Seaweed in the Danube

Our lovely Aussie friends who we stayed with live in the beautiful town of Donaworth on the Romantic Road in Germany. We had a relaxing few days just hanging out and recovering from the journey, and then finally on our last day in the area we felt up to a day out.

We headed to the castle Harburg, situated on the Danube. Our very first German castle! I am writing this 6 months on from the event, and so a few particulars have escaped my memory, but as I am endeavoring to honestly write about our experiences in our journey, I will admit that I remember a big lecturing session aimed at our kids as we ate our lunch outside the castle gates. I can't remember what it was about, probably fighting, whining, niggling each other.....the usual. We had only been on our trip for a couple of weeks and getting there was such an ordeal, that we were finding it hard to adjust to all the changes. The kids were having to deal with a lot of transition, and also being around each other all the time and the traveling in the car was all feeling rather hard. Anyway, lunch and lecturing over, we went to explore Harburg.

It was lots of fun to see a real castle and explore a bit. Before I traveled as an adult, I had only been to Kryal Castle in Ballarat Australia, which is kinda cool.....but it's a replica, not the real thing!! Harburg was built in the 11th or 12th century! We were able to show the kids the portcullis and the different keeps. We couldn't go inside without doing a tour, which wasn't available, so we just enjoyed looking around.

I was so glad to have come to Europe in the Summertime ( except for the fact that we always felt like we were dying from the heat ) because I got to feast my eyes on the most glorious green colours. That bright light vibrant green! I just couldn't get enough of it, it was glorious!

The next image shows my kids, head down bum up, into the well. This proved to be a foreshadow of things to come everywhere in Europe! Anytime there was water, my kids would try to dive in. Be it a pond, a well or a fancy fountain in a public square. Er...I'm not sure how bad this is etiquette wise? I hadn't thought to research 'appropriate child behaviour around public water sources' before we left. Oh well, it wouldn't have made much difference anyway, it's like they simply couldn't help themselves, like some bewitching nymph was always calling to them, beckoning them with magical promises of aqua delight if they would just lean in...a bit further.....a bit further......aarrrgh! Seriously, I think I have photos from all the fountains, wells, and rivers on our travels of our kids trying to leap in! OK, I have just noticed that Ross is doing the same thing in this photo......maybe he began it all?

I also took the chance to snap some cute pictures of the kids. Zahli was doing so many poses for the camera that she ended up laughing her head off at her own comedic genius, lol.