Pennsylvania – Lancaster County

The highlight of our stay in the area was our B&B, The Churchtown Bed & Breakfast. We didn’t exactly know where we were going. We passed through Morgantown and decided to look for a B&B. Ghis went in and they said they’d had a cancellation and had room.

At night I heard horses and buggies passing by on the road. In the morning, we met the other friendly guests and had a great breakfast: fresh fruits, homemade granola, eggs with cheese and bacon sprinkled on top, homemade lemon muffins…

Morgane loved playing with Chris and Jim’s little puppy, getting her to sit and giving her treats. She also LOVED having her very own pink room. She loved sliding down the stairs, too, but that was a bit more of a problem since there are many, many antiques around (and the B&B doesn’t usually allow kids).

The next day we drove around some back roads and saw some more horses and buggies. Then we saw a man and his young son dressed in typical Amish or old order Mennonite clothing. Most shocking was the man in black with the long beard who was standing in the road with a leaf blower, blowing wet, sticky leaves from his property over to the other side.

We were more disappointed when we hit the centers of Intercourse and Bird in Hand: they were too touristy for us. We did taste shoo-fly pie, made with molasses. We checked out the market and I had the local-made rootbeer.

We had one more destination in mind after this, but before we got there, we passed a hands-on kids’ museum. Morgane and I passed a couple of hours there. It was fun to observe how play is very serious work for kids. They take it very seriously.

Finally, we reached Lititz, home of the Julien Sturgis Pretzel Factory – apparently the first one!

We took a tour and learned how to twist pretzels. More interesting was the story behind the twists. Pretzels were first made by monks, I believe, and were supposed to be in the form of praying children (with their arms crossed over their chests). Every twist in the making of a pretzel seems to have meaning. Then we got to eat some, of course, and we liked that part of the tour, too.