Day 21 - Marksburg and Buttelborn

Today we left our castle and drove up the Rhine towards Koblenz. Seeing one castle after another- a sight that we never got sick of seeing. Eventually we made our way to Marksburg, one of our favourite castles that we have visited many times before.  (We still remember Mum puffing her way up the stairs when she visited us in Germany!)  Marksburg is one of the best preserved medieval castles in Germany - It was never invaded and as such has not suffered much damage over the years. In fact the most damage that the castle has suffered is due to earthquakes.  To visit the castle, you have to join a tour.  The tour was only in German but we had a book to follow in English, which i think we had the better deal as we had more information than the tour guide gave the Germans.

We then drove towards Rudesheim and Wiesbaden.  We didnt drive into Wiesbaden as we wanted to get  our friends house, Alex and Fouad, in Beuttelborn, near Darmstadt. When we arrived, their children, Hakim and Sarah, were outside waiting for us.  The children had made a big poster which was on the front door saying (in English) "Welcome to our House".  After a wonderfully warm welcome, we relaxed for a while, (including some coffee and homemade cake!) We then went for a drive to see a famous building nearbly, "The Hundred Waters House".  This is a very interesting building.  its very colourful,  and there are no straight lines or edges on the building, everything  looks like waves.  Next we visitied a large German furniture store , "Segmueller."  All the furniture is very modern in design.   Marilyn loved it.  I'm just not sure how we will manage to bring all the furniture back to Australia that Mazz is planning on buying . . . . . .