2007 German Travelogue
Mar 20th, 2008, 08:02 PM
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2007 German Travelogue
When I travel I send emails home to all my friends as sort or a travelogue. I promised to post these last year but never got around to it, so these are old. Perhaps some of you will find some interesting stuff...
If you have any questions or want more detailed information just let me know.
----------------------------------
<i>This email was originally sent on 6/4/2007</i>
Here is the first entry of what will hopefully become my travelogue of our 2007 vacation to Germany.
<b>Setting the Scene</b>
Jack: This is me and this is my interpretation of what we are experiencing on this trip.
Deille: My lovely wife of 15 years who happens to be the luckiest woman in the world (because she is married to me). She is from Germany, and so part of this trip is to see her family.
Elisabeth: Our 21 month old daughter (also known as the X-factor for this trip).
Cecily: Good family friend. She got stuck watching the house the last several times we have come to Europe. This time she is with us and gives us a third set of hands for Elisabeth (Also known as the equalizer).
<b>Preparations</b>
On Tuesday, May 29th Deille, Elisabeth, Cecily and I boarded a British Airways plane in Phoenix Arizona for the first leg of our journey to Germany. Getting to the point of departure had not been as easy as one might think. You would think that you just buy some tickets and get on the plane at the appointed time and be on your way. However, as anyone who knows me can attest I am not one to leave things to chance. Everything needs to be planned and over-arranged or I am just not comfortable.
Even buying the tickets was not straight forward. I had originally reserved four tickets on LTU flying from Las Vegas direct to Dusseldorf Germany. The price was very good but I had them placed on hold for 72 hours while I made sure that the dates would work for Cecily. The dates were good and Cecily was excited that this trip was going to become reality. I was about to call them to actually purchase the tickets when Deille and I looked at the airline rules for car seats. Unfortunately, LTU operates under some very odd rules when it comes to child seats. You can only bring certain TUV approved car seats onto the airplane. The TUV is a German safety organization. Currently LTU only has car seats sold in Germany on their approved list. Ok… understandable since this is a German airline, and we can get a car seat sent to us from Germany. However, it is also important to note that none of the TUV approved car seats on the LTU website is newer than 2001. That is six years ago, all of these companies no longer produce the approved models, except for one. This one approved model still in production is known as the Luftikid. This is an inflatable car seat! Yes, not only is it a car seat, but it can be used as a pool toy. They even had videos of this car seat at work on the Luftikid web site (www.luftikid.com). After we saw this video, we had to wonder if this was some kind of very sick joke. Unfortunately it is not.
Deille called LTU in Germany to try to plead our case, but in true German fashion they would not budge, stating that only TUV approved seats were allowed on the plane. They even suggested that we just strap her into the seat using the regular seat belt. Even my parents and grandparents who use to let my sister stand between them on the bench seat a 1975 Chevy Impala would have realized this would be a bad idea even if it were still 1977. So, in true German fashion Deille told them what they could do with their seats and airline. So out the window with the cheap tickets and in with the British Airlines tickets, while not as cheap they do allow any FAA approved car seats on their planes.
Fortunately, most of the rest of the preparations were pretty straight forward. We reserved three vacation rentals, known in Germany as “Ferienwohnung”. I give you this word so that you can search in Google should you need a place to stay in Germany. I am currently sitting in the first Ferienwohnung where we will stay for the first seven days. It is a comfortable one bedroom apartment with a couch bed in the living room. It is nice having the kitchen and the room and it is a lot cheaper than a hotel. I also arranged for the rental car, printed out maps on how to get to each of our destinations, researched the best way to exchange dollars for Euros (fyi it is generally by ATM), purchased two new step down converters to power our American gadgets, bought two used unlocked cell phones from eBay, spent hours reading about the best walking shoes available, etc. etc… you get the idea. The only other issue we had was the delay in receiving Cecily’s passport, but a quick call to U.S. Rep Trent Frank’s office got that resolved within 24 hours! Thanks to Fodor’s forums (www.fodors.com) for that trick and several of the others as well.
<b>The Odyssey begins</b>
So the day for our trip arrived. Now we would see if all of my planning would pay off if we could only survive 12 hours in a plane with a 21 month old. While I knew we would physically survive (unless an irate lynch mob of our fellow passengers did us in), I was more worried about our already fragile mental states. Mine was weak from all the research and preparations I had done, while Deille and Cecily’s were also weakened due to having to put up with my preparations. Of course we were also prepared for the possibility of an uncooperative child. Many simple new toys were purchased to occupy her, we brought along our portable DVD player and a collection of movies, plus we had a variety of snacks. Just in case we had the bottle of Benadryl as a last resort. We had really debated whether it was ethical to consider drugging our daughter on the flight. We consulted her doctor, friends, family, message boards and got a variety of opinions, mostly split along the lines of gender (I will let you guess whether it was the gender of the person giving us the opinion or the gender of their child). In the end we decided to bring the bottle in case it was a matter of life and death for someone.
We should not have worried. Elisabeth slept for most of the flight. Other crying children actually woke her up at one point, which prompted her to ask, “baby ok?” She then went back to sleep. In reality Elisabeth handled the flights better than the rest of us. We arrived into London uneventfully and then got to hang out on the runway for 45 minutes while they determined what gate to let us go to. Moving from terminal 4 to terminal 2 was uneventful, and we had no issue making our flight. After a second short uneventful flight we arrived in Dusseldorf Germany. Two of our bags were stuck in London, but this turned out to be a blessing in disguise. We easily cleared customs and got to our car.
I had reserved an Audi A4 Manual Station wagon (or similar) from Avis with a preference for a diesel version of the car. We have always had great service from Avis in Germany, although this has not always been the case in the U.S. This time was no exception. The lady at the counter was very nice but informed me that they were out of A4 manual Audis, but that she would upgrade us to some sort of BMW diesel station wagon. I thought that sounded cool, and was even happier when she told me it had a navigation system. However, when we got to the car it was really just a glorified hatchback. There was no way our luggage would fit. Back to the counter I went. The lady still nice as can be was able to find an Audi station wagon with an automatic transmission. The problem was that it cost us almost $300 more for our 19 day rental. At this point it was approaching 9PM and I was tired, so I accepted it and went back out to load the car. Even with this larger car we were barely able to get our luggage in (and this was without the two lost suitcases). Obviously, this was something we would need to remedy soon.
