I've decided that I will just post the pictures to Facebook instead of to this blog since it's rather cumbersome to try to do both, and I don't really like any of the slideshow options that work with the blog. So if you are interested, you can find pictures on Facebook. Here are a few final thoughts about the trip:
1. I am so thankful that I was able to do such a crazy trip and for travelling companions with which to do such a trip, and I'm especially thankful that I got to see Liam for a bit in Poland. It made the separation go faster, and it's now almost half way over.
2. I'm also glad that the planned doctor's appointment in Poland worked out and that the unexpected doctor's appointment in Rothenburg was there when I needed it.
3. If you even plan to do a similar trip, look into the train options well before leaving. We knew that we should buy train tickets before leaving the United States, but what we didn't realize was that we would need to order them enough in advance for them to ship them to us in the U.S. since they don't have an option of printing them online. That was definitely our most expensive mistake of the trip.
4. If you don't like sausages or potatoes in Germany, you will have a hard time finding things to eat at beer gardens. But tomato soup was on almost every menu at every restaurant.
5. Churches are really beautiful and fun to see, but they do all start to run together when you see churches in every city that you visit.
6. Downloading audio walking tours of some of the towns we were in was a really fun way to walk around and to actually understand what we were seeing.
7. Space A is a really nice way to travel when it works, but I wouldn't recommend it to most people due to the absolute need for flexibility and go-with-the-flow-ed-ness.
8. Having to pay for bathrooms is a downside to travelling in Germany, especially when one is pregnant, but a great side of travelling in Germany is that it is really easy and inexpensive to stop at grocery stores to buy lunch for the day.
9. I really enjoyed staying at youth hostels and would definitely do that again. They were all unique in some ways (their locations, old buildings, and features such as lofts and breakfast rooms), but they were pretty standard in other ways in that they all provided bedding and breakfast.
10. Will Baby Trotter be able to count all these countries that he/she has been to before he/she was even born?
And on that note, I think that concludes my travel blog for this trip. I hope you enjoyed it and thanks for reading.
Friday, July 7, 2017
Monday, July 3, 2017
Day 46-48 Stage 2 and the Last Hoorah
July 1 -- We were planning to try to get on a flight to Dover that had quite a few seats available when we checked out of the hotel, but when we got to the passenger terminal, the available seats had been reduced to zero. So that answered our question about whether or not we should return our rental car. Instead, we just checked back into the hotel and had the afternoon to while away. We went to Edeka, our favorite German grocery store, and later, I even got a nap.
July 2 and 3 -- We got up early to attempt another flight, this time to McGuire. There were 53 seats free for this flight, but when we checked in a couple hours before the flight, we were told that we were already competing with over 120 people, so by the time roll call happened, we knew we probably wouldn't be on it. We had no choice but to turn in our rental car though since we only had it reserved through the second of July. As it turned out, I was only one seat away from making that flight, but as it turned out, we were so glad that we didn't make the flight (more on that later).
So we had to figure out what to do with the rest of our day. For those of you that know the C. family, you know how much they are into biking. It just so happened that the Tour d' France had started the day before, and it just so happened that we weren't too terribly far away from where Stage 2 of the race was taking place. We got another rental car, made new reservations for the hotel, and jumped in the car for a two and a half hour drive to Liege, Belgium where we saw the last 25 seconds of the race and then drove back. It was rather a hairbrained thing to do, but it fulfilled the life-long dreams of those biking fans and hey, bumped up my country count to an even 20 (and an uneven 11 for Baby T). We didn't get back to Ramstein until around 11 pm. By that time, they had updated the flight information for the next day, and we learned that a flight was leaving for Andrews at three in the morning. We thought that no one would want to be up that early and that we would have a better chance to get on. So we cancelled our hotel reservation for the night and just plunked down to wait in the lobby of the hotel. Again, there were 53 seats available, but as we waited for roll call, we kept seeing people that we recognized that had gotten on the McGuire flight the day before. The people that had made that flight had gotten on the plane and sat there for 3 hours before being told that the flight was cancelled due to a fuel leak. When we heard that, we were glad that we hadn't been selected. Unfortunately, it meant that the competition for the 3:00 flight was much greater than we had expected it to be, and we despondently watched all those same people get selected again while we sat there. But enough people didn't show up for roll call that our names were called at the last minute (only one person was selected after us).
