The Pastry

 

On Monday, Ethan and I decided to try our local bakery and then take our treats to the river to enjoy.  I wasn’t wanting anything sweet, so I decided to get a plain roll.  Ethan, on the other hand, had a hard time choosing with all of the different kinds of donuts they had.  He decided on this very fluffy looking one with white frosting and coconut on top.  On the way to the river, we talked bout sharing our treats so we could try each others.  He finally agreed upon sharing one bite, but anymore than that was not fair because I only had a roll and he had a donut.  When we pulled them out of the bag, we noticed his had some dark stuff on the outside.  To me, it looked like a chocolate filling and he got really excited.  We shared our first bites, then enjoyed our treats.  I was so hungry I finished my very tasty roll before he got to his center.  Come to find out, it was not chocolate in the middle.  I have no idea what it was.  I tasted a very strong cinnamon, sugar, some kind of fruit, like prunes or something, and some other very strong spices that I couldn’t distinguish.  Needless to say, he did not like it.  We tried squeezing it out, but it only made it worse.  Poor kid, was so disappointed and I didn’t have any of my roll to share with him.  That should teach us to order something I couldn’t pronounce.  He enjoyed collecting shells at the river anyway.

Here are some pictures of our street, our gate to our house, and our front door.

It doesn’t look like much, but we enjoy calling it home.  One of these days, if we ever get it done, I will post pictures of the inside.

Eltville and the Rhein

A few weeks ago James and I had the pleasure of watching some friends’ kids while they went on vacation.  It was very eye opening for all three of us.  I’m afraid we tend to get set in our ways and routines and so we had to do some adjusting, but we enjoyed having Grant and Sydney with us for the week.  One of the days we decided to get the kids out of the house and explore our cute little village, Eltville, and walk along the Rhein.  We are so fortunate to be only a ten minute walk from the river.

The peach colored building on the corner on the right is our bakery.  Yes, it is only a couple of minutes from our house.  I ventured there for the first time today.  It was awesome!  I haven’t been that impressed with the other bakeries we’ve visited so far, but this one was sooo good.  I cannot wait to go back.  Ethan went with me and I took a picture of him with the treat he picked out.  I will have to post it and share the rest of the story soon.

 

There are a lot of really cute shops down this strasse.  They are expensive, but their stuff is super cute.

I love the cobblestone streets too, except when I’m in heals.  We were at the temple on Saturday and they have cobblestone walkways around the temple.  I wore heals and that was not so much fun.

 

The leaves are so beautiful right now too.  I am loving fall here!

Along the river they have all of these benches set up with these very cute trees.  I keep saying I’m going to come down here and enjoy a good book for an afternoon, but I’ve waited too long and now it is way too cold.  Who knows, maybe I’ll brave it anyway.

   

Poor Ethan, just as I pushed the button to take this picture, he biffed it on the rocks.  I have such great timing.

Here is our very own castle.

Right next to the castle is this beautiful flower garden.  The smells in here are amazing.

I would love to live in this place and have a view of the garden from my windows.

Here’s another bench I want to come sit on and read.

 

The doorway to the secret garden, as Ethan calls it.

Auerbach Castle

Our first castle experience!!  We ventured there while we were still in the army hotel, so this was over a month ago.  This was before the leaves were really starting to turn colors and while we could still wear short sleeves.  I put a lot of pictures on here, but keep in mind that this is actually only about 1/3 of what I took.  It was hard to narrow it down, it was such a fun experience for us.

 

This is the outside of the castle as we walk up to it.

    

These buildings are just outside the castle.  they have the restaurant, snack bar, and gift shop in them.

 

    

         

It was so amazing to look out at the city and hills surrounding the castle.  It was very beautiful there and you felt very high up.

                      

            

This tree was my favorite part.

         

I didn’t realize it until I looked back at these pictures and saw that Ethan was wearing his USA shirt.  That explains why people were staring at us so much.  You get a lot of stares when people realize you are American.  I try to have him avoid wearing that when we are out in the economy, but somehow it slipped passed me.  He’s just proud to be an American, I guess.  It’s his favorite shirt.

If only I could get one of these for our house for time out.