After a brief stop for dinner we arrived at our apartment and crashed for the night. The suit cases caught up with us the next morning.
<b>Muenster</b>
Muenster is where Deille grew up and where her parents and sister still live. I have given a pretty detailed review of the city in my travelogue on our last trip. Not much has changed since then. We spent Thursday recovering from the trip and shopping for necessities, such as bananas for Elisabeth and non-carbonated water for the rest of us. Bananas are to Elisabeth what coffee is for her mother. Without her morning banana she just cannot get going.
Water on the other hand is something that we who live in the desert know is no joking matter. In the past we have found that it easy for us to forget to drink our water because we do not feel thirsty and soon we have headaches from dehydration. In a country where beer is cheaper than cola it is easy not to drink enough or to drink too much of the wrong thing. The problem is that if you just order water in a restaurant you will most likely get carbonated water. You must specify that you want “still” water. To make things even more confusing Germans sell their water with varying levels of carbonation. In the grocery store it is easy to grab the wrong thing, but luckily we have been down this path before so we are not confused by the “nearly still” or “somewhat still” waters.
As I said Thursday was shopping day. It was interesting to watch Cecily’s experience a German grocery store for the first time. Everything seems so new and exciting. The meat and cheese departments always make me lament the lack of variety in our own Albertsons. Friday was pretty much the same as Thursday except that I dropped Cecily off at the train station so that she could take a train to visit her cousin. She was pretty scared as she was going to need to make two changes on her own, but she made it safely. I will pick her up on Monday. The rest of the day was spent in downtown Muenster with Oma (Deille’s mother) buying clothes and other stuff for Elisabeth. I guess we better get another suitcase…
On Saturday we headed to Nordhorn to visit Deille’s aunt and uncle. They are great people who still live in the same home that Deille’s mother and uncle grew up in. Their father had it built on land he got after World War II. When I was first there 10+ years ago it was surrounded on three sided by woods and fields, now new houses are being built all around it. I guess urban sprawl is not only an American problem.
Well, I guess that brings you all pretty much up to speed. This morning we were able to switch the car with Avis for a Honda CRV. It has more room and is the same price of the original car we were supposed to have which is good. Unfortunately, we no longer have a navigation system (so my printed maps will be useful after all!). We should start to have more about actual sites and stuff after we leave Muenster on Wednesday. Right now we are in family-visit mode.
Talk to you soon,
Jack
If you have any questions or want more detailed information just let me know.
----------------------------------
<i>This email was originally sent on 6/4/2007</i>
Here is the first entry of what will hopefully become my travelogue of our 2007 vacation to Germany.
<b>Setting the Scene</b>
Jack: This is me and this is my interpretation of what we are experiencing on this trip.
Deille: My lovely wife of 15 years who happens to be the luckiest woman in the world (because she is married to me). She is from Germany, and so part of this trip is to see her family.
Elisabeth: Our 21 month old daughter (also known as the X-factor for this trip).
Cecily: Good family friend. She got stuck watching the house the last several times we have come to Europe. This time she is with us and gives us a third set of hands for Elisabeth (Also known as the equalizer).
<b>Preparations</b>
On Tuesday, May 29th Deille, Elisabeth, Cecily and I boarded a British Airways plane in Phoenix Arizona for the first leg of our journey to Germany. Getting to the point of departure had not been as easy as one might think. You would think that you just buy some tickets and get on the plane at the appointed time and be on your way. However, as anyone who knows me can attest I am not one to leave things to chance. Everything needs to be planned and over-arranged or I am just not comfortable.
Even buying the tickets was not straight forward. I had originally reserved four tickets on LTU flying from Las Vegas direct to Dusseldorf Germany. The price was very good but I had them placed on hold for 72 hours while I made sure that the dates would work for Cecily. The dates were good and Cecily was excited that this trip was going to become reality. I was about to call them to actually purchase the tickets when Deille and I looked at the airline rules for car seats. Unfortunately, LTU operates under some very odd rules when it comes to child seats. You can only bring certain TUV approved car seats onto the airplane. The TUV is a German safety organization. Currently LTU only has car seats sold in Germany on their approved list. Ok… understandable since this is a German airline, and we can get a car seat sent to us from Germany. However, it is also important to note that none of the TUV approved car seats on the LTU website is newer than 2001. That is six years ago, all of these companies no longer produce the approved models, except for one. This one approved model still in production is known as the Luftikid. This is an inflatable car seat! Yes, not only is it a car seat, but it can be used as a pool toy. They even had videos of this car seat at work on the Luftikid web site (www.luftikid.com). After we saw this video, we had to wonder if this was some kind of very sick joke. Unfortunately it is not.
Deille called LTU in Germany to try to plead our case, but in true German fashion they would not budge, stating that only TUV approved seats were allowed on the plane. They even suggested that we just strap her into the seat using the regular seat belt. Even my parents and grandparents who use to let my sister stand between them on the bench seat a 1975 Chevy Impala would have realized this would be a bad idea even if it were still 1977. So, in true German fashion Deille told them what they could do with their seats and airline. So out the window with the cheap tickets and in with the British Airlines tickets, while not as cheap they do allow any FAA approved car seats on their planes.
