Updates on doctors visits

2 year scans done. Doctors results in. I had nodules in my lungs on the last scan and honestly they were freaking me out - I tried NOT to dwell on them and succeeded until the week of my scans. I had my doubts about them as they stated “can not rule out metastasis”. Great. This round of scans they indicated there was no issue with lungs however (why is there always a however?) these IS a lymph node in my groin (i should say rectum (or what’s left of it)). So although I thought I would be on yearly scans at this juncture I’m still on a 6 month scan schedule. Good news. Yay?  Yeah I can’t bring myself to be super excited about “we need to watch that area” comment but it’s not horrible news. Meh. I just need to see a castle and I’ll get over it. Ha!!

Lichtenstein castle

History and family

A handsome, knightly race, which continued to live until the 17th century, were the Knights of Lichtenstein. Their ancestral castle, the Lichtenstein Castle, rose above Honau directly above the sources of the Echaz on the site of the "Old Lichtenstein".

The Lords of Lichtenstein (the last Lichtenstein fell in 1687 in the fight against the Turks) belonged next to their stately headquarters also goods and rights in Honau, Oberhausen and Unterhausen, Holzelfingen and Kleinengstingen.

In the course of the city wars, the Lichtensteiner have variously incurred the revenge of the Reutlingen. The latter took possession of the castle and destroyed it in 1377. However, this castle was not rebuilt. Instead, the rule of Württemberg built another castle Lichtenstein. However, not on the square of the old castle, but 15 minutes away on a demolished by the Albwand rock cone of the same rock edge.

The castle, built around 1390, was considered one of the most defensive of the Middle Ages and withstood all attacks. However, she lost her place in 1567 as a ducal seat and fell into disrepair. In 1802 it was demolished to its foundations and replaced by a simple forest and hunting lodge built only a few meters away.

In 1837 Wilhelm Graf von Württemberg acquired the Forstschlösschen and its adjoining property from his cousin, King Wilhelm von Württemberg. Inspired by the novel "Lichtenstein" by Wilhelm Hauff, was built in 1840-42 to plans by the architect Heideloff and the ideas of the builder Count Wilhelm of Württemberg, a German knight's castle in the style of the Middle Ages. The new building included the walls of the old castle up to the second floor. The outbuildings, the castle courtyard and a ring wall with bastion-like towers completed the castle complex. The decorative decorations and murals in the interiors of the castle were done by painter Eberlein from Nuremberg.

The creative, invigorating soul of the whole, however, was "the illustrious client with his ingenious ideas always himself," as contemporary reports announce.With special love and his understanding of art and home (Count Wilhelm was the first chairman of the Württemberg Altertumsvereins) were the Schloss Lichtenstein, the romantic knight's castle in neo-Gothic style, was inaugurated in 1842 in the presence of the king.

In 1929 the "Civil Society of the Dr.-Ing. Wilhelm Duke of Urach Count of Württemberg "founded, as the desired Fideikomiss, a historical legal institution of inheritance and property law, was rejected by the Fideikomissgericht.

From 1980, the restoration work began on the outside and on the tower and roof. In the course of the following years until 1998, work took place on the first floor and on other important art historical buildings and objects. As of 1998, the restoration of the second and third floors, supported by the Wüstenrot Foundation and the promotion community for the preservation of the castle Lichtenstein performed.

SO we find out I have a thing for heights over large drops on natural stone.  I don't mind them as much went it's man made and sort of guaranteed to be sturdy - where natural earth could collapse on me... so i have a HUGE issue wanting to do what Butch is doing.  He asked me to sit on that tree and it was a hard NO!!  It's hanging over open air just beyond that curve in the tree... dropping hundreds of feet down the slopes to the valley.  uh, yeah... nope.

 Don't ask me to translate as I have no idea how.  But apparently this was an sea at one time and a large zone of erosion and there are a lot of fossils in the stones.  The whole monolith there is covered in them.  About 12" or larger.  Very cool to see.

 You can see the castle over our shoulders. (and see?  I'm on a man made jut out over the valley... no nerves here at all... but on a natural edge?  NOPE.

 Actually this shot is AFTER the tour and on the bridge.  I'm not sure what is up with the look on my face, but hey, it's a picture on the bridge proving we were on the other side :)

After the tour we stopped for a beer and some cake.  Well, Butch had some cake.  It wasn't my taste in desserts - it was apple crumble.  It was OK.... but nothing I really would enjoy.  I had about three bites - just to make sure.  The sad things about desserts here in Germany - they aren't that sweet.  This one had very tart apples in it... they were good, but not quite what I would have liked.

