So, on the way back, even though it was already fairly late, I thought it would be nice to make a quick stop to just drive through town and look at the church for 10 minutes or so. That really was the plan!
One of the great things about Navi systems is the ability to put in a location on the fly and have directions right there. We programmed in Dom Parking--and took the southern most exit (of two) for the town and followed the roads curing down into the town in the valley. Being a Sunday, it was realtivly easy to find free parking right down town--and before long we were climbing more steps up through the narrow winding streets and sidewalks to the church (it turns out there was free parking right there--but our Navi tried to guide us there by having my drive on the pedestrian zone--a big NO NO, so we just parked and walked up).
They were in the midst of Sunday evening mass when we arrived (at about 6:30) so we did not see the interior , but I liked the exterior, with its brighter colors and sweet small town feel.
There was a classic little rectory off to the side:
And through the scrollwork iron gate was a park like old cemetery. Many of the stones were so overgrown that it almost felt like a line for the Haunted Mansion ride at Disney rather than the real thing--or as David said, it provided you with the overwhelming feeling that you should break into the Thriller Dance!
We had already overstayed our planned 10-15 minutes, but we knew at that point we would be a while. The walk up had shown us just how cute the little town was:
(the picture does not do all the funky, gargoyle like statues justice)
and HELLO!, we were just in time to catch the tail end of the town's annual wine festival! How could we possibly leave without tasting some of the local wares???
The food vendors had already packed up as the fest was technically over--but plenty of wine vendors and locals were still milling about. Rio and I managed to hunt down sodas (someone had to drive home!) while Dave sampled a couple of wines. We learned that showing up at the end of the weekend has its advantages. The vitners did not want to carry more wine back home than they had to--they filled the glasses all the way to the brim (not stopping at the 1 ounce line) and offered the bottles for half [rice if we wanted to take some home (which we did at those prices!).
So, yeah, we ended up spending 2 hours in Limburg instead of 15 minutes. It was great! I'm already planning on hauling Marika up there for the day this fall so we can explore more and she can see it--and I imagine I will be taking visitors there as well.
On the way home, we were hungry for a little dinner (it was 9:00 after all, and you'll recall the food vendors were no longer set up at the fest). We stopped at a roadside Burger King (cheap fast and open) and ate outside, where we were greeted with the perfect end to a pretty perfect day:
Here's hoping everyone finds delightful surprises sometime soon!
--Hadley
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