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.
Friday, June 30, 2017
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).
Wednesday, June 21, 2017
Day 36 A Different Kind of Day
June 21 -- Have I mentioned how hot it has been the last few days? Really, the temperature hasn't been that hot (in the mid 80s), but when you're hiking and touring and staying at places with no air conditioning, it has felt warm enough.
Have I mentioned how gorgeous the mountain lakes are here? With the hot temperatures and having completed our tour itinerary for Fussen yesterday when we saw the castles, we decided that an afternoon at the lake was in order. We went to a mountain luge at a ski resort this morning, and the kids enjoyed the slide down the mountain on the metal track in toboggan type sleds. I didn't get to try it (a disadvantage to traveling while pregnant), but I had fun reading in the shade.
Then, we drove to Schwansee Lake right outside Fussen for the afternoon. The water was cold but not as cold as I was expecting. The water was very clear, clean, and refreshing. And sitting on the dock with the mountains around us was also a treat.
Have I mentioned how gorgeous the mountain lakes are here? With the hot temperatures and having completed our tour itinerary for Fussen yesterday when we saw the castles, we decided that an afternoon at the lake was in order. We went to a mountain luge at a ski resort this morning, and the kids enjoyed the slide down the mountain on the metal track in toboggan type sleds. I didn't get to try it (a disadvantage to traveling while pregnant), but I had fun reading in the shade.
Then, we drove to Schwansee Lake right outside Fussen for the afternoon. The water was cold but not as cold as I was expecting. The water was very clear, clean, and refreshing. And sitting on the dock with the mountains around us was also a treat.
Day 35 Fairy Tale Castles and Mad Kings
June 20 -- We had an understandably late start to our morning, involving going to the grocery store to get some breakfast. We headed to the only place in this relatively small town with hoards of people: the castles. We reserved a tour for 1:55 and went back to the grocery store to get lunch. We entered the Hohenschwangau Castle first, which was built by Maximilian the first. It was very ornate and filled with the original furniture and many gold, silver, and ivory birthday and wedding presents that were given to him, as well as hundreds of painting and statues of swans. All the walls were covered with enormous paintings, but they didn't compare to the view. Apparently his wife was quite the mountaineering woman (unusual for the day) and climbed many of the surrounding mountains.
Their son (Mad) Ludwig II also lived in this castle most of his life, but Ludwig was obsessed with castles and wanted to build his own. He started many castles but only one was completed by the time he died (either by suicide or murder...no one knows) at the bankrupt age of 40. The most famous of his uncompleted castles is right across the hill from his parents' castle and was our second tour of the day: Neuschwanstein. This castle is more well known and popular (read crowded) than the other one. Most people recognize this castle because not only is it picturesque, but also it was the muse for the Disney castle. Only 15 of 59 rooms were completed by the time he died even though they had been working on it for 17 years, and our tour consisted of seeing those 15 rooms. Just the wood work in his bedroom alone took 14 men 4 year to complete. This castle too is full of swans because apparently he liked swans a much as his dad did. The decor is over the top, and if I had a location like his with the incredible views in every direction, I would have incorporated the views into my design more so than the paintings that again covered every wall.
After our short tour, we walked up to Maria's Bridge for a good view of the castle and the surrounding countryside. It was very windy. By the time we walked back down to the car and found a place to eat, we had walked 11 miles (most of it on steep up and down hills), and this was supposed to have been our easier walking day.
Their son (Mad) Ludwig II also lived in this castle most of his life, but Ludwig was obsessed with castles and wanted to build his own. He started many castles but only one was completed by the time he died (either by suicide or murder...no one knows) at the bankrupt age of 40. The most famous of his uncompleted castles is right across the hill from his parents' castle and was our second tour of the day: Neuschwanstein. This castle is more well known and popular (read crowded) than the other one. Most people recognize this castle because not only is it picturesque, but also it was the muse for the Disney castle. Only 15 of 59 rooms were completed by the time he died even though they had been working on it for 17 years, and our tour consisted of seeing those 15 rooms. Just the wood work in his bedroom alone took 14 men 4 year to complete. This castle too is full of swans because apparently he liked swans a much as his dad did. The decor is over the top, and if I had a location like his with the incredible views in every direction, I would have incorporated the views into my design more so than the paintings that again covered every wall.
After our short tour, we walked up to Maria's Bridge for a good view of the castle and the surrounding countryside. It was very windy. By the time we walked back down to the car and found a place to eat, we had walked 11 miles (most of it on steep up and down hills), and this was supposed to have been our easier walking day.
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