They always have tons of people over at their house, and we'd come over the night before for dinner, drinks, and socialising, which is a euphemism for "Nico and Hannes staying up until 5 playing FIFA".
Their adorable dog Pasha woke me up early the next morning by touching my lips with his whiskers.
He wanted to snuggle and made himself comfy (by sticking his butt in our faces).
The views out the 3rd floor loft windows
Once we got there our quest for a bathroom took us to a nice restaurant, and we ended up having lunch there, even though the entire dining table at Nico and Andreas' had been completely covered in food for a 9-person breakfast of lords shortly before.
We all looked away for about 15 seconds, and that huge packet of ketchup ended up all over her shoulder.
Before we left she had to go to the bathroom, and it took forever. When she and her mom finally came back she proudly announced, "Hey everyone. It took so long because I took a shit."
Cue parental facepalm, adoring laughter.
The castle itself was predictably magnificent. My camera also, predictably, died before we actually went inside. Not cool, camera. Not cool.
I love this one!
And this one! Super cute.
I pretty much went into magical childhood nostalgia Disney Princess Mode as soon as I saw the castle. The first half of the outer grounds we walked through reminded me of The Swan Princess. I know that one wasn't Disney, but I also know that someone else remembers it. ... Right?
Aww, it looks like a scene from a movie. Though I'm pretty sure what was to become a ubiquitous, resounding chorus of, "... but it's a lot nicer in summer" started in earnest here.
Found Atlantis, all y'all can stop lookin' now
Once inside I was relegated to using my Toshiba Camelio, which is a cute little handheld HD cam that isn't really meant for taking photos. You know all about it if you're one of the 20 or so people who reads these posts.
I finally bought a real digital camera while in Germany, partially because I wanted to take advantage of the good exchange rate (1:1.15 then, 1:1.05 now), and that's the one that died stupidly fast on regular AA's.
... Because it takes AA's.
When everyone was looking up at stuff
When everyone was looking down at stuff
I really, really liked this conversation chair
#BBM (Big Beautiful Mermaid)
This is a portrait of the guy the obligatory castle ghost, Petermannchen (copying characters doesn't work with Blogger's formatting and idk the umlaut key codes, sry), is based on.
He's obviously not dangerous, unless you trip over him I guess.
Ermahgerd, the Beauty end ther Berst lehrbrehry
This is the throne room, in case you weren't sure
Mostly we just laughed our asses off at these ugly mofos and their stupid pantaloons. These ones were the most normally-dressed noblemen I could find.
Awww.
We were about to leave, but then decided to stop into the castle's cafe for a coffee. The latte machiattos in Germany are great: big, tall glasses of mostly frothy steamed milk.
Hannah had herself a bowl of chocolate ice cream, and thinking that it sounded about the same and that the meaning would be pretty clear, I asked, "Is it good?" with a big smile. She stared at me, then looked at her dad helplessly with her oversized spoon in her mouth. He translated, she nodded slowly. I said that, maybe the next time, I should just give a questioning thumbs-up, and she could give one back, since that's more universal. Her dad suggested she do it, and without letting go of the base of the dish or the spoon, she decided to try to give a thumbs-up while holding the spoon, face covered in chocolate, and it was super derpy and adorable.
Parental facepalm, adoring laughter, etc.
It also looks amazing at night, if you were curious. It was really cold that day and it had just started to snow little tiny flakes as we were leaving. It was perfect.
