A pair of Prairie Schoolers and a parade of castles

How can it be mid-October already? Did you know there are only 71 days left until Christmas? If anyone has a secret as to how to slow time down, I'd love to know it, wouldn't you? How is everyone's month going so far? We've had so many beautiful sunny days--surprisingly warm for October, too. I know that will soon be changing, but for now, I'm enjoying every minute of this lovely autumn weather while it lasts. Our garden has been put to bed for the winter and I'm thinking ahead to Thanksgiving which I'll be hosting this year. It will be a smaller gathering, but there is still so much to do! I've already begun decorating for Thanksgiving in between my usual free time spent reading and stitching. I actually have two new ornaments to share with you today. 

Below are my Christmas ornaments for September and October. I got a bit behind due to our Rhine River cruise so this month I played catch-up. Both just happen to be Prairie Schooler designs--my all-time favorite comfort stitching!

My September and October Prairie Schooler ornaments

I showed you my unfinished September ornament in my last post, but here is the 1995 annual Prairie Schooler all ready to hang on my tree. As I mentioned, he is stitched on 40 ct. vintage country mocha Newcastle with most of the suggested colors. To see any changes I made, you can refer to this post from September.  As with most of my annual PS Santas, I kept the finishing simple with DMC 221 cording and a gingham bow. The ornament is backed with a burgundy and white gingham. This ornament will forever remind me of our trip to Europe last month!

My finish of the 1995 Prairie Schooler annual Santa

 

For October, I chose one of the patterns from Prairie Schooler Book No. 81: "Songs of the Season." "Deck the Halls" is stitched on 40 ct. water green Newcastle. I did make a few color changes, using DMC 221 for the red and 610 for the sack on Santa's back. I also changed the lettering to DMC 3371 from the suggested red and used smyrna stitches for all of the berries as well as the pom-pom on Santa's hat. 

Such a fun finish for October--there was a lot more stitching in this one than I first thought!

And here it is all finished and ready for December decorating. Again, I simply added handmade cording, a gingham bow, and a small silver jingle bell. Love how it turned out!

My finish of "Deck the Halls" from PS Book No. 81 "Songs of the Season"

Giveaway winner... And I can't forget that I offered two PS mini-cards as a giveaway last time. There were ten entries for the cards and the name picked from the hat is...

             Donna King                            

Donna King, you are the winner!

Congratulations, Donna! Please send me your mailing address (my email is in the right sidebar under the "A Bit About Me" section) and I'll get these sent right our to you. As always, keep an eye on this space for future giveaways!

On to the travelogue... That wraps up the stitching portion of this post, but for those of you who are interested, I have Part 2 of my Rhine River cruise today. My favorite part of our cruises (both this one and the Danube River cruise we did five years ago) was simply sitting and watching the world go by as the ship floated through the water. There is a particularly lovely section of the Rhine River that showcases many of the ancient castles known as the Rhine River Gorge and that's where we'll travel today. Sit back, relax, and imagine life in this beautiful part of the world. (All photos are clickable for a better view).

Around every bend of the river, there was another scene right out of a fairy tale!

Maus Castle / Berg Maus, built in the 14th century, has been meticulously restored and is now an aviary for eagles, owls, and falcons

Rheinfels Castle / Burg Rheinfels (with the flag of Germany in the foreground) was the largest fortress along the Middle Rhine Valley. Today it is one of that areas most visited attractions even though much of it is in ruins. There is a hotel and restaurant there--you can even get married on site!

Katz Castle / Burg Katz , perched high up on the hill, was built in the 13th century. It is now privately owned and not open to the public--can you imagine the view they must have?! And the amount of money they must spend on upkeep...

Some of the pretty pastel houses along the Rhine River with Katz Castle looming above.

The Lorelei / Loreley, the 433 foot high slate rock that has become infamous for maritime disasters and legends involving a singing siren combing her golden hair who lured unsuspecting sailors to their deaths.

A charming little village stands next to a castle remnant

Schönburg Castle / Burg Schönburg is one of the oldest castles on the Rhine--first mentioned in the 10th century. It was burned down in 1689 by French soldiers, but restored in the 19th century, and is now run as a hotel and restaurant.

A view of the beautiful vineyards on the hillside near Schönburg Castle.

Pfalzgrafenstein Castle / Burg Pfalzgrafenstein is located on the small island of Falkenau and was built in the 14th century. It served as a toll station and a prison and has never been destroyed through all of those centuries.

Stahleck Castle / Burg Stahleck was built in the 12th century and, despite much destruction through the years from wars, it was always faithfully restored. Today it serves as a youth hostel for the Rhineland-Palatinate Youth Hostel Association. Can you imagine staying in a hostel with that gorgeous view?!

Yet another pretty little town with lush vineyards covering the hillsides.

Ehrenfels Castle / Burg Ehrenfels is a ruined castle from the 12th century. You can hike up to it and enjoy the breathtaking views of the river below.

Did you enjoy that little tour? I have to tell you that the morning we sailed was chilly and windy--many of us were bundled up in our warmest clothes, coats, and blankets as we sat on the ship's deck watching the castles go by! Thankfully, the weather turned warmer that afternoon for our next stop--the town of...

 Rüdesheim, Germany

Rüdesheim is a town of about 10,000 people best known for it's winemaking. Vineyards abound and the Riesling wine made from their grapes is world famous. 

Our first view of the Rüdesheim area. Far off on the hilltop is the imposing Niederwald Monument which we would hike to after we enjoyed lunch on the ship. 