Fortunately, most of the rest of the preparations were pretty straight forward. We reserved three vacation rentals, known in Germany as “Ferienwohnung”. I give you this word so that you can search in Google should you need a place to stay in Germany. I am currently sitting in the first Ferienwohnung where we will stay for the first seven days. It is a comfortable one bedroom apartment with a couch bed in the living room. It is nice having the kitchen and the room and it is a lot cheaper than a hotel. I also arranged for the rental car, printed out maps on how to get to each of our destinations, researched the best way to exchange dollars for Euros (fyi it is generally by ATM), purchased two new step down converters to power our American gadgets, bought two used unlocked cell phones from eBay, spent hours reading about the best walking shoes available, etc. etc… you get the idea. The only other issue we had was the delay in receiving Cecily’s passport, but a quick call to U.S. Rep Trent Frank’s office got that resolved within 24 hours! Thanks to Fodor’s forums (www.fodors.com) for that trick and several of the others as well.
<b>The Odyssey begins</b>
So the day for our trip arrived. Now we would see if all of my planning would pay off if we could only survive 12 hours in a plane with a 21 month old. While I knew we would physically survive (unless an irate lynch mob of our fellow passengers did us in), I was more worried about our already fragile mental states. Mine was weak from all the research and preparations I had done, while Deille and Cecily’s were also weakened due to having to put up with my preparations. Of course we were also prepared for the possibility of an uncooperative child. Many simple new toys were purchased to occupy her, we brought along our portable DVD player and a collection of movies, plus we had a variety of snacks. Just in case we had the bottle of Benadryl as a last resort. We had really debated whether it was ethical to consider drugging our daughter on the flight. We consulted her doctor, friends, family, message boards and got a variety of opinions, mostly split along the lines of gender (I will let you guess whether it was the gender of the person giving us the opinion or the gender of their child). In the end we decided to bring the bottle in case it was a matter of life and death for someone.
We should not have worried. Elisabeth slept for most of the flight. Other crying children actually woke her up at one point, which prompted her to ask, “baby ok?” She then went back to sleep. In reality Elisabeth handled the flights better than the rest of us. We arrived into London uneventfully and then got to hang out on the runway for 45 minutes while they determined what gate to let us go to. Moving from terminal 4 to terminal 2 was uneventful, and we had no issue making our flight. After a second short uneventful flight we arrived in Dusseldorf Germany. Two of our bags were stuck in London, but this turned out to be a blessing in disguise. We easily cleared customs and got to our car.
I had reserved an Audi A4 Manual Station wagon (or similar) from Avis with a preference for a diesel version of the car. We have always had great service from Avis in Germany, although this has not always been the case in the U.S. This time was no exception. The lady at the counter was very nice but informed me that they were out of A4 manual Audis, but that she would upgrade us to some sort of BMW diesel station wagon. I thought that sounded cool, and was even happier when she told me it had a navigation system. However, when we got to the car it was really just a glorified hatchback. There was no way our luggage would fit. Back to the counter I went. The lady still nice as can be was able to find an Audi station wagon with an automatic transmission. The problem was that it cost us almost $300 more for our 19 day rental. At this point it was approaching 9PM and I was tired, so I accepted it and went back out to load the car. Even with this larger car we were barely able to get our luggage in (and this was without the two lost suitcases). Obviously, this was something we would need to remedy soon.
After a brief stop for dinner we arrived at our apartment and crashed for the night. The suit cases caught up with us the next morning.
<b>Muenster</b>
Muenster is where Deille grew up and where her parents and sister still live. I have given a pretty detailed review of the city in my travelogue on our last trip. Not much has changed since then. We spent Thursday recovering from the trip and shopping for necessities, such as bananas for Elisabeth and non-carbonated water for the rest of us. Bananas are to Elisabeth what coffee is for her mother. Without her morning banana she just cannot get going.
Water on the other hand is something that we who live in the desert know is no joking matter. In the past we have found that it easy for us to forget to drink our water because we do not feel thirsty and soon we have headaches from dehydration. In a country where beer is cheaper than cola it is easy not to drink enough or to drink too much of the wrong thing. The problem is that if you just order water in a restaurant you will most likely get carbonated water. You must specify that you want “still” water. To make things even more confusing Germans sell their water with varying levels of carbonation. In the grocery store it is easy to grab the wrong thing, but luckily we have been down this path before so we are not confused by the “nearly still” or “somewhat still” waters.
As I said Thursday was shopping day. It was interesting to watch Cecily’s experience a German grocery store for the first time. Everything seems so new and exciting. The meat and cheese departments always make me lament the lack of variety in our own Albertsons. Friday was pretty much the same as Thursday except that I dropped Cecily off at the train station so that she could take a train to visit her cousin. She was pretty scared as she was going to need to make two changes on her own, but she made it safely. I will pick her up on Monday. The rest of the day was spent in downtown Muenster with Oma (Deille’s mother) buying clothes and other stuff for Elisabeth. I guess we better get another suitcase…
On Saturday we headed to Nordhorn to visit Deille’s aunt and uncle. They are great people who still live in the same home that Deille’s mother and uncle grew up in. Their father had it built on land he got after World War II. When I was first there 10+ years ago it was surrounded on three sided by woods and fields, now new houses are being built all around it. I guess urban sprawl is not only an American problem.
Well, I guess that brings you all pretty much up to speed. This morning we were able to switch the car with Avis for a Honda CRV. It has more room and is the same price of the original car we were supposed to have which is good. Unfortunately, we no longer have a navigation system (so my printed maps will be useful after all!). We should start to have more about actual sites and stuff after we leave Muenster on Wednesday. Right now we are in family-visit mode.
Talk to you soon,
Jack
Mar 20th, 2008, 08:11 PM
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<i>This email was originally sent on 6/8/2007</i>
Today our vacation finally started! We have been in Germany since May 30th but today was the first day where our time was our own.
<b>Getting Up-to-date</b>
On Sunday afternoon we went with Deille’s parents and sister to the Muenster Zoo. It was very nice and Elisabeth had a great time. She is really getting good at putting names to animals, but she is still easily distracted from the exotic animals by the animals not in cages, such as pigeons. She especially liked the aquarium part of the zoo where she got to see Nemo and Dori or at least fish that looked a lot like them.
