Nassau - Saarbrücken 19 June

We spent the night in a little hotel in Nassau.

Views from breakfast room, Nassau.

The castle on the hill. This is the origin of the house of Nassau. Aldona gave me a pamphlet on the house of Oranje, so I am translating from Nederlands. Renatus van Nassau-Breda, also known as Rene van Chalon, named his nephew, Willem de Zwijger as heir to the house of Oranje in Southern France. He took the name Willem van Oranje-Nassau and became the  first head of the Royal house of The Netherlands.

Closer view of castle.

View to the right.

Radhaus in the village

Church in the village

The witch tower.

Women accused of being witches were locked in here

Carl balancing elegantly on a cement pole to take a photo of he witch tower. 

A drive up to the Burg Nassau. We became very interested in the Nassaus from Oranienberg when we visited a town on the Havel Canal just before Berlin. Translating from the pamphlet, Oranienburg, close to Berlin, got its name from princess Louise Henriette van Oranje-Nassau, wife of Count Frederik Willem van Brandenburg.

When we visited the castle in Oranienburg, it was our first experience of the titles and names of the royalty. The name, Princess Louise Henriette van Oranje-Nassau sounded so exotic to us! We started calling ourselves all sorts of things like Carl Uno av Lindalen- Skållerud socken in the House of Sweden.

Carl entered the tower without permission and to Leslie's objections and climbed up stairs of the Burg Nassau, 62 steps. The reward a view to the east....

... and a view to the west.

We stopped over in Bad Ems, a wonderful kurort.

The healthy water.

The river Lahn towards the left.

The River Lahn towards the right with the Russian church. Apparently this was a favourite place for the Russian aristocracy.

Having a break at the kurort.

We wanted to drive past Trittenheim on the Mosel, a place we visited with Alex and Calle 25 years ago and which we have very fond memories of. 

Another view of the Mosel which we hope to reach next week.

And so we find the beautiful Mosel villa we stayed in 25 years ago.