Traveling on C17s is really a great way to fly because we stretched out in our sleeping bags on the floor after we took off, and I actually got almost a full night of sleep. When we arrived in the US, S's mom pulled up with impeccable timing less than 5 minutes after we walked out of the terminal. They dropped me off at Reagan Airport, and we parted ways after 6 weeks of travel. Then, it was just two more flights, a shuttle ride, and a car ride left before the epic trip was officially over.
In case you're worried about what you will read now that you don't have my travel blog to read, don't worry: I'll still post at least once more with some pictures (though I promise not to post all of them since I currently have over 1000 on my camera) and maybe some final thoughts.
July 2 and 3 -- We got up early to attempt another flight, this time to McGuire. There were 53 seats free for this flight, but when we checked in a couple hours before the flight, we were told that we were already competing with over 120 people, so by the time roll call happened, we knew we probably wouldn't be on it. We had no choice but to turn in our rental car though since we only had it reserved through the second of July. As it turned out, I was only one seat away from making that flight, but as it turned out, we were so glad that we didn't make the flight (more on that later).
So we had to figure out what to do with the rest of our day. For those of you that know the C. family, you know how much they are into biking. It just so happened that the Tour d' France had started the day before, and it just so happened that we weren't too terribly far away from where Stage 2 of the race was taking place. We got another rental car, made new reservations for the hotel, and jumped in the car for a two and a half hour drive to Liege, Belgium where we saw the last 25 seconds of the race and then drove back. It was rather a hairbrained thing to do, but it fulfilled the life-long dreams of those biking fans and hey, bumped up my country count to an even 20 (and an uneven 11 for Baby T). We didn't get back to Ramstein until around 11 pm. By that time, they had updated the flight information for the next day, and we learned that a flight was leaving for Andrews at three in the morning. We thought that no one would want to be up that early and that we would have a better chance to get on. So we cancelled our hotel reservation for the night and just plunked down to wait in the lobby of the hotel. Again, there were 53 seats available, but as we waited for roll call, we kept seeing people that we recognized that had gotten on the McGuire flight the day before. The people that had made that flight had gotten on the plane and sat there for 3 hours before being told that the flight was cancelled due to a fuel leak. When we heard that, we were glad that we hadn't been selected. Unfortunately, it meant that the competition for the 3:00 flight was much greater than we had expected it to be, and we despondently watched all those same people get selected again while we sat there. But enough people didn't show up for roll call that our names were called at the last minute (only one person was selected after us).
Traveling on C17s is really a great way to fly because we stretched out in our sleeping bags on the floor after we took off, and I actually got almost a full night of sleep. When we arrived in the US, S's mom pulled up with impeccable timing less than 5 minutes after we walked out of the terminal. They dropped me off at Reagan Airport, and we parted ways after 6 weeks of travel. Then, it was just two more flights, a shuttle ride, and a car ride left before the epic trip was officially over.
In case you're worried about what you will read now that you don't have my travel blog to read, don't worry: I'll still post at least once more with some pictures (though I promise not to post all of them since I currently have over 1000 on my camera) and maybe some final thoughts.
Friday, June 30, 2017
Day 43-45 This is the last fun day
June 28 -- It was time to leave France and head back to Germany for our final stop of the trip and one of the ones that we were looking forward to the most because of the medieval castles that we were going to see. Although there were some things that would have been interesting to see along the way (namely the Black Forest), we knew that the 3 hour drive would take us longer than that no matter what, so we opted to just head straight to our destination of Bacharach. We were sad to leave France because of how friendly the people were that we met.
