Abi's Spring Dance Recital

Last Friday Abi had her second and last dance recital with her dance group in Mannheim.  Despite costumes which were a little too much like "Little Miss Sunshine" for her Dad to handle, the recital was great fun.  (Luckily the person who sewed the costume tops didn't realize that when one stitches fringe onto elastic that if the elastic isn't stretched, then it looses its elasticity.  Thus, very few of the girls could actually fit into the tops and Abi now has a fringy top to dress up her baby dolls that cost her Dad $50.)   

The dance recital included both a tap and a ballet routine.   It was amazing to watch 3 and 4 year olds get up on stage.   The evening ended with each little girl receiving flowers and a trophy.  Abi was so proud of her trophy that she told Amanda that she thought we should display it in our curio cabinet - too cute.  Follow the photo album link on the right of the page to see a few more pictures  and we hope that everyone enjoys this small clip from the recital.   (Sorry about the poor resolution but I couldn't get anything better to post... I'm still learning how this whole blog thing works.)      

The Castles of the Neckar River Valley

Several weekends ago we took advantage of a beautiful spring afternoon and did some exploring here in the Neckar River valley.  We drove about 20 minutes from our home to the cities of Dilsberg and Neckarsteinach where five castle ruins remain nestled on the river's banks.  

Dislberg, Germany is a fortress city which sits a top of a small mountain - hence the "berg" in its name.  The walled city complete with castle ruins will celebrate  its 800th anniversary this year.  (To offer some perspective, Dilsberg existed for over 300 years before the Iroquois formed the League of Nations in what is  now the U.S.)  The very small city is complete with cobble stone streets and walled defenses.  It was amazing to walk around and see people still living within the city walls.  One of the most impressive  views of the city from our second stop of the

 afternoon Necharsteinach.                        

        

              

Necharsteinach, Germany is a small city with four castles, with two accessible to the public.  To get to each castle ruin we walked along some well-traveled walking trails and despite the age of the ruins, we were able to climb up and into the existing towers.  Hintersburg (pictured below with one central tower) originated in the 12th century and was closest to the river.  Schadeck (ruins pictured below with two towers) was started in the 13th century and a 15 minute walk from Hintersburg.  You can see from the picture that between 100 years and about 1 kilometer, architecture took a huge leap.