An Italian Family in Dutch Wonderland : Castles, Towers, Rivers, and Magellan

On Saturday, we got up early and loaded the car for a day trip to Germany!   Fortunately, Bill checked the night before and found out that our GPS only works in 4 countries...Germany was not one of them. We had to revert to old school style with maps and handwritten directions for our outing. If you know me, you know I am horrible with directions. Fortunately, I married a man who we will now affectionately refer to as Magellan!  Even when a road that we were supposed to turn on never appeared, he somehow managed to find the remote location of the Schloss Moyland Castle. He consulted a bus map and used his innate sense of direction. Of course, he is a guy, so stopping and asking was out of the question. I am still baffled as to how he managed this! From there, he got us to Dusseldorf and back!

When we arrived at the Schloss Moyland castle, it was beautiful and breathtaking BUT we found out that the entire thing had been converted into a museum of modern art...not necessarily our cup of tea (even for our budding artist).  Most of the gardens was being used for a huge festival so we only had limited ground access. Fortunately the bottom level of the building contained a room dedicated to the castle's history and there was still access to one of the towers. The plus was that the museum fee was low and the views from the tower was spectacular so even though we didn't get to see everything, just climbing the steps to the tower was worth the price.

After visiting the castle and its grounds, we headed towards Dusseldorf.  We found parking, located the tourist center, ate crepes, and bought tickets for a boat tour on the Rhine River. The boat left much to be desired. While it was an awesome experience to be on the Rhine, so many people were talking away that we could not hear any of the narration as to what we were passing and there was very limited seating upstairs on the open air deck.

Next, we walked down to the Rhine Tower to take in views from the panorama level - 168 meters off the ground.   The view...WOW! Of course mommy and daddy could not pass up the opportunity to have a drink at the highest bar in Germany while the kids took in the view and captured some images on the camera.

Afterwards, we headed back into town, walked amongst the stores, and had dinner at a fab Italian restaurant with a waiter who I swear is related to my brother-in-law Matt. The resemblance was uncanny.

Once we got home, the kids quickly fell asleep! I think they had a great time exploring their 3rd country!

Look closely. Bill and the kids are up on the balcony of the middle tower in this picture.