Castles and Monkeys

Sunday May 11th, we got up and made our way to the train station for a quick ride to Selestat so the kids could tour Chateau Haut Koenigsbourg castle and take Adra to Monkey Mountain,( I assume they were planning on leaving her with a new troop or something, I dunno)

The train ride and bus to the top is a whole lot easier than driving!  Just 11 mins away by train and a quick bus ride up made it one of the easier day trips available.  Since Nita, John, and Terri had already toured the castle, they opted for a leisurely breakfast in the sun at the hill top snack bar while others did the tour.

I decided to get in a run from Selestat to Kintzheim, a lovely little town on the road to the castle.  Only about 2 miles up and back it turned out to be a fun little run in the morning sun.  Unfortunately I didn't get a lot of pics, I was bust trying not to die on the looooooong 2 mile, totally uphill first leg.

After I got done, I dried off and hopped the bus up the hill to surprise the family at the top.  Also, very possibly, I rode the bus up just to get a drink since the train station bar had closed while I was running.  At the top, the family was ready to roll back down the mountain, stopping at the Monkey Mountain park.   Yep, they have tone of monkeys running about an open walking park where you can feed the little beggars popcorn.  Given my constant and unreasonable urge to punch monkeys when I see them(don't ask), Chris, Tess and I went to the cafe garden and enjoyed nice cold beers in a non-monkey environment.

How is this a good idea??

That monkey's gonna attack at any moment.

Apart from a Jessica inspired near monkey mauling,(don't touch monkeys!!) it seemed to go smoothly for all.  Kids and wild running monkeys, what could have gone wrong?


Back at the house, Terri made a tarragon chicken dinner with a spinach salad and buttered taters.  Splendid!  Before dinner the kids disappeared upstairs to "pack" while we entertained Adra.  All part of a conspiracy to throw Adra a little birthday party as they blew up balloons while Amy put together a little cake from train station cookies, donuts and random pastries we had around the place.

Needless to say Adra was a tad surprised by the festivities.  After dinner we had a rousing game of balloon war until our land lady came up to ask us to close the windows.  Apparently we were rather loud.  Oops!

Tomorrow the kids head off to Paris and we will have a couple days to get the place cleaned till Matt and Laura show up on Wednesday.