Wildenstein Castle...

Built in the 13th century and converted into a hostel 100 years ago, Wildenstein Castle was incredible! 

Considering we have been to several other Nash Hashes that were hosted in “castles,” German Nash Hash 2022 was the first time that we had been in a true castle rather than a manor home. 

I took this photo of the main building from below. 

It was a bit daunting when I first saw this steep entrance to the main part of the castle, but luckily it was actually easy to cross. 

This was the large inner court where we spent much of the weekend, eating dinners and dancing.  

Our room was in this outer building, which was quite dramatically perched on a hill. 

We shared a room with two hashers we’d never met before, but we hardly ever crossed paths with them. 

The shared loo, with an incredible view, was conveniently next door to our room. 

Even better was the view from the castle’s main bridge...

…as seen here.

 

Porsche Museum...

After an incredible breakfast spread courtesy of Shut Up, we took a tram to the Porsche Museum while she headed to work. 

The first thing we spotted was this couple having bridal portraits taken in the museum. 

Despite not being into cars, we found it interesting as a history museum. 

It was surprising to learn that this 1948 Roadster 1 was based on the Volkswagen, but with a power-enhanced engine. 

We stopped for doner kebab for lunch. 

Afterwards we collected our bags and made our way to another part of town to meet Double Dickhead for our ride to German Nash Hash. Opee wasn’t complaining about being squished between me and Moule en Rouge for two hours while Full of Spunk sat comfortably in the front. 

 

Red Dress Hash in Stuttgart...

After just three nights at home, we spent 7+ hours on trains as we headed to Stuttgart (south of Frankfurt and west of Munich) to spend one night before continuing onto German Nash Hash.

Of course, no long train ride is complete without some food and bubbly.

Once we got onto the German ICE high-speed train, we had to don N95 medical masks after months of not wearing masks in Holland. Our first stop was Shut Up’s place to drop our stuff.

Luckily we made it to the run start in time to enjoy a margarita.

T.N.T. did a great job posing for me on trail...

…and so did Opee.

The trail crossed much of the city as we ran between drink stops. 

Along the way, I spotted some urban art.

We circled up on a hill above this restaurant...

…with a long walk back down into town afterwards. 
 

A Mess at Schiphol...

Things had not improved at Schiphol since we had returned from Zagreb two months earlier. We were very relieved that our luggage arrived, but we felt bad for the thousands of other travelers whose suitcases were abandoned all over the baggage hall  by overworked and underpaid baggage handlers. At one point I read that there were over 4,000 bags stacked around the airport with no idea how many of those were eventually reunited with the owners. 

I was surprised to see matching cruise tags on a bunch of these bags from Canada. Presumably airport staff didn’t bother to contact the local representative of the cruise line who could have reunited the bags with their passengers. We’ll be taking our first flights to/from Schipol in July, exactly one year later, so will be very interesting to see if this summer is as much of a mess. 
 

Spotted in Tallinn...

What an interesting way to take a poll of smokers by indicating if there’s enough places to dump their butts by counting butts. 

Appreciated this attempt to keep butts out of the storm drains with this reminder that they could end up in the sea. 

We also spotted some interesting sculptures...

…architecture...

…and urban art. I really liked this mural...

…and thought this message was extremely important: It’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice.
 

Giggles with Biggles...

When we stopped after dinner at the supermarket for some drinks and snacks, we never expected to giggle so much. While the kooky artwork on the cereal boxes made us laugh...

…running into Biggles placing personalized labels on random beer bottles totally cracked us up.