Castles And Caves --- A Diary (3)

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I’ve already posted two entries of the diary we got from an English family that had spent their summer holidays in Swabia in the south of Germany. Father Brian enthused about toy trains, son Nick was happy in a slate pit where everybody can look for, find and take home fossils. Today I’m adding what Nick’s twin sister Debbie has written. She also found enough to enjoy herself. --- DEBBIE: CASTLES AND CAVES. We learnt from a book that the Swabian Alb is a kind of plateau. Dad says that’s like a plain, but not at sea level. It rises up with high rocks and then declines towards the Alps. It’s full of caves many of which you can visit and explore. I was a bit frightened at first, but then I liked it. I want to become a spelaeologist (Specialist for caves. Looked that up!). Then I can explore the caves with oxygen flasks on my back. Some are many miles long. Or I’ll become a painter. I haven‘t made up my mind yet. I haven’t written so much. I’m including my sketches of the many old castles in the area. It’s all so wonderful. You stand on a mountain in the ruins of a castle, look round and see one or more other castles. I like the Wäscherschloss, Hohenrechberg, Staufeneck, Reußenstein, Lichtenstein* and Teck best (MALUSE helped us with the pronunciation). Or I’ll invent a time-machine and become a princess. I think it must have been romantic to live in such a castle. Nick, the old spoil-sport, keeps telling me to imagine life without a bathroom and central heating. I’ll be a princess only in summer then! One cool excursion was our trip to the Gutenberg Höhle (cave) and the Paper Museum in Oberlenningen. They’ve got wonderful things made of paper there. My fingers got all itchy, and when nobody was looking, I touched them all. Mum tells me I’m a paper fetishist. I’m not sure I know precisely what that means. I just love paper, I really do. Next year I want to do water colours. ----- *The photo at the top shows Castle Lichtenstein covered with a light layer of snow. Isn’t it romantic? Pity we didn’t see it like that. ----- If you are interested in the other installments, click on the green bar at the top of the site.