 

So after the castle we drove into Stuttgart and had dinner at a Mexican restaurant that Butch's golf buddies recommended.  It was surprisingly good.

 You do pay for chips and dips, but this was three different flavors of dips - NOT like the sttes, they are very small, barely dip a corner in dips, but they were good.  There was a sour cream something (white one on top) - then going clockwise, Salsa, guacamole (very tasty one at that!) and a chipotle flavored dip - quite tasty.  And my drink was a Bikini Bomber and Butch has something that I don't remember... sorry, it is my blog after all.  I think it's something with rum, but not sure.  I did take a sip of it.  It was OK.

 Butch got Fajitas.  The plate was NOT sizzling but the fun thing is the goodies to put on the fajitas.  There are cucumbers.  OK, not that weird... and COLESLAW.  Yes, we are in Germany folks.  Butch said it was a good coleslaw and he said he should have added it to one of his as it was good and may have been a good combo as well.  Sort of funny!  Welcome to Mexican food in Germany.  Still, the meat was tender and tasted good - I tasted the chicken and the steak on his and it was quite good.

 I opted for tiny burritos.  There was a chipotle, a chicken and a cheese with veggies.  The cheese one was meh... but the other two were great!  And again witht he dipping sauces.  It was a good combination.

After we ate we did drop by the base.  There WERE some parking spots near where we could walk in.. but LORD it was crowded!!!  Really super crowded.  I think had we not had a super full day we would have attempted to stick around and watch the fireworks... well, that and had some chairs as well - we didn't toss any into the car before heading out, so we would have just been walking around a few hours until we could see the fireworks then fighting the crowds to get out again?  Nope... didn't sound like fun to me for sure!!  So we headed home.  It's OK as I am not that huge a fan of fireworks anyway, so I don't feel like I missed a thing.

House update

Where we started some months ago 

New bathroom ivy

Where we are today. 

I think we shall look for one more plant stand. Apparently they are quite popular as I have been to IKEA twice in the last few months ant they had NO plant stands. Yesterday they had one. I grabbed it!!  I think one more will be in order ;)

Ludwigsburg Palace

 So - we're NOT looking at the camera because we're having dueling selfies here... he was trying to get his phone up in front of mine and get the selfie - ha!

OK, you'll see this map a few times during this narative... the first set of gardens we entered were to the south of the palace - but on THIS map it's to the top of the map - we parked down quite a way from here as it was inexpensive and we had NO idea how far we would need to walk to get there!  (as you can see in the selfies above as we had already walked a block on the way TO the palace...

From Google Maps - we parked where the circle is then walked to where the X is to take the selfie.  Then we walked all the way up and to the right all the way up to the top of the map to the to the maze looking place on the top left.

 The bottom geometric shapes were box hedges, fountains and mazes.  and ROSES... lot of roses....

This is the view of the gardens from the steps of the palace.  NOW the issue is this is a construction zone... they are working on the exterior of the palace and right now the kings wing.  The tour guide indicated that they would not be done until 2023 - so after we're gone, so no real chance to get a picture of the palace without the scaffolding.  :(

So - we'll just borrow this from the web and put it right here...

 This statue just made me giggle... isn't that like siblings there?  LOL

 Beautiful gates right at the base of the palace - at the fairy gardens area.... beautiful

 cute garden tucked away on the west side of the palace... #4 on the map

 gotta love the lichens and mosses around the rock works

 Where statues go to die?  Not really, looks like a storage area just inside the west courtyard of the palace. Not sure why they are there, but looks to be a staging around to store them while the area they are from is worked on/restored? *courtyard at spot 33

 Map again... as we head into the East Garden gates - just to the south of the map..aka where the red dot is!

 We kept turning right and walking through the smaller gardens instead of the main paths - saw a lot of neat flowers and small gardens tucked into the shaded areas.

 Entering the enclosed garden at #28 - they had egrets and other nesting birds that appear to be from warmer climates... and probably brought in during the winter.

 Item 25

 Item 28

 overlooking the gardens from Rapunzel's castle.

 There's fish in there!!!

 and a secret exit... down, down, down....

 But first a few more pictures!!

Then into the kiddie park!!

 Kiddie boat ride - see the video on facebook - it's hilarious!!!  It's at item 18

 Standing at.... hum...at spot #10 on the map - looking across the large road... note the deer and does in the shot... we didn't make it all the way over there to see where this went or what that building is - not even sure if it was included in the ticket(s) we bought...