Monday we picked up Cecily from the train station and then showed her around Muenster. I was glad to have another American with me to experience the freakish number of bicycles in the town (to learn about Muenster and bikes refer to travelogue from last trip). I even took a few new pictures to add to my photo essay. Monday evening Cecily stayed with Elisabeth while we went to dinner with one of Deille’s old school friends. We came very close to eating at a Tex-Mex place before Deille quashed the idea. Just think of all the things I could have written about had we eaten there…
Tuesday was our last day in Muenster, and to celebrate we promptly left and went to see a local castle called Burg Vischering. This is a classic moated castle which isn’t really that common in Germany. The castle itself is quite well intact but it did have major renovations as late as the 17th century taking a bit of its medieval appeal away. However, the saddest changes to the site probably took place at the hands of the Americans (or one of the allies) during World War II when a bomber dropped a bomb that missed the castle but took out several of the supporting building including the mill. While the castle probably had no military or economic significance it was not unheard of for allied bombers to unload left-over bombs on castles.
<b>On to the Vacation!</b>
We woke up this morning to a beautiful sunny morning. I quickly played Tetris to get all of our baggage into the car, went to the in-laws for breakfast and we were on the road to Detmold by 10:30. The drive was pretty easy and straight forward using the directions that I had printed out from Google Maps. Well at least it was until the road that the directions wanted us to use ran straight across a German military training area. The guards were not interested in hearing about how I needed to use the road to get to our destination because Google Maps told me to. This is the first time I have ever been led astray by Google, I hope that I can one day regain my ability to trust.
After a brief stop to allow me to regain my composure and for my wife to get directions, we did in fact make it to our Ferienwohnung. I am sure that had we been allowed to follow the directions that Google would have also gotten us there. Obviously the German government is out to ruin Google.
The Ferienwohnung that we are staying at is 6km outside of Detmold. The reason that we are in the Detmold area is because it is in the middle of the Teutoburger Wald (Wald means forest) and there is a lot to see in the area. As we drove through the forest today I could not help but hear Elmer Fudd in my head singing about his spear and magic helmet in the Warner Brothers version of the Neibelungenlied. In areas the trees stop most of the daylight from penetrating to ground below. It is also a very hilly region. It is in this forest that the German barbarian Arminius defeated the Romans in 9 AD destroying 3 legions in the process.
So it seemed fitting that the first site we should visit would be dedicated to this German. The German name for Arminius is Hermann, and he is seen as a national hero. In the 1870’s a giant statute was built on top of a monument on the hill where the battle was supposed to have taken place. Today scholars have done a lot of further research and about the only thing that they all agree on is that the battle did not take place on this hill or anywhere in the immediate vicinity.
The height of the monument and statute is over 53 meters and the statute itself is over 26 meters. As I explained to Cecily and Deille, we needed to see this like you need to see the Eiffel Tower when you visit Paris. If you went to Paris and told people you never saw the Eiffel tower they would probably commit you (or at least get you an eye examination). Similarly you cannot visit Detmold and not see the Hermanns Denkmal. Cecily’s comment after seeing it was, “I can cross that off my list of things that I need to see,” and just like that we were done with Arminius and our day.
<b>Reflections on an Almost 2 Year Old</b>
As I sit here typing this, I cannot help but think about the resilience of my daughter. Sure she gets fussy and cranky at times, but overall she has been a great travelling companion. We have totally messed with her sleep schedule, she is forced to get in and out of her car seat all day, and most of her bath toys are home in Arizona but she almost never complains. She is just happy to be with Mommy, Daddy and Cecily. She is especially happy when we sing to her (if you have heard me sing, you will wonder about her state of mind). Sometimes we have to walk a bit slower so that she can walk too, and sometimes one of us has to wait in the car while she finishes her nap, but this trip would be totally boring without her.
She can make a game out of anything. Earlier she had her mother’s battery powered alarm clock. She was running around talking to various people on it like it was a phone. Yesterday she was pretending this same clock was a camera. It is amazing to me how happy she can be with these simple things. As we are looking at all these amazing sites and places, I try to remember to take time to enjoy the simple things with my daughter like singing Old MacDonald or stopping to smell every (and I mean every) flower or weed we happen to pass.
I will write again in a few days.
Jack
Today our vacation finally started! We have been in Germany since May 30th but today was the first day where our time was our own.
<b>Getting Up-to-date</b>
On Sunday afternoon we went with Deille’s parents and sister to the Muenster Zoo. It was very nice and Elisabeth had a great time. She is really getting good at putting names to animals, but she is still easily distracted from the exotic animals by the animals not in cages, such as pigeons. She especially liked the aquarium part of the zoo where she got to see Nemo and Dori or at least fish that looked a lot like them.
Monday we picked up Cecily from the train station and then showed her around Muenster. I was glad to have another American with me to experience the freakish number of bicycles in the town (to learn about Muenster and bikes refer to travelogue from last trip). I even took a few new pictures to add to my photo essay. Monday evening Cecily stayed with Elisabeth while we went to dinner with one of Deille’s old school friends. We came very close to eating at a Tex-Mex place before Deille quashed the idea. Just think of all the things I could have written about had we eaten there…
Tuesday was our last day in Muenster, and to celebrate we promptly left and went to see a local castle called Burg Vischering. This is a classic moated castle which isn’t really that common in Germany. The castle itself is quite well intact but it did have major renovations as late as the 17th century taking a bit of its medieval appeal away. However, the saddest changes to the site probably took place at the hands of the Americans (or one of the allies) during World War II when a bomber dropped a bomb that missed the castle but took out several of the supporting building including the mill. While the castle probably had no military or economic significance it was not unheard of for allied bombers to unload left-over bombs on castles.
<b>On to the Vacation!</b>
We woke up this morning to a beautiful sunny morning. I quickly played Tetris to get all of our baggage into the car, went to the in-laws for breakfast and we were on the road to Detmold by 10:30. The drive was pretty easy and straight forward using the directions that I had printed out from Google Maps. Well at least it was until the road that the directions wanted us to use ran straight across a German military training area. The guards were not interested in hearing about how I needed to use the road to get to our destination because Google Maps told me to. This is the first time I have ever been led astray by Google, I hope that I can one day regain my ability to trust.
