Bibles, a palace and castles

Tuesday morning came bright and sunny, and off we went to Stuttgart, the county seat about 60 kilometers south of here (say "kill-o-meters", you don't say killagrams!). The bibliotheque (library) has a special exhibit of Bibles, including a Guttenburg (both volumes), a William Tyndale and many others. I was in heaven, no pun intended!, having wanted to see some of these for many many years. Many were held open and the paper and bindings were visible. They were arranged around a kiosk type display. The special kiosk with the Guttenburg, Tyndale and others from the 1500s and 1600s had softer lighting that the rest, and stood apart in their own way. Overall, the 70 or so Bibles were a delight, and I looked longingly at them as we left for lunch in the cafe. We had a vegetable stew and whole grain bread, and cold apple jiuce. Then we were off to the Palace at Ludwigsburg, a palace from the early 1700s. It retains 95%, get it, 95% of the original furnishings. Many have been sold through the years, and bacause they have a special mark, the country of Germany buys them back, if found, for the palace. Purchase money comes from their national lottery. We walked down each hall, in a long rectangular form, for over a mile. The rooms were full of paintings and tapestries, furniture and silk wall paper. The tour guide even took us into the Protestant chapel at the end of the tour, something she said she doesn't usually do. Magnificent!
Black forest cake and fresh hot coffee, and off to home. We drove on the famous autobahn, and as I filmed with my camera and turned toward Christine, I felt the pedal go to the floor. She laughed heartily! Sections of the autobahn have speed limits of 120k, which is only 72 mph. However, where there is no limit, always beware of your left lane! Christine has GPS and a route finder that audibly tells her where to drive, and it was comical to hear the man say the directons in German.
At home Christine cooked up fried pieces of cut noodle pockets, like a large filled manicotti, called maul tasche, and fresh salad and tomatos. We talked for some time, and I skyped the kids at home in Alberton (is skyped a verb?!), sweet babies dancing hundreds of miles away for Gramma, sweet Ray and Jen, then off to sleep.
Wednesday morning Christine went for a haircut, and we were off by bicycle to Hirschhorn to see a castle. We wound our way through the hills and fields of hog corn, wheat and orchards, towards the Neckar River. In the town of Hirschhorn, we biked through the streets and up the hill to the castle above the valley. It houses a restaurant, and we had coffee and Frankfurter cake. The cake is a light lemon bundt cake sliced into four layers, and buttercream is spread between the layers. It is frosted and brickle is put all over the outside. We went down into the valley and along the river, where we saw four castles within 1/2 mile of each other. Two of them have people living in them and all were quite beautiful. The villages are especially clean and very picturesque, with flowers in boxes at even the bus stops.
At home, Christine made bratwurst, and potatoes with quark. She boiled new potatoes and made a sour cream mixture, whipping chives and special seasonings into the sour cream. The potatoes are placed on one's plate, with a generous serving of quark, and they are eaten together. So good! It was late and I was tired, so just a short email and off to slumberland.