It did indeed take us most of the day to get to our castle home (Stahleck Castle) for the night. The youth hostel where we stayed in Bacharach is an old castle built in the 12th century complete with towers, thick walls, and plumbing that has thankfully been updated, since chamber pots really aren't my thing, especially when I'm sharing a room (the smallest room of our trip) with 4 other people. Views of the Rhine River in both directions were all important to the builders of the castle, who worried about seiges and enemies sneaking up on them, so of course, we had amazing views to enjoy in 2017, too. An interesting fact about the castle/youth hostel was that it was used as a prison during WW2 to hold youth who refused to join Hitler's Youth.
After checking in, we walked down to the town of Bacharach, which is a dying town other than the tourism, of which there doesn't even seem to be much of that compared to some places we've been. We ate dinner at a place with really good food and the first really good beer in Germany according to SC. The restaurant was under an old carousel pavilion, which was a little strange, but the waitress/cook (one person was running the whole show) was so nice that it made up for the strange setting. The main problem with castles is that you have to walk up a lot of steep hills to get to them, so we worked off our dinner by hiking back up to our room. The main problem with castles that have been turned into hostels is that it's a really cool destination to bring school groups to visit, so the place was crawling with young kids that were running and screaming in the courtyard late into the night.
July 29-- We rented bikes in the morning and rode them downriver to St. Goar. We saw many castles along the way, including one in the middle of the river and several that have been turned into hotels. We also saw the cliffs of Loreley above the deepest and narrowest section of the Rhine, where many boats sank in ages past because of underwater boulders.
We got to St. Goar around noon and ate at a delicious bakery restaurant. Then, we took our time walking through town shopping. We walked our bikes up to the Rheinfels Castle, which is mostly in ruins. We hadn't realized how short we were cutting out time if we were going to catch a boat back to Bacharach until we got up to the castle, so we basically raced through the castle and then flew downhill on our bikes and through town and basically rolled onto the boat right before it pulled away from port. The ride back to Bacharach took about an hour and was very peaceful, and the boat managed to out race the rain. We rode around town a little more after getting off the boat and then ate dinner at the oldest building in town. And finally, we tromped back up the hill for the night.
June 30 -- We wanted to visit one more castle before calling it quits, and we were glad we did even if it was a little out of our way. Rick Steve's claims that the Eltz Castle is the best castle in Europe. I would have to see more cattle in other parts of Europe before I would make that claim, but it was a really cool castle.The Eltz family has owned it for 33 generations, and although they don't still live there, they still visit once a week and arrange beautiful flower displays in the rooms that the tourists see. The paintings, tapestries, and furnishings range from the 12th century to the 19th century. After the tour and a quick picnic lunch, we completed our circle of Germany by driving back to Ramstein. We even got a room (remember the 4 bedroom apartment from 6 weeks ago?) on base again. We did some shopping at the commissary and BX, and then proceeded to repack our suitcases in hopes of getting on a flight tomorrow.
It did indeed take us most of the day to get to our castle home (Stahleck Castle) for the night. The youth hostel where we stayed in Bacharach is an old castle built in the 12th century complete with towers, thick walls, and plumbing that has thankfully been updated, since chamber pots really aren't my thing, especially when I'm sharing a room (the smallest room of our trip) with 4 other people. Views of the Rhine River in both directions were all important to the builders of the castle, who worried about seiges and enemies sneaking up on them, so of course, we had amazing views to enjoy in 2017, too. An interesting fact about the castle/youth hostel was that it was used as a prison during WW2 to hold youth who refused to join Hitler's Youth.
After checking in, we walked down to the town of Bacharach, which is a dying town other than the tourism, of which there doesn't even seem to be much of that compared to some places we've been. We ate dinner at a place with really good food and the first really good beer in Germany according to SC. The restaurant was under an old carousel pavilion, which was a little strange, but the waitress/cook (one person was running the whole show) was so nice that it made up for the strange setting. The main problem with castles is that you have to walk up a lot of steep hills to get to them, so we worked off our dinner by hiking back up to our room. The main problem with castles that have been turned into hostels is that it's a really cool destination to bring school groups to visit, so the place was crawling with young kids that were running and screaming in the courtyard late into the night.