 RIOT of color in the beds at the fountains at spot #8

 Meet Jerome - he is a professional sand sculpture.  Really - there is such a thing!  We had a nice long discussion with him regarding all of the sculptures that will be done from now until the 6th when they had a huge celebration with fireworks.  He is the art director for this event.  He also told us about the pumpkin carving contests they have going on as well.  Fun discussions with him!  The current goal for us is to get garden tickets on that day, bring a picnic and a blanket and head on over to see the fireworks and enjoy the celebrations!  We'll also go on to cheer him on to win a competition to create a sculpture in 48 hours. 

 Here is one that he had already finished.

 Those boxes on the edges *yellow with gray around them* are the sand sculpture boxes to be.. the one on the left is the one he was starting to work on when we started talking to him... the four on the right are the ones that will they will be doing the competition with.

After that Butch insisted on being FED before going on our interior tour.  Picky man...

 LOVE me some curry wurst...  And yes, that is french fries with mayonnaise. Hey when in rome and don't knock it until you try it!!  LOL

So from here my pictures don't exist because there are NO pictures in the interior tours.  Bummer.  If you WANT pictures inside you can register for a Sunday photo tour - but they are booked weeks and weeks out OR you can pay for a photo pass (what the brides all do) and you get a guide AND a photo pass to take pictures for 60 minutes throughout the palace.  Now that would be fun, eh?? 

Our tour consisted of us and one other couple and they were from Atlanta!  Small world!!

SO we're back to using maps and lines to tell you what we saw.
The red line are the rooms that we saw on the tour... the first section up to the LONG hall right beside courtyard 33 are the queens rooms - a TON of room... and what was most surprising to me was that the queens rooms had a chamber that had windows into an internal courtyard they had light in their living quarters... but the kings side did not - they were all interior.  The grand hall spanned courtyard 33 and was where they would host feasts.. the kitchen being WAY over there on the right side of the screen - that separate building.  So feasts were eaten cold.  News to me.

The off shoot was a theater put there sometime in the late 1700s.  It was quite ornate and you can actually go to plays in there ... good to know, good to know.

So, as you would guess, quite ornate and over the top and the part that possibly impressed me the most was seeing the FLOORS in one of the rooms - they were 2' wide with knots standing out because the wear on the rest of the floor was evident due to softer wood... shockingly interesting to see!!

And then she discovered stock photos!!!  Sweet!!

 OK, they are tiny, but they are here... this is the first room you would enter into the palace from the gardens.  Then you would go left or right depending if you were going to the Queen side (right) or Kin (left).. the king side was under construction.

Entering the Queens rooms....

I don't remember if this was the living room... I think it was considered that...

There was a main room where folks would come in and wait...

Then a greeting room

Then a throne room

Then a sitting room

yea LOTS of rooms along the front... like 5 or 6 before it turned the corner to the back side of the building, then you entered into the library and the room they would sit in and visit and play cards with their ladies in waiting... 

 The Throne room for the queen

 In the older part of the castle On the map - to the lower right side... where the first dukes lived before they finished the rest of the palace and became a king (it was his son, then a nephew, then a brother... it was a hot mess)

 VERY ornate hall at the end... it's the hall of "victory" or "prisoners of war" - aka - they were not very pleasant scuptures to look at at times.. the poor folks were emaciated and not looking too awfully happy.

The theatre - looking from the stage back out towards the kings box - in red.

AND when we completed the tourn in red... it was POURING outside so our sweet tour guide asked if we would like to go through the castle to the storage lockers (they made me store my purse (?)).  Of course, knowing I would have to go THROUGH the castle some more I said "yes, please"... and we got a 2nd wing "tour" that wasn't a tour... see the blue lines.  We didn't get a lot of history, but we did get to see it, so that was cool  There wasn't much difference between the sides, but the other gallery was pretty well the same as the first but with different pictures... and we walked through the ball room area that is now used for concerts - they had folding chairs and a stage set up with a huge grand piano on it.  I image it would be very nice to see a concert in there!!

And with that we were sent down the stairs and into the covered walkway to await the let up in the rain.  There was one wedding photographer taking pictures of a bride.  He was trying to talk her into going out in the rain, but she was NOT hearing any of that!!

Cant blame her, but it would have made for some NICE shots!!

And with that we went home for the night... it was an all day affair... 

and on Sunday this is an apt description of what we were - ha!