After a brief stop to allow me to regain my composure and for my wife to get directions, we did in fact make it to our Ferienwohnung. I am sure that had we been allowed to follow the directions that Google would have also gotten us there. Obviously the German government is out to ruin Google.
The Ferienwohnung that we are staying at is 6km outside of Detmold. The reason that we are in the Detmold area is because it is in the middle of the Teutoburger Wald (Wald means forest) and there is a lot to see in the area. As we drove through the forest today I could not help but hear Elmer Fudd in my head singing about his spear and magic helmet in the Warner Brothers version of the Neibelungenlied. In areas the trees stop most of the daylight from penetrating to ground below. It is also a very hilly region. It is in this forest that the German barbarian Arminius defeated the Romans in 9 AD destroying 3 legions in the process.
So it seemed fitting that the first site we should visit would be dedicated to this German. The German name for Arminius is Hermann, and he is seen as a national hero. In the 1870’s a giant statute was built on top of a monument on the hill where the battle was supposed to have taken place. Today scholars have done a lot of further research and about the only thing that they all agree on is that the battle did not take place on this hill or anywhere in the immediate vicinity.
The height of the monument and statute is over 53 meters and the statute itself is over 26 meters. As I explained to Cecily and Deille, we needed to see this like you need to see the Eiffel Tower when you visit Paris. If you went to Paris and told people you never saw the Eiffel tower they would probably commit you (or at least get you an eye examination). Similarly you cannot visit Detmold and not see the Hermanns Denkmal. Cecily’s comment after seeing it was, “I can cross that off my list of things that I need to see,” and just like that we were done with Arminius and our day.
<b>Reflections on an Almost 2 Year Old</b>
As I sit here typing this, I cannot help but think about the resilience of my daughter. Sure she gets fussy and cranky at times, but overall she has been a great travelling companion. We have totally messed with her sleep schedule, she is forced to get in and out of her car seat all day, and most of her bath toys are home in Arizona but she almost never complains. She is just happy to be with Mommy, Daddy and Cecily. She is especially happy when we sing to her (if you have heard me sing, you will wonder about her state of mind). Sometimes we have to walk a bit slower so that she can walk too, and sometimes one of us has to wait in the car while she finishes her nap, but this trip would be totally boring without her.
She can make a game out of anything. Earlier she had her mother’s battery powered alarm clock. She was running around talking to various people on it like it was a phone. Yesterday she was pretending this same clock was a camera. It is amazing to me how happy she can be with these simple things. As we are looking at all these amazing sites and places, I try to remember to take time to enjoy the simple things with my daughter like singing Old MacDonald or stopping to smell every (and I mean every) flower or weed we happen to pass.
I will write again in a few days.
Jack
Mar 21st, 2008, 06:16 AM
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Finding your travels very interesting, especially the part about your daughter. Our daughter was born in Bremerhaven and we lived in Germany until she was about 2.5 years old. One additional benefit (sometimes) of traveling and living with a young child in Germany is that it puts you in touch with so many surrogate grandparents.
I have been lectured by elderly women about protecting my daughter from strangers' germs (as she bent over the baby to goo-goo her), about protecting them from the cold and about providing enough air to her when walking her in a plastic covered stroller. I always got these lectures, not my wife.
When our daughter was very young, we stayed at a hotel in Koblenz where she cried much of the night. We were afraid that the landlady would be angry. Instead the next morning the landlady was very concerned as she heard the baby cried and was unhappy that she did not know if we needed anything to help.
Once in Denmark they asked us if we would like a folding crib for our room (more like a play pen). We thankfully said yes. So, they went out and bought one. We had no idea.
In northern Italy, our waitress finished taking our order and said to my daughter, "Und, du kommst mit mir." She took our daughter to the kitchen for the chef to provide her with a treat.
Our travels were full of strangers going out of their way to interact with our child and I am sure it is true with other children. I would always recommend that people take the chance and travel with young children in Europe.
Regards, Gary
I have been lectured by elderly women about protecting my daughter from strangers' germs (as she bent over the baby to goo-goo her), about protecting them from the cold and about providing enough air to her when walking her in a plastic covered stroller. I always got these lectures, not my wife.
When our daughter was very young, we stayed at a hotel in Koblenz where she cried much of the night. We were afraid that the landlady would be angry. Instead the next morning the landlady was very concerned as she heard the baby cried and was unhappy that she did not know if we needed anything to help.
Once in Denmark they asked us if we would like a folding crib for our room (more like a play pen). We thankfully said yes. So, they went out and bought one. We had no idea.
In northern Italy, our waitress finished taking our order and said to my daughter, "Und, du kommst mit mir." She took our daughter to the kitchen for the chef to provide her with a treat.
Our travels were full of strangers going out of their way to interact with our child and I am sure it is true with other children. I would always recommend that people take the chance and travel with young children in Europe.
Regards, Gary
Mar 21st, 2008, 12:58 PM
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BTilke,
I have been very remiss about visiting these forums. I think it is because I have not yet started planning our next trip so it was somewhat depressing to see everyone talking about their plans.
It was your post to one of my earlier threads that reminded me of my obligation to post these emails as I had promised. This forum helped me so much as I planned this trip and I owe it those who helped me to try to do the same for other travellers.
Yes, we made it to the freilichtmuseum. It is coming up shortly.
Gary,
Many people were interested in our daughter. The elderly couple whose ferienwohnung we stayed in while in Detmold were particularly friendly to her.
My daughter was quite spoiled in general. She is the only grand child of my wife's parents and the only great-grand child on her mother's side, despite the fact that there are lots of great aunt and uncles and one aunt (my wife's sister). None of these people ever had children, so she is quite unique. The same is not true on my side of the family here in the states.
I will try to post the next email or two tonight when I get home from work.
I have been very remiss about visiting these forums. I think it is because I have not yet started planning our next trip so it was somewhat depressing to see everyone talking about their plans.
