Schwetzingen, Strasbourg, and Heidelberg

The weather here in Germany has continued to be wonderful, so we are making the most of it. After church on Sunday, we drove to Schwetzingen, a quaint town about 10 minutes from Heidelberg. Like Heidelberg, Schwetzingen is home to a spectacular castle. This castle was used as a "summer home" for royalty. In addition to the many detailed buildings and structures on the property, there were acres and acres of gardens. The daffodils were in full bloom as were all of the flowering trees. We must have walked for two hours and still did not see the entire property. In addition to the sites, there was a darling outdoor cafe and, as usual, Henry found an ice cream stand along the way.

On Monday John and I drove Bea to the American Consulant in Frankfurt to help her with her passport and citizenship. We made the appointment right after she was born and Tuesday was the soonest we could get in. I was amazed at how busy the consulant was. There were hundreds and hundreds of people applying for citizenship and trying to get passports to travel to the U.S. After two hours of going from window to window, we were successful and are anxiously waiting for Bea's passport to arrive.

On Tuesday we drove to Strasbourg, France. We have visited Strasbourg before, so we knew it was worth the drive. The city is just across the border of France and because it has been both French and German, it is the best of both countries. In addition to sight seeing, we took a boat ride on the Rhine River around the city and had a wonderful lunch outside.

On Thursday we finally toured the Heidelberg Castle. John and I have walked past it a several times and I drive by it 4 times a day taking Henry to and from school, but have not been inside yet!! As you can see by the photos below, it is well preserved and sits high on a hill, so the views are spectacular. It was a steep hike up to the entrance, but we managed.

We have made the most of the rest of the week, I will blog more later - it is difficult to keep up, we have been too busy.

Happy Easter.