurant.

So we saw this with the two lions and were wondering about it.  We asked and they said for about a 20 year period, Kaub wasn't in any state.  The boundaries for both states on either side of them stopped before the town on both sides.  Hence the Freistaat (free state) since they weren't under any rule.  They finally figured it out and it was then put into a state.

These are new grape vines waiting to be planted.  They were nice enough to take my mom on a tour of their winery as well.

Because of the weather being a little rainy, the restaurant wasn't as busy as it usually is.  So it was really nice to just sit there and have Petra's parents be able to sit down with us and chat.  We had family style dinner and all enjoyed the food sooooo much!!!!  Of course we enjoyed the wine as well!!!  We tried 4 or 5 different wines and they were yummy!!!!