Family Hike ~ Umleitung!

Gabe and I have a love for hiking. It's such a great way to spend family time together, get some fresh air and see something new. The weather is getting colder and the leaves are falling fast so we wanted to get one last fall hike in before the snow comes. After many web searches and numerous discussions we decided to go with the "Old Stand-by" and head down to Annweiler. It's a favorite of ours and although we've been there multiple times we have yet to hike the castle. Link: Annweiler Castle Hike (2.5 hours) I was really excited to check it out. It appears to be a fairly easy family hike with amazing views and it's only about an hour from our house.

We pack up and head out. We finally get to the road that leads to the castle and start the windy drive to the top.  A few miles in we see our second favorite sign in Germany (insert sarcasm): ROAD CLOSED

Second only to the "Stau" sign....which means "traffic jam"....the sight of this sign can almost immediately bring one to tears. It is NOT a suggestion. This does not mean PART if the road is closed and you may be able to SLIP through. This sign means EXACTLY what is stands for. The road is closed and you must now turn around. Now in the U.S. a road will be closed and an there is an alternate route made to your destination. In Germany, however, there may or may not be an alternate route and if you don't speak German there is no way to ask. So, unless you see our 3rd favorite sign: UMLEITUNG...you can throw your initial plans right out the window.

"Umleitung" means Detour route...one sign feels more like this ^^^ though

German's seem to LOVE putting these signs up in THE most inconvenient places and you encounter them at THE most inconvenient times! We have seen these on the way to the airport...you know, when time is already precious and you have no way of knowing any other route other than the one that is showing up on your GPS. I will now make a suggestion so that you do not find yourself in a panic...NEVER drive with less than 1/2 tank of gas because there is a really good chance you will encounter this situation on your way to the gas station and end up driving an extra hour longer than you intended to (this happened to my neighbor a few weeks ago going from our village to the base). 

We did not see the "Umleitung" which meant there was no alternative route to the Castle so we went with Plan B. It wasn't a total wash but it ended up being a hike we had more or less already done before. We did get some nice photos....even though it was a bit cloudy. 

Gabe showing the boys a cat-tail

Love these little guys!

Burg Trifels in the background

Big "D"

Out of focus but the only decent picture of Mia

My "FlyGuy"

Again, not in focus...I was worrying more about my camera's battery life :(

RyRy, Moi and DMan

My camera battery was dying but right before it did I got this shot. I was so proud of myself. I set up camera (on manual), placed it in a rock (I forgot my tripod), got the boys situated and set the timer :D

So, even if the hike didn't go as planned we still made the best of it and for me, getting this picture made it all worth it.

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