It was your post to one of my earlier threads that reminded me of my obligation to post these emails as I had promised. This forum helped me so much as I planned this trip and I owe it those who helped me to try to do the same for other travellers.
Yes, we made it to the freilichtmuseum. It is coming up shortly.
Gary,
Many people were interested in our daughter. The elderly couple whose ferienwohnung we stayed in while in Detmold were particularly friendly to her.
My daughter was quite spoiled in general. She is the only grand child of my wife's parents and the only great-grand child on her mother's side, despite the fact that there are lots of great aunt and uncles and one aunt (my wife's sister). None of these people ever had children, so she is quite unique. The same is not true on my side of the family here in the states.
I will try to post the next email or two tonight when I get home from work.
Mar 21st, 2008, 05:00 PM
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Today is our last day in the Teutoburger Wald. Tomorrow morning we will be packing up early for the longest drive of our vacation. We will be going back to Muenster to drop off the crib that Elisabeth has been using, and then we will drive south to Bacharach on the Rhein River. The last few days have really been packed as we have taken in the surrounding area.
<b>Not all Barns that Look the Same Are</b> <i>or</i> <b>Freilichtmuseum!... bless you</b>
We started our day on Thursday by going to the Westphalian Freilichtmuseum (meaning open-air museum). This impressive museum features many examples of the buildings of this part Germany from the 16th to the 19th century and their regional differences. The museum, which is spread over many acres, has many complete farms representing the architecture from their respective regions. They also have one of three complete towns that they plan to reconstruct finished. All of the buildings have been moved from their original locations. It was very impressive to see the huge furnished barns/houses that served both purposes. The animals were kept on one end of the house while the other end served as the family quarters. While this might sound crude, it was surprising how nice the family quarters could be. Some of the more prosperous homes had rooms that would challenge some of the rooms I have seen in castles. However, I can imagine that the smell would be something that would take us a while to get used to. We also saw wind mills, water mills and various other farm and village buildings.
The day was very warm and humid, and after looking at these buildings for several hours they all began to look the same. So after lunch we decided to head back to our apartment. We all made a quick change into shorts and then headed for the Externsteine.
<b>What is an Externsteine?</b>
That is a good question and I guess the answer to that would be that it is a geological formation. Basically its a wall of rocks maybe 200 feet high (I apologize for not having more specific details, but I have yet to read the booklet I got about it). I do know that the German druidic groups think it has religious significance to them. Stairs have been built into it and you can climb to the top and look at the peaceful view… with about 100 noisy school children. The place seems to be a fieldtrip magnet and was just crawling with children of all ages. Deille remembers visiting the place when she was in grade school. The children do add a sense of adventure and excitement though. The stairs are extremely steep and the kids are constantly going up and down them oblivious to the older people and really older people that are using the hand rails and trying not to lose their balance. It makes for some hair-raising experiences.
After leaving the Externsteine we drove around the Teutoburger Wald enjoying the scenery. Deille and Cecily checked out a castle ruin called Iburg while I stayed in the car with a napping Elisabeth. We stopped in one of the small towns along the way and had dinner before returning to our apartment.
<b>Downtown Detmold</b>
Friday I got up early and walked to the local bakery a few blocks away to pick up the brotchen for the morning breakfast as is common in Germany. I have explained about German breakfast in the travelogue from our last trip so I will not bore you here, but for those who have not read my other blogs a brotchen is a small bread roll. It is the basis for breakfasts in Germany, and there is nothing better than fresh ones. The walk through the peaceful town made me think about how we really seem to lack a sense of community in today’s cities in the U.S. I doubt many of us actually use a little local bakery to get our bread (super market bakeries do not count), and I would be surprised if anyone reading this actually goes to their bakery daily to get their breakfast. These small bakeries are still common in Germany though, even in the big cities. As are small meat shops, grocers and drug stores. These places provide a way for the locals to get the things they need without having to drive, and also provide a place where you can run into your neighbor. There is a good chance Deille can run into people she knows when she is in the grocery store near her parents apartment, and this is in a city the size of Tucson and she has not lived there in 20 years. Even when I shop at the nearby Fry’s chain grocery store it is unlikely I will know anyone, however this might have as much to do with the fact that I barely know any of my neighbors.
We spent most of the day in Detmold checking out the city. Many old half-timbered buildings are located in the downtown area, and are very well maintained. We also visited the city museum, which claimed to have medieval items. While we did see a very limited amount of medieval items it was a very small portion of what they had on display.
After eating dinner at the apartment (We have cooked almost all of our dinners in the apartment), Cecily and I went back into Detmold to do laundry. Luckily we had scouted out the place with Deille, and she had read the directions on how to use the machines (all the machines were controlled from one master switchboard) so we were prepared. What we were not prepared for was the fact that the machine would eat our 10 euro note we needed to dry the clothes. Luckily we met a nice German guy who called the help number, and the owner was soon there to rectify our problem. Talking with the locals made the evening quite fun and interesting. The most interesting conversation was about how the replacement of the deutsche mark with the euro had negatively affected the common German citizen.
<b>Farmer’s Market and Birds</b>
Today I did my walk to get the brotchen again and then we headed into Detmold to check out the farmer’s market. There were all kinds of booths with people selling fresh produce, meats, breads, cheeses and all other sorts of foodstuffs. I bought some spicy spread made from pomegranates (I did not realize what it was made with until Deille told me), some gooseberries (because I had never had them before) and the stuff we needed for dinner. It was really neat but very crowded.
After that we headed over to a bird and flower park. They had all kinds of birds from all over the world. I think that Elisabeth enjoyed this more than anything else we have done so far. She basically walked the whole thing by herself. She tried to feed some of the birds with seed that was provided but apparently these birds are well fed and wanted nothing to do with her. By the time we left the park we were all hot and sweaty as this was probably the warmest day since we have been here.
