Burg Eltz

My mom arrived here in Germany last week so as a Mother's day gift to her we headed over towards Koblenz on Saturday to go to Burg Eltz. This castle is a little different than most because it is in a valley where most castles are up on a hill, so when we got to the parking area that was on top of a hill we had to hike down to the castle. There was a van that could have taken us down to the castle but I decided I was up for the challenge and besides the view was better on foot then it would have been in the van. So we hiked down the hill, which as you can see from the pictures was actually really really steep, Nate and my friend Sarah were making fun of me since I had to lean back pretty far in order to account for my center of gravity being off because of the whole baby in my belly thing, but we made it down without falling and rolling and with only mildly aggravating my still very broken toe.

The tour of the castle was pretty interesting, you only get to go in a few rooms because the family actually still lives in most of the castle, but we got to see a medieval kitchen, bedroom and some cool weapons so it was worth it. My mom especially enjoyed it because this is only the second castle she's seen where as Nate and I have seen more than our fair share of medieval German castles.

Now I'm going to interrupt this blog about the castle to tell you that I don't think German people have ever seen a pregnant person before. Now I'm as surprised as you are seeing as Germans are humans who have to carry babies the same way we Americans do, yet for some reason I had people staring at me, not looking at me and then looking away which would be normal, but full on following me with their eyes until I was no longer in sight. I don't think I'm that odd looking that one needs to stare at me that intentely but whatever. Case in point, when I was standing in line to go to the bathroom at the castle the woman in front of me turned around and was staring at me, I looked to the right for awhile, then turned and looked to the left and she was still staring at me. Finally after, and I'm not exaggerating here, a full minute had passed I made eye contact with her and she turned back around. When I exited the bathroom and told Nate and Sarah about this they said that a group was staring at me through the bathroom window while I was in there as well. How creepy is that?

Anyways, back to my story. When we went to leave the castle we were going to take the van back up to the top because it truly was a very very very steep hill, but I decided I wanted to hike back up in the hopes that it would cause me to go into labor and then I could finally have my baby. Well I made it to the top with a few stops on the way but still no baby. Oh well, my mom enjoyed the castle and we had a good time.

I'm 39 weeks, only one week left til my due date.........Kincher and I are now racing to see who can have their baby first since we have the same due date, I urge you all to join my team, also known as the winning team.