July 29-- We rented bikes in the morning and rode them downriver to St. Goar. We saw many castles along the way, including one in the middle of the river and several that have been turned into hotels. We also saw the cliffs of Loreley above the deepest and narrowest section of the Rhine, where many boats sank in ages past because of underwater boulders.
We got to St. Goar around noon and ate at a delicious bakery restaurant. Then, we took our time walking through town shopping. We walked our bikes up to the Rheinfels Castle, which is mostly in ruins. We hadn't realized how short we were cutting out time if we were going to catch a boat back to Bacharach until we got up to the castle, so we basically raced through the castle and then flew downhill on our bikes and through town and basically rolled onto the boat right before it pulled away from port. The ride back to Bacharach took about an hour and was very peaceful, and the boat managed to out race the rain. We rode around town a little more after getting off the boat and then ate dinner at the oldest building in town. And finally, we tromped back up the hill for the night.
June 30 -- We wanted to visit one more castle before calling it quits, and we were glad we did even if it was a little out of our way. Rick Steve's claims that the Eltz Castle is the best castle in Europe. I would have to see more cattle in other parts of Europe before I would make that claim, but it was a really cool castle.The Eltz family has owned it for 33 generations, and although they don't still live there, they still visit once a week and arrange beautiful flower displays in the rooms that the tourists see. The paintings, tapestries, and furnishings range from the 12th century to the 19th century. After the tour and a quick picnic lunch, we completed our circle of Germany by driving back to Ramstein. We even got a room (remember the 4 bedroom apartment from 6 weeks ago?) on base again. We did some shopping at the commissary and BX, and then proceeded to repack our suitcases in hopes of getting on a flight tomorrow.
Tuesday, June 27, 2017
Day 42 Wine
June 27 -- As I mentioned in the last post, we are in wine and vineyard country, and we decided to do a hike from one village to another through some vineyards. We parked in the town of Riquewihr. While we were looking for change for the parking meter, two French gardeners started talking to us, and they picked some bunches of lavender for us. I can't imagine a German gardener ever doing something like that, so it's again interesting to note that even though we are so close to Germany still, we are in a very different culture. We started our hike through town and made our way past souvenir shops, creperies, and wine cellars. Then, we exited town into a wooded area and then finally out into the vineyards. The grapes were still quite green, but the vines were loaded with grapes. We walked about an hour and a half until we reached the town of Ribeauvillé, where we ate a lunch of baguette sandwiches from a bakery. Then, we headed back the way we came. Not only did we see grapes on our walk, but we also found cherry trees, what I'm pretty sure were capulí trees, black berry bushes, and wild strawberries growing along the road. It was a lovely (though also hot and humid) walk. When we got back into town, we got some ice cream and we went into a wine cellar to sample a few wines (and by sample, I mean taste but not drink due to Baby Trotter's being currently underage for drinking). Then, we had dinner at another creperie. The forecasted hail and thunderstorm thankfully never manifested itself today.
Monday, June 26, 2017
Day 40 and 41 Finally a Romance Language
June 25 -- This day was the first time on this trip that we encountered hard enough rain that we had to reconsider our plans, which is really incredible considering that we have now been on the "road" for over a month. We waited out the rain by playing Carcassonne and Set at the hostel, and by lunch time, the rain was gone and the world was beginning to dry up. We considered going back up to the mountains via cable car since we had heard of a cool hike near where we had been the day before, but once we took into consideration our late start and the cost of the cable car, we decided to just do a walk by the river along the valley floor. It was a beautiful path next to a raging river.
For dinner, we went up to the top floor of the tallest building in town and were entertained throughout our meal by watching the paragliders land in the field below us. I ordered roesti, which is another typical local Swiss dish of hash browns covered by tomatoes and Swiss cheese. The waitress made me laugh when we told her that we had tried Raclette the night before and that it was almost too much cheese. She responded, "Of course, that's why we order it."
