Approved For Mailing: The Dragon Castle

No time to spare... fresh off of our return home complete with jet lag, Michael planned a trip to a local castle! How did he get the kids to participate in such an exhausting day? simply by telling them they were going to see a 40 foot dragon of course. If only things like dragons really existed some fairytale creature you could view from safety and as long as you were willing to travel far enough, it would magically be there. Alas life does not work that way but somehow kids are still willing to believe it does, and that's why there so great, they almost make you able to believe too! So we drove into beautiful country and hiked up a hill to see the remnants of a castle that had met its end long ago but the views from the once grand stones was amazing. Elijah even caught some wild lizards ... his first in Germany. After taking in the view and a bratwurst we drove down the mountain to a reptile zoo, an very odd zoo. It began by winding down a very creepy tunnel until you came to ..... a forty foot dragon!!! Sure he was made of stone but he was there waiting to come alive when we turned our backs on him. The rest of the zoo was a fairly good collection of lizards and snakes that the kids enjoyed. Then we went up the hill to the newer castle Drachenburg with beautiful grounds someone was getting married in the castle chapel and releasing red balloons. The castle was full of history and had ebbed and flowed in a variety of different functions and losses through the years. It was a little too reconstructed for me and I much preferred Burg Eltz but it was still beautiful in its own way.... a great way to come back home to Germany.