“My favorite thing: Going where I’ve never been.” – Kapten & Son
Today we decided to go on a little adventure to Parkstein. It is a quaint town built on the side of a dormant volcano and next to fortress ruins. On the peak of this volcano is an old church. It actually reminded me of the tiny church Justin and I held our wedding at, except Lipstadt (where we got married) is not as decorated as this church.
Parkstein is about a 15 minute drive from where we are staying, but we ran into Umleitung (detour) signs smack dab in the middle of this town. When I say this was a quaint town, I meant it. We had to drive out of the town and around a farm in order to follow this detour. It was actually kind of comical considering Justin and I were both wondering where exactly this detour took place. It took us out of the town on, what appeared to us as, a one way street, into the forest, and around a field of corn! But alas, we found the path up to the peak perfectly fine.
When you get to the church, you can open the door and peak inside, but there is a gate blocking you from the pews and alter and also from going upstairs.
Seeing these ruins, although sparse, have me excited to go and see more ruins and the castles that are standing today! I really enjoy history and trying to envision what occurred where we are standing. This was a fun, spur of the moment trip since we had originally planned to go on a MWR trip to two castles today, but the trip was cancelled. I plan to go to the rescheduled trip, that is conveniently going to be the same weekend as our anniversary. 🙂
We ended our day with a late lunch at a Hotel Gasthof “Zum Stich’n”. Most places (grocers, restaurants, etc) are closed here on Sunday, the girls and I were starving, so I was happy this place was open.
Justin and I both got schnitzel that we shared with the girls and I finally got to practice my German with the waitress. I’m sure she was cringing at every word I said, but it felt good to finally get over that hump. Hopefully I start to gain confidence and begin trying to speak German to natives. We shall see!
Bis Später!
P.S. Here is the link to the museum site for the volcano and rock cellar. I wish I had discovered this site before because I LOVE museums and the rock cellars look like another fun free thing to do! http://www.vulkanerlebnis-parkstein.de/en/
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