What a pretty hike we had that afternoon--through lush green vineyards overlooking the river. It was quite a workout as our guide (a young man in his 20s!) marched all of us 60 and 70-year-olds up the hill as if someone was chasing us. Whew! Here are some of the highlights of our Rüdesheim hike.

Just a few of the delicate wildflowers we spotted on our hike.

Although the vast majority of the grapes grown in this region are green, I found a few purple ones hanging from the vines.

We hiked up to the monument, but there are also cable cars available.

We made it--we reached the Niederwald Monument! Left to right are my husband, me, my youngest sister, and my brother-in-law--great traveling companions!

Such a lovely view of the vineyards!

The massive Niederwald Monument was built from to 1871 to commemorate the unification of Germany after the Franco-Prussian War. Notice how tiny the people are in comparison to the monument!

We took the cable car down and the views were amazing.

It looks like a postcard, doesn't it?

When we reached the bottom of the hill, we spent a bit of time in the town of Rüdesheim itself, strolling the charming streets, stopping for a cool drink as we rested under a canopy of grape leaves, and simply enjoying the warmth of the sunshine.

Little did we know that that would be the last of the sunshine we'd have for awhile! Our next stop was a rainy, windy, miserable day, but we still enjoyed our visit to...

HEIDELBERG, GERMANY

Oh, how disappointing the weather was when we woke up that morning! Cold and rainy--not exactly what you want as you prepare to walk through the ruins of one of the most historic structures in Germany: Heidelberg Castle. The castle is a huge complex of buildings in various states of ruin. The misty, rainy weather actually made a perfect backdrop for the crumbling buildings on the day we visited. I so wish we could have stayed longer, but when you are on a tour, you are strictly limited by bus and tour guide schedules. There was so much we didn't see, but here are photos of the highlights. (I've included many clickable links if any of you would like to read more about the buildings featured).

The oldest part of the castle complex was built in the 1200's and various buildings were added on for centuries. That is why you see so many different styles of architecture from Gothic to Renaissance as shown above. The beautiful hues in the building material come from the red sandstone which is quarried from the surrounding Neckar Valley.

The Friedrich's Wing immediately catches your eye as you walk into the courtyard. Built in the early 1600's, it holds a romantic chapel on the ground floor which can be used for weddings.

The Ottheinrich Wing features elaborate carvings and statues of political, scientific, mythological, and religious figures. As you can see, the top floors are nothing but a shell--open to the air as a result of fires and a lightning strike. The bottom floor was covered and serves as a museum today. The pinkish color of the facade was so lovely!

There is beauty even in the ruins

In the background, you can see a few of the construction vehicles that are ever present. There is constant repair going on at different places in the castle ruins just to keep them from crumbling all the way to the ground.

A view into the lush green gardens of what was once the moat of the castle.

The Gate/Clock Tower and Ruprecht's Wing (on the right) which is the oldest residential palace still standing in the castle complex. It was built in the early 1400s.

By the time we reached this point in the walking tour, it was really raining as you can see in the photo above. Pictured is the famous Powder Tower (or Exploded Tower) built in the early 16th century that was partially destroyed by the French in a war in the late 17th century. Can you see how thick those walls were? The blown off portion has been resting against the remains of the tower for over 300 years now!

A very misty view from the castle to the Neckar River and the town below

Heidelberg Castle is also known for housing the world's largest wine barrel or as it's known in Germany--the Heidelberg Tun. The first barrel was built in 1591 and held 130,000 liters of wine. It was replaced by one that held 200,000 liters  of wine in 1664, and then the present barrel was constructed in 1751 from 130 oak trees. It can hold 220,000 liters (58,124 gallons) of wine and is so massive that there is even a dance floor on top of it!

The largest wine barrel in the world dwarfs visiting tourists. The photo in the upper right shows the steps leading up to the dance floor on top of the barrel. The statue is of Perkeo, the court jester, who now stands guard over the giant barrel. He was famous for his ability to consume massive amounts of wine.

Unfortunately, the rain was so heavy by the end of our tour, that the hike planned for the afternoon had to be cancelled so we had some free time. We actually enjoyed our down time and had the streets almost to ourselves. We had a relaxing lunch in a German pub, did a bit of shopping (where we purchased two warm fleece shirts to help with the colder than normal temperatures), and enjoyed the views of the castle from the old town.

Looking up from the Altstadt (Old Town) you can get an even better idea of the massive size of the castle complex

The Marktplatz, in the oldest section of Heidelberg, is often used for Christmas markets. On the left is the Town Hall with its beautiful window boxes overflowing with red blooms.

Because of the rain, the streets were nearly empty. I can imagine that, in good weather, they are bustling with shoppers and folks enjoying outdoor meals.

The Old Bridge /Alte Brücke and gate over the Neckar River

The view from the bridge offers a great vista of Heidelberg Castle looming over the town

Goodby rainy Heidelberg! I'm so glad that I packed that bright raincoat at the last minute as it sure came in handy on many occasions.

I'll pause my travelogue here and on my next post we'll journey to France! My first trip there--again, not the greatest weather, but it was certainly an experience that I look forward to sharing with all of you. Thank you so much for all of your kind comments on my previous post--I really appreciate each one so much. I had my cardiologist appointment this morning and, although she thinks I'm okay, she wants to run more tests. So, the saga continues... Hope each of you has a wonderful day with lots of stitching time. I'm heading to my stitching chair as soon as I hit "post."  Bye for now...