<b>Thunder Does Mean Rain</b>
Once we got back to the apartment and Elisabeth was napping, Deille and I decided a walk would be nice. Cecily was willing to stay with Elisabeth and so we set off with high aspirations of finding a ruined castle that was close by in the woods. Perhaps the dark clouds should have been a warning, or the fact that our hosts said it was going to rain, but we thought what the heck… a little water won’t hurt us, and so off we went. We had not gotten far when we felt a few sprinkles, but we pushed on. The trees on the trail provided some protection from the rain as it got stronger and once we were wet we figured that there was no point in turning back. By this point we were pretty far back into the woods and the rain did not show any sign of letting up in fact it just continued to get heavier. As we came around a bend in the path I saw a horse loaded with bundles and a person wrapped in rain gear leading the horse towards us. It turned out that it was a woman on a four day hiking trip with her horse. Unlike us, she was well prepared for the weather and we were probably a stranger site to her than she was to us. From her we learned that we were only half way to the ruined castle.
We walked maybe another 100 meters before running into a t-intersection in the trail. With no obvious indication of which way we needed to go and the mysterious horse woman wanderer long gone, we decided to cut our losses and head back to the apartment. All during the walk back we continued to get poured on. By the time we made it back there was not a dry spot on us. This is why for the second evening in a row I am at the laundromat, but it gives me a good opportunity to type this travelogue.
I am unsure when I will get a chance to send this, but I will continue to write. Perhaps the next two installments of the travelogue will come at the same time.
Jack
<b>Not all Barns that Look the Same Are</b> <i>or</i> <b>Freilichtmuseum!... bless you</b>
We started our day on Thursday by going to the Westphalian Freilichtmuseum (meaning open-air museum). This impressive museum features many examples of the buildings of this part Germany from the 16th to the 19th century and their regional differences. The museum, which is spread over many acres, has many complete farms representing the architecture from their respective regions. They also have one of three complete towns that they plan to reconstruct finished. All of the buildings have been moved from their original locations. It was very impressive to see the huge furnished barns/houses that served both purposes. The animals were kept on one end of the house while the other end served as the family quarters. While this might sound crude, it was surprising how nice the family quarters could be. Some of the more prosperous homes had rooms that would challenge some of the rooms I have seen in castles. However, I can imagine that the smell would be something that would take us a while to get used to. We also saw wind mills, water mills and various other farm and village buildings.
The day was very warm and humid, and after looking at these buildings for several hours they all began to look the same. So after lunch we decided to head back to our apartment. We all made a quick change into shorts and then headed for the Externsteine.
<b>What is an Externsteine?</b>
That is a good question and I guess the answer to that would be that it is a geological formation. Basically its a wall of rocks maybe 200 feet high (I apologize for not having more specific details, but I have yet to read the booklet I got about it). I do know that the German druidic groups think it has religious significance to them. Stairs have been built into it and you can climb to the top and look at the peaceful view… with about 100 noisy school children. The place seems to be a fieldtrip magnet and was just crawling with children of all ages. Deille remembers visiting the place when she was in grade school. The children do add a sense of adventure and excitement though. The stairs are extremely steep and the kids are constantly going up and down them oblivious to the older people and really older people that are using the hand rails and trying not to lose their balance. It makes for some hair-raising experiences.
After leaving the Externsteine we drove around the Teutoburger Wald enjoying the scenery. Deille and Cecily checked out a castle ruin called Iburg while I stayed in the car with a napping Elisabeth. We stopped in one of the small towns along the way and had dinner before returning to our apartment.
<b>Downtown Detmold</b>
Friday I got up early and walked to the local bakery a few blocks away to pick up the brotchen for the morning breakfast as is common in Germany. I have explained about German breakfast in the travelogue from our last trip so I will not bore you here, but for those who have not read my other blogs a brotchen is a small bread roll. It is the basis for breakfasts in Germany, and there is nothing better than fresh ones. The walk through the peaceful town made me think about how we really seem to lack a sense of community in today’s cities in the U.S. I doubt many of us actually use a little local bakery to get our bread (super market bakeries do not count), and I would be surprised if anyone reading this actually goes to their bakery daily to get their breakfast. These small bakeries are still common in Germany though, even in the big cities. As are small meat shops, grocers and drug stores. These places provide a way for the locals to get the things they need without having to drive, and also provide a place where you can run into your neighbor. There is a good chance Deille can run into people she knows when she is in the grocery store near her parents apartment, and this is in a city the size of Tucson and she has not lived there in 20 years. Even when I shop at the nearby Fry’s chain grocery store it is unlikely I will know anyone, however this might have as much to do with the fact that I barely know any of my neighbors.
We spent most of the day in Detmold checking out the city. Many old half-timbered buildings are located in the downtown area, and are very well maintained. We also visited the city museum, which claimed to have medieval items. While we did see a very limited amount of medieval items it was a very small portion of what they had on display.
After eating dinner at the apartment (We have cooked almost all of our dinners in the apartment), Cecily and I went back into Detmold to do laundry. Luckily we had scouted out the place with Deille, and she had read the directions on how to use the machines (all the machines were controlled from one master switchboard) so we were prepared. What we were not prepared for was the fact that the machine would eat our 10 euro note we needed to dry the clothes. Luckily we met a nice German guy who called the help number, and the owner was soon there to rectify our problem. Talking with the locals made the evening quite fun and interesting. The most interesting conversation was about how the replacement of the deutsche mark with the euro had negatively affected the common German citizen.
<b>Farmer’s Market and Birds</b>
Today I did my walk to get the brotchen again and then we headed into Detmold to check out the farmer’s market. There were all kinds of booths with people selling fresh produce, meats, breads, cheeses and all other sorts of foodstuffs. I bought some spicy spread made from pomegranates (I did not realize what it was made with until Deille told me), some gooseberries (because I had never had them before) and the stuff we needed for dinner. It was really neat but very crowded.
After that we headed over to a bird and flower park. They had all kinds of birds from all over the world. I think that Elisabeth enjoyed this more than anything else we have done so far. She basically walked the whole thing by herself. She tried to feed some of the birds with seed that was provided but apparently these birds are well fed and wanted nothing to do with her. By the time we left the park we were all hot and sweaty as this was probably the warmest day since we have been here.
