Castle Ronneburg

Friends,

I’m back from my vacation to Germany. I went to visit my family; but for my 8 year old, who learned about medieval history last year, I called it  “end of the year class trip”.  I wanted him to see a real castle, built in 1213. So my sister took us outside of Frankfurt to castle Roneburg. I grew up with these castles all around me, but it was a whole new experience seeing it as an adult.

Here is my son Shane (to the right) with his German cousin sitting on a cannon. They had so much fun running around; we came early enough to have the place to ourselves.

Here he is being publicly shamed.

One of the great halls used for feasts.

As a wanna be writer this writing desk is so appealing. It might just compel you to put your laptop aside and write a hand written letter once again…

Had we come a few days later there would have been reenactments, bow and arrow shootings, medieval music, and much much more.

So, if you find yourself in the neighborhood, you must go and see it. I surely will schedule my next visit around their festivals, and I would bring my 14 old son who could identify all the weapons displayed there.

 

 

Castle Ronneburg

What to do with Vacation Mementos

As I mentioned yesterday I am in serious vacation mode. I’m a sucker for foreign train ticket stubs, park entrance tickets, etc. Really anything they hand to me, I have a hard time letting go of. Maybe some of you are like that, too. In that case  the ideas above might be useful to you. I used to be an avid scrapbook-er, so the first  ones appeal to me. However over time, as I got more and more behind, I switched to going all digital . Now, if I want to remember special visits with my kids and their cousins I use Shutterfly to lay out my book, and get it printed. The last one is a book I made for my nephew after he visited us 5 years ago.

Who knows, when I come back from Germany with a gazillion train tickets I might ask my crafty 11 year old to make me cute book like the one pictured on the very top.

How about you, what do you with your vacation memories? Do you fill a jar with sand to remember a certain beach? Or do you fill shadow boxes with European pub coasters? I’d love to hear.

What to do with Vacation Mementos

I’m going on vacation!!

Summer is here!! And for the first time in 12 years (!) I am actually going on a 2 week vacation to Europe (I’m going to pretend my last trip to freezing Germany in January never happened).
A traveler needs a suitcase. I stumbled upon the Container Store’s new line of suitcases. Whatever happened to boring, black, and heavy?? These are so fun. I ended up buying the 360 degree Ricardo (last picture) in grey from Costco, cause they are cheaper and I share with my men, who won’t go for polka dot or orange. Though the orange would have been my pick. Have a look, which one is your favorite?

Gallery