June 26 -- We decided that Switzerland, though beautiful, would put us in the poor house if we stayed any longer, so to France we went. Even though we only drove 2.5 hours, it is amazing how much it feels like we are in a different country (which we are, of course, but it's so unexpected how different it feels from either Germany or Switzerland even though we are so close to both). The first thing I noticed after we stopped for gas shortly after crossing the border was the beautiful change in language. Unlike in Germany, where everyone sounds as if they are yelling at you, even if they are not, in France, even if they are yelling at you, it doesn't sound like they are.
We drove to Colmar and explored the downtown area a little. We hadn't done much research before getting to this town, so we really didn't know where to start or what we were looking at, but it's a really cute, old town. We went to an area of town called Little Venice and decided to take a boat ride through the canal. It was a short but pretty ride. In this town in the olden days, if a house had a single lady living in it, the shutters would have a heart cut out of them. I'm not sure what happened to the shutters after the lady married. Also in the olden days, a house was painted red or blue depending on if Protestants or Catholics lived there.
We are staying at a quaint Airbnb while in this area, and it's in a tiny town out in the country right in the middle of vineyards on every side. We went to a creperie for dinner, since nothing feels more French than that, and made it "home" right before a huge thunderstorm broke.
For dinner, we went up to the top floor of the tallest building in town and were entertained throughout our meal by watching the paragliders land in the field below us. I ordered roesti, which is another typical local Swiss dish of hash browns covered by tomatoes and Swiss cheese. The waitress made me laugh when we told her that we had tried Raclette the night before and that it was almost too much cheese. She responded, "Of course, that's why we order it."
June 26 -- We decided that Switzerland, though beautiful, would put us in the poor house if we stayed any longer, so to France we went. Even though we only drove 2.5 hours, it is amazing how much it feels like we are in a different country (which we are, of course, but it's so unexpected how different it feels from either Germany or Switzerland even though we are so close to both). The first thing I noticed after we stopped for gas shortly after crossing the border was the beautiful change in language. Unlike in Germany, where everyone sounds as if they are yelling at you, even if they are not, in France, even if they are yelling at you, it doesn't sound like they are.
We drove to Colmar and explored the downtown area a little. We hadn't done much research before getting to this town, so we really didn't know where to start or what we were looking at, but it's a really cute, old town. We went to an area of town called Little Venice and decided to take a boat ride through the canal. It was a short but pretty ride. In this town in the olden days, if a house had a single lady living in it, the shutters would have a heart cut out of them. I'm not sure what happened to the shutters after the lady married. Also in the olden days, a house was painted red or blue depending on if Protestants or Catholics lived there.
We are staying at a quaint Airbnb while in this area, and it's in a tiny town out in the country right in the middle of vineyards on every side. We went to a creperie for dinner, since nothing feels more French than that, and made it "home" right before a huge thunderstorm broke.
Saturday, June 24, 2017
Day 38 and 39 In which we go to Switzerland to ride a cable car and hike with cows
June 23 -- We left Liechtenstein to drive to our new destination in Switzerland: Interlaken. We soon discovered that Switzerland is the land of tunnels (I'm sure we drove through at least 20 in 2 hours) and very pristine mountain lakes (with the bluest water). The view just got better and better as we neared Interlaken, which is known as a vacation spot for adventure seekers, offering many opportunities for kite surfing, paragliding, skydiving, and mountain trekking. Paragliders are constantly landing in the field across from our hostel. We are too poor to do any of the high adventure activities, so we went to the lake to swim instead. It was really windy and the water was really cold, so by swim, I really mean get wet and then sit in the sun to warm up again.
June 24 -- The day started off rather cloudy, and we were unsure how good the views would be today as we headed up to a tiny mountain village called Gimmelwald via cable car. We drove about 25 from Interlaken, and then, it was only a 5 minute cable car ride straight up the mountain. This village is inaccessible by car, though there were a few cars and tractors in town that had to have been hauled up by cable or helicopter. The main industries of the town seem to be bed and breakfasts for tourists and farming. But it was unlike any farming I've ever seen before. We saw a tractor mowing hay pretty much up a vertical hill. Then, we saw the farmer and his wife raking the hay down the hill into piles. Later in the day (not sure if it was the same farm or not), we saw a helicopter picking up bundles of hay from a field and dropping them off at the barn.
