Gems and Germany 🇩🇪

The kids (and the adults) had an enchanting time in Idar-Oberstein, Germany as we toured the Edelsteinmuseum (gem museum) and the Edelsteinminen Steinkaulenberg (gem mine).

The museum contained 3 floors of dazzling precious stones, giant slice of petrified wood, and the Guinness book of world record for the largest spherical polished gem. 

We loved visiting the mine too as we got to spend a couple hours digging for our own gems and came away with quite the extra weight load for our checked luggage.  After our prospecting field experience we toured the caves the miners used to work.  The quartz type gems and geodes formed in the cave as a result of lava flowing through the stone and creating air pockets that allowed various minerals to deposit.  This cave was decorated in colorful agates, glittering amethysts, smoky quartz, and many others. 

Luxembourg 🇱🇺

While Luxembourg is one of the smallest European countries (about the size of Dorset County, UK or Rhode Island, US) it has the second highest GDP in the world, after Qatar.  😮

With only one day in Luxembourg we choose to explore around the fairytale castle perched above the quaint town of Vianden.  Vianden Castle was believed to be built starting in the 10th century over the site of an ancient roman castellum.  It has had many additions over the years however it eventually feel into ruins and was only completely restored in 1990.  

4 Countries in a Day 🇬🇧🇫🇷🇧🇪🇱🇺

We left the UK early morning to arrive in Calias, France.  After stopping at a patisserie for indulgent pastries we headed to Dinant, Belgium to take in the colorful waterfront lining the Meuse river and iconic Collegiate Church of Notre Dame de Dinant.  Perched above the church pinnacles steep cliffs fill the background with stone walls marking the ancient citadel.  

We explored the gothic church which has been rebuilt three times since it’s first construction in the 10th century. In 1227 a piece of overhanging rock fell destroyed the majority of the original church.  Later, the town was set on fire in 1466 as a result of a rivalry between Dinant and Bouvsignes.  The town was sieged, 800 townsfolk were hurled into the Meuse River and the church was set ablaze.  Finally, on 23 August 1914, under the pretext that there were snipers in the town, German troops attacked Dinant and the church’s onion shaped bell tower caught fire and collapsed.  Beyond it’s tumultuous history the church holds one of Europe’s largest and elaborate  stained glass windows. 

We also enjoyed some Belgium waffles and couque de Dinant (Europe's hardest biscuit) with a honey-sweetened flavour that is pressed into a carved wooden mold before baking.  We also learned that Dinant is the birthplace of the saxophone.

After Dinant we drove on to Vianden, Luxembourg making our fourth country in a day and stopped for a view of Bourschied Castle along the way.  While we enjoyed the views, catching grasshoppers was the highlight of the day for the kids. 

And we’re off

​It’s a sad day to leave our home, but our next adventure awaits us. We did one last adventure around the Dales before heading to Folkestone. After 5 years of talking about the Lone Tree in Malham, we decided we should go before we leave Yorkshire. This was the first time trying out the new drone and overall pretty happy with it. 

After a long drive we’re on the underground Channel Tunnel to France, luckily we didn’t get stuck like passengers the previous day. Eurotunnel Le Shuttle: Passengers stuck for hours inside Channel Tunnel https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-62655148 

The Adventures Continue...

Wow, how the time flies.  Our last post was 26-April 2010!  So much has happened since we returned from our 2009-2010 Around the World adventure.  We bought a house, had two amazing kids, and moved to the United Kingdom!  

The time has come to go on our next great adventure.  A seven week road trip around Eastern Europe.  Our journey will take us across fifteen countries from France to Romania and almost everything in between!

It has been over 12 years (4,519 days to be exact) since we returned from our 9mo trip around the world.  This trip will be slightly different with two kids and a car full of things compared to our two 35lbs backpacks we carried on our last adventure.  We hope you enjoy our post about our adventures and what fun/odd things we will encounter traipsing around Europe!