GUTEN TAG AUS EUROPA!
Since this is a lifestyle blog and traveling and new adventures are important to me, I present my first travel post! Let’s go to Europe!! In October 2019, my husband (David) and I made the trip across the pond to Germany and France! Schnitzel, beer, macarons & wine! Can you tell we ate our way through this vaca? My cousin is living in Neustadt, Germany so we took advantage of having a free place to stay and tour guides! He and his wife were able to show us real German culture and the not-so-touristy places which made our trip very unique and authentic! Being immersed into a new culture can be overwhelming so almost every evening we watched a baking competition show (ahhh, English!). It gave us that bit of normalcy and a taste of home each night which I always need on long trips.
Looking back on the trip, we knew little to nothing of what we were getting ourselves into. My cousins had to order for us at restaurants, translate street signs, and even show us how to pay a nickel to use public restrooms. It was a very humbling experience! Honestly, I thought German people would speak a little more English than they did. You always hear how European children are taught like…7 different languages in school! Much to my surprise, most Germans spoke some form of broken English. Thankfully, my cousins were along to translate.
Did you know German people don’t call their country Germany? I didn’t! They live in Deutschland (Germany) and speak Deutsch (German). Mind. Blown. Nonetheless, we had the best hosts and saw and learned so much in a week’s time! I definitely recommend taking a European vacation if you have the opportunity!
FRIDAY
Our journey began on a brisk, October Friday. After a normal work day, we made the 5 hour drive to Chicago to catch our 11pm flight to Frankfurt, Germany. We navigated through O’Hare’s parking lots, airport security, and terminal in plenty of time to board the massive airplane we would get to spend the next 8 hours on. The flight time was perfect since we were able to sleep as if it was through the night…even though we arrived in Frankfurt at 2:30pm. That time change was a real adjustment! I asked David what is one thing I should definitely include in this post and he said, “The part where we got free beer and wine on the plane.” So, you can see where his head is at. We flew on a German airline, Lufthansa, and it was a very pleasant experience.
SATURDAY
My cousins were at the airport to greet us and take us to their home. Our trip was off to a great start since they brought us authentic German pretzels as a snack, and we got to ride on the autobahn! “Autobahn” is just German for highway but is known for having no speed limits! Although through more congested areas, there are speed limit signs (we normally saw 120 kilometers/hour which is really 75 miles/hour) but on the wide-open stretches, you are free to drive at the speed of your choice! Once we made it to Neustadt, which is about an hour drive from the airport, we settled into their apartment and got a feel for where we would be spending our week! Neustadt is home to as many people as my hometown (40k-ish); however, it felt like a much bigger city. Many people live in apartments and walk almost everywhere while my hometown is much more spread out. I often wondered what the Europeans would think about the large homes and yards we have in the US. We didn’t have too much time to hang around because there was a party to get to! The annual Neustadt Wine Festival! While you might think of Oktoberfest and beer when you think of large German festivals, the western part of Germany is a large producer of grapes and holds many wine festivals. The Neustadt festival lasted for weeks, but we caught the tail end. Think of a large parish picnic or fair but with more brats and sauerkraut. There was live music, rides, and wine, of course! We all ordered a glass of wine which was a large drinking glass filled with mostly wine and a little bit of sparkling water on top! They said 1 glass contained a half bottle of wine. I won’t tell you how much wine each of us had by the end of the night. (1.5 bottles…each.) Safe to say we had a great first night!
SUNDAY
It was a slow wake up…you can guess why. Nonetheless, we made it to the bank to get Euros and walked around town. My cousins took us in their church and past many old, old buildings. Some of them even had the year in which the building was built etched at the top of the entrance. It was fascinating to see structures built in 1100…you definitely don’t see that back home. As an end to their wine festival, the city of Neustadt held a city wide parade. Clubs and organizations walked by on the street just outside my cousin’s apartment as well as several “wine queens”. Each town in their region held a contest to name a wine queen for the year based on their knowledge of wine and the wine making process. Not far behind the wine queens were their entourages which passed out free wine to parade watchers on the street! All we needed was an empty glass. That evening, my cousin made authentic German Roudalen which is bacon, onion, mustard, and pickles wrapped in a thin cut of beef. It was delish!
MONDAY
This was the day David had been waiting for! A trip to Rodenberg which is in Bavaria AKA beer country! It took a few hours to get there as traffic was a bear! I can see why Europeans are always walking everywhere or taking trains. In fact, the German government very rarely repairs their roads as a “green” initiative to persuade citizens to use mass transit options. Once we made it to Rodenberg, we saw why the trip was worth the headache in the car. It was picturesque Germany. Every building had exposed wood framing and the town square was right out of a book. We walked through a park that overlooked the city, browsed in a few Christmas shops, climbed up the tower of the town church, and ate our first ever schnitzel and fries! Rodenberg is unique in that there is a wall all the way around the city. It was once used for protection for the city, but now tourists can be found walking through it.
TUESDAY
The next day we went to Rudesheim which is a town built on the Rhine River. We took a river cruise passing by mountains, castles, and the cutest little villages. We were on the cruise for better than an hour, hopped off at a small village to eat more wiener schnitzel at a restaurant, and caught a train back to Rudesheim. We walked through the town which had the narrowest streets. Pictures don’t quite do it justice, but one street was only a few feet wide. We stopped at a restaurant for some hot chocolate before heading back to Neustadt.
WEDNESDAY
This day was all about the scenic views Germany has to offer. We went to a castle that has now been turned into a museum. The castle is on a huge hill which you have to climb, but we didn’t mind a little exercise! You could see for miles once you got to the top and could walk through the castle imagining what it would be like to be royalty for a day. Again, this was nothing you would find at home since this castle was centuries old. Later, we ate a restaurant at the bottom of the hill. They had potato soup that was to die for! Once we made it back to Neustadt, we walked through the grape vineyards that are perched on a hill overlooking the city.
THURSDAY
We set out in the morning for France! When driving, you wouldn’t know when you left Germany and entered France if it weren’t for the run down and abandoned border posts. It was just like driving into another state back home…although we were now in a new country! Our destination was Colmar, France which is the hometown of the man that designed the Statue of Liberty. They had a smaller version of the statue in the town which we were sure to snap a picture with. Even though we were only a few hours from Germany, there was a completely different feel in France. We quickly learned to say “Mesi” instead of “Danke” and tried famous French foods, crème brulee and macarons! We walked through the town and took several pictures of the French canals, streets, and buildings.
FRIDAY
Since we were getting a little tired of spending so much time in the car, we decided to spend our last day in my cousin’s town, Neustadt. We shopped (they had a TK Maxx! no, that’s not a typo), ate at a German “fast food” restaurant, and made a trip to their grocery superstore. Most of the neighborhood grocery stores were just like Aldi, but they do have a grocery superstore, Globus. The store was massive and had just about any type of meat you could think of. It seemed like the sausage meat case was a mile long. Since this was our last night, we ate at a nice restaurant and sipped on our last glasses of German beer and wine.
SATURDAY
All good things must come to an end so we said our good byes and boarded our flight back home. The airplane that took us home was a double decker…it was taller than the airport itself. It was a little unnerving knowing that monster airplane was supposed to fly in the air. Our flight was at 10am which put us in Chicago at noon the same day! We made the 5 hour drive home and went straight to bed (after eating some much anticipated Mexican food, of course).
We are so happy we took advantage of this opportunity to see new places and cultures! This was definitely a European vacation we will always remember!
Chat soon!
Kelsey