We walked around the village for a little, and then we started hiking uphill, straight up a very steep hill. Part of the hike was through a cow pasture where the cows were hanging on the side of a hill, clanking their bells at us. It felt pretty iconically Swiss. I didn't make it to the waterfall we were hiking to, but the others said that it was cool. But I figured that the 6 waterfalls I was seeing on the other side of the mountain would suffice. The day never completely cleared up, but we did have some good views throughout the day of the snow peaked mountains around us.
To top off the Swiss experience, I ordered Raclette at the restaurant tonight. It was a lot of melted swiss cheese for this semi-lactose intolerant person, but it was tasty.
On a funny note: I wrote most of this blog post while sitting in the laundry room at the hostel waiting for my clothes to dry. At least 8 Asians were in the laundry room with me, vying for the next available washing machines and/or dryer and giving each other the stink eye whenever a washer was about to be done with its cycle. It made me laugh.
June 24 -- The day started off rather cloudy, and we were unsure how good the views would be today as we headed up to a tiny mountain village called Gimmelwald via cable car. We drove about 25 from Interlaken, and then, it was only a 5 minute cable car ride straight up the mountain. This village is inaccessible by car, though there were a few cars and tractors in town that had to have been hauled up by cable or helicopter. The main industries of the town seem to be bed and breakfasts for tourists and farming. But it was unlike any farming I've ever seen before. We saw a tractor mowing hay pretty much up a vertical hill. Then, we saw the farmer and his wife raking the hay down the hill into piles. Later in the day (not sure if it was the same farm or not), we saw a helicopter picking up bundles of hay from a field and dropping them off at the barn.
We walked around the village for a little, and then we started hiking uphill, straight up a very steep hill. Part of the hike was through a cow pasture where the cows were hanging on the side of a hill, clanking their bells at us. It felt pretty iconically Swiss. I didn't make it to the waterfall we were hiking to, but the others said that it was cool. But I figured that the 6 waterfalls I was seeing on the other side of the mountain would suffice. The day never completely cleared up, but we did have some good views throughout the day of the snow peaked mountains around us.
To top off the Swiss experience, I ordered Raclette at the restaurant tonight. It was a lot of melted swiss cheese for this semi-lactose intolerant person, but it was tasty.
On a funny note: I wrote most of this blog post while sitting in the laundry room at the hostel waiting for my clothes to dry. At least 8 Asians were in the laundry room with me, vying for the next available washing machines and/or dryer and giving each other the stink eye whenever a washer was about to be done with its cycle. It made me laugh.
Thursday, June 22, 2017
Day 37 Who goes to Liechtenstein?
June 22 -- Left Germany. Entered Austria. Left Austria. Entered Switzerland. Left Switzerland. Entered Liechtenstein. Drove almost the whole length of Liechtenstein. All within 1 hour. That was our morning.
We ate some lunch in the shade since it was 89 degrees. Then, we drove up, up, and up some more. We got some fantastic views of the country (yes, the entire country). We went on two short hikes to some panoramic views.
On the way back down, we stopped at a cute little restaurant and ordered the cheapest thing on the menu (a salad for over $12) and chatted with the owner of the restaurant for a bit before heading to check in to the hostel for the night (where the kids were excited to discover that the room we have had three of the beds up in a loft).
We ate some lunch in the shade since it was 89 degrees. Then, we drove up, up, and up some more. We got some fantastic views of the country (yes, the entire country). We went on two short hikes to some panoramic views.
On the way back down, we stopped at a cute little restaurant and ordered the cheapest thing on the menu (a salad for over $12) and chatted with the owner of the restaurant for a bit before heading to check in to the hostel for the night (where the kids were excited to discover that the room we have had three of the beds up in a loft).
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