Driving from the flat landscape of Zeeland into the southern part of the Netherlands into Germany with the rolling hills  is always fun. 

We arrived in Remagen in the early afternoon and were able to immediately check in. We aren’t actually in Remagen we are in Oberwinter which is right next Remagen. Our accommodation is beautiful!!

Remagen is a special place for me, I remember my father telling me about his time overseas during WWII. Remagen was one of those places. He said he was in one of the last companies to cross the pontoon bridge before the main bridge collapsed. And he saw the Bridge at Remagen collapse. I visited with my family when I was a teenager. My sister and her family lived in Germany. 

Our first full day we hiked to two castles, Drachensfels and Drachensburg. Drachensfel is a Roman castle ruin. Drachensburg is a castle built in the late 1800s. As we climbed up to the castle ruins at the entrance we heard this low growling like a bobcat. I backed way back and Noël kept going cautiously trying to find the source. It was a box with a dragon in it (not a real one 😂) and you could put money in it and it would talk to you. In our way down some people were listening to the dragon speak. Don’t ask me what it said it was in German. 😂

From there we walked down to the other castle. It was quite ornate and has had quite a history. Exchanging hands many times. 

There was a cute cafe on the property so we stopped and had a little snack, super healthy-a large pretzel and fries. The mayonnaise came in a small ice cream cup. 

We had a really great day. 

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