Oldest City in Germany

Things you should know about Germany - don't be late.

Public transportation is very predictable and always leaves on time. The only difficulty we had was finding the correct platform. People are always on the go and you better keep up with the flow of people or get out of the way.

From Cologne, we made out way to Trier by train. The ride went smoothly and we were able to figure out where to transfer (and which platform we needed to be at).

Trier is a city of history. It's the fourth largest city in Germany and it was a good starting point for our tour. I wouldn't necessarily go back for another visit, but it was interesting to learn about Germany's religious and historical roots.

Old town square partially rebuilt after WWII:

Basilica where Constantine (from the Holy Roman Empire) once ruled

Riesling?!? Don't mind if I do.

Every moment I was in Germany made me fall in love with the country even more.

Wine tasting, don't mind if I do?!

Read the different types of wine out loud as you taste, it makes the tasting even more fun! (Pick the person with the worst accent and it's awesome).

I wish we had wine tasting like this back at home. Generous pours and delicious wines. We went for two flights and some standard German snacks. German's like cheese... and so do I! Each flight came out to about $8-10. Such a good deal! I'd go wine tasting in Bacharach over Napa any day.

We really loved one of the wines, but apparently it's so special we couldn't even order another glass! We were greedy and wanted to buy a few bottles. I love that the wineries only make a reserve amount of each wine and most of these wine places don't even have the resources to bottle it. It means that we have to enjoy life at the moment and treasure the time we have while we are there. Great philosophy!

Bacharach

I'm really glad we came to Germany a few days before our guided tour. It was nice to explore on our own. We definitely took advantage our our first full day in Germany and visited some sites along the Rhine River.

There are several castles littered along the Rhine (left behind from historic feudal times). The most well preserved ones are built just below the the mountain tops. When Napoleon raided Germany, he destroyed all of the castles he could find on his way. The ones that were easiest to see were built at the top of the mountain.

Our first destination was a fallen (and preserved) castle grounds. It turns out there was a whole community within the walls of the castle. We had the opportunity to crawl through the escape tunnels beneath the castle grounds. Unfortunately, we only made it a few feet and then we decided to abort our mission. It was pitch black the tunnels and we could barely fit on hands and knees. We also forgot our flashlights...

Next on the list was the romantic city of Bacarach - seemingly pronounced "ba-hahaa."  Very picturesque and fantasy-like. I love the exposed wood.

Cologne's Cathedral

It was easy to get up the next morning and finally appreciate the great view from our hotel room. Our hotel was along the main square in Cologne so we had a great view of their famous Cathedral. I'm not one for churches, but this one was nice. It's famous for its relics of the three kings.

German Fare

When we finished up the Chocolate Museum, the sun was beginning to set. We decided it was time to grab some dinner and then head back to the hotel for some shut eye.

I think we were delirious/tired/confused so finding a restaurant turned into another adventure. We referred to our Rick Steve's guidebook and ended up walking to a plaza with several restaurants. Most of the restaurants were pretty full and there was patio seating everywhere. Perfect.

Or so we thought. We quickly learned that in Germany, you seat yourself and the waiter will come to your table when they are ready. After awkwardly standing around for a while, we asked the waiter for a menu. He looked at us like we were crazy and hesitatingly gave us menus. We stood around a while with our menus and pestered the waiter about the difference between sitting inside or outside. Nobody was sitting inside.. and it turns out it was cheaper to sit outside. One of the waiters gestured that we sit down at an open table. We ordered beers all around and sat around for a while. Kolsh is their specialty. It's a light, fresh beer. We impatiently flagged down our waiter to place our order and he came over reluctantly.

Of course, we had several questions about the menu. For example, "what is a scallopine?" He was more annoyed with us, couldn't describe it, and told us he would come back when we were ready. We decided to just go down the specials and order one of each. 

Finally, the food came out and we were pretty satisfied. It turns out a "scallopine" is a fried veal cutlet. It ended up being one of my favorite!

We quickly learned that Germans are no-nonsense. We should know what we want to eat. We should know what kind of beer we want. We should be decisive. HA.  

Chocolate > Sleep

Our first stop on our European adventure was Koln - aka Cologne. We arrived a few days before our official Rick Steve's tour began so that we could adjust to the time difference and explore Germany on our own for a few days.

Even though we were really jet-lagged, we dragged each other away from the comfortable beds in our hotel to wander around the city. Of course, even on day one, we had an itinerary. Our main destination - the chocolate factory (and Hard Rock).

I never knew Germany was famous for it's chocolate...until we walked up to the Lindt Chocolate museum. I love Lindt so it was fun to tour the factory. We whizzed through the history portion of the museum (how they make chocolate..blah blah blah) and went for the chocolate machines, chocolate molds, and chocolate fountain!!

If this wasn't at the beginning of our tour, I would have definitely picked some up to take home.

 

We did pick up one souvenir.... Chocolate Beer! (I had to do it). It was tasty and it reminded me of a good porter. 

Beer and Castles!

In September, we headed to the land of beer and castles! I've always heard a lot of great things about Germany and I persuaded my family it would be fun to make our way to back to Europe. We got a little taste of everything - Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and the Czech Republic.

I think the beer was exceptionally tasty because it was Oktoberfest! Who knew that they actually celebrate that in September...