<b>Thunder Does Mean Rain</b>
Once we got back to the apartment and Elisabeth was napping, Deille and I decided a walk would be nice. Cecily was willing to stay with Elisabeth and so we set off with high aspirations of finding a ruined castle that was close by in the woods. Perhaps the dark clouds should have been a warning, or the fact that our hosts said it was going to rain, but we thought what the heck… a little water won’t hurt us, and so off we went. We had not gotten far when we felt a few sprinkles, but we pushed on. The trees on the trail provided some protection from the rain as it got stronger and once we were wet we figured that there was no point in turning back. By this point we were pretty far back into the woods and the rain did not show any sign of letting up in fact it just continued to get heavier. As we came around a bend in the path I saw a horse loaded with bundles and a person wrapped in rain gear leading the horse towards us. It turned out that it was a woman on a four day hiking trip with her horse. Unlike us, she was well prepared for the weather and we were probably a stranger site to her than she was to us. From her we learned that we were only half way to the ruined castle.
We walked maybe another 100 meters before running into a t-intersection in the trail. With no obvious indication of which way we needed to go and the mysterious horse woman wanderer long gone, we decided to cut our losses and head back to the apartment. All during the walk back we continued to get poured on. By the time we made it back there was not a dry spot on us. This is why for the second evening in a row I am at the laundromat, but it gives me a good opportunity to type this travelogue.
I am unsure when I will get a chance to send this, but I will continue to write. Perhaps the next two installments of the travelogue will come at the same time.
Jack
Mar 23rd, 2008, 07:22 PM
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<i>This email was originally sent on 6/14/2007</i>
The drive from Detmold to Bacharach went very well. Sundays are always a good day to be on the autobahns here in Germany. There are a lot less trucks to deal with as most are prohibited from being on the road on Sundays. We made good time and even with the stop to drop off the crib in Muenster we still made it to Cologne by about noon.
<b>A Sample of Cologne</b>
We stopped in Cologne to meet up with Deille’s friend Hedy and her family. It was Hedy who introduced Deille to the SCA (A medieval re-enactment club in which we participate). So in my twisted, convoluted sense of reasoning she is partially responsible for Deille and I meeting and for Elisabeth. Hedy is married to Helmet, who is a giant of a man, and they have three children. We met them outside the Dom which is the giant gothic cathedral. It is one of the most famous in Europe. From here we went and ate at an American style steakhouse, which made Cecily very happy. We briefly toured the altstadt (old city) and walked along the Rhein before continuing our drive to Bacharach. We will spend the day and stay the night in Cologne on Friday, so this was just a teaser.
<b>Bacharach and the Middle Rhein</b>
The ferienwohnung we are staying at in Bacharach is by far the nicest of the three we have stayed in and the other two were pretty nice themselves. It is a very spacious and modernly equipped two-bedroom apartment. It is on a hill several hundred feet above Bacharach proper and the river. The view across the Rhein valley is spectacular. The owners have just finished remodeling and refurnishing the place, in fact they still have quite a bit of work to complete on the outside of the building. The best part is that it is considerably cheaper than the other ferienwohnung that we have stayed at.
After arriving on Sunday the remainder of the day was spent settling in. Cecily and I went in search of food, but in Germany finding a grocery store open on a late Sunday afternoon, especially in a small town like Bacharach is unlikely. We ended up finding take-out from an Italian restaurant. On Monday Elisabeth and I got up early and visited the grocery store to get what we needed for breakfast.
After Elisabeth’s morning nap, we headed to the town of St. Goar about 10 miles from where we are staying. There we visited the very impressive ruins of Burg Rheinfels. This castle had a long and impressive history, and was eventually one of the largest castles on the Rhein. Construction on the castle began in 1245 and it was originally designed to allow the local rulers to cash in on the lucrative river toll industry. The castle was continually added to until by the middle of the 18th century it was a full-fledged fortress. In 1794 it was captured by French revolutionary army and destroyed. The great thing about ruins is that you generally get more access to the site than you do in intact castles. You can go around the entire ruins at your own pace without being in a tour. This ruin in particular as several small tunnels and passage ways that you can access. There are still some areas off limits due to safety concerns but overall it is pretty accessible.
Monday afternoon we met up with our friends Dave and Kai from Mesa, Arizona. They are currently living in Amsterdam where Dave works for ATT. I gave them a tour of Bacharach showing them the sites and explaining the history behind them. Bacharach has a lot to offer especially for a town of its size. The city wall is almost completely intact with more than half-a-dozen towers (Dave and Kai’s bed and breakfast was in one of these towers). There is a very nice looking 12th century castle containing a youth hostel overlooking the town and the Templar chapter house has been converted to a pub. There is also the remains of what must have been a pretty impressive chapel on the side of the hill between the main town church and the castle. This is known as the Wernerkapelle and was named for a boy whose body was found on the spot in the middle ages. Using the very scientific methods available at the time the local clergy were able to determine that the boy had been murdered by Jews who had used the boy for their “dark rituals.” This made the boy a martyr and therefore a saint. The chapel was built and pilgrims quickly flocked to it bolstering the economy of the town and local parish. After the French destroyed the chapel during one of the many wars the ravaged the area in the late middle ages, it was determined that Werner had not been murdered by Jews and so his saintly status was revoked. The chapel was never rebuilt, but I bet the pilgrims did not get a refund.
<b>Getting Back to Nature.. mud, mosquitos and all</b>
Tuesday we took Dave, Kai and Cecily to Schmidtburg, which is about an hour away from where we are staying. Schmidtburg is a ruined castle that I was first shown when I was stationed here and that Deille and I have since visited several times. There are many great things about Schmidtburg. First it is in the middle of nowhere and does not even show up on maps. Only the locals really know about it. Secondly, it is rather difficult to get to and unless you know exactly where to go you have to walk several miles to get to it. So it is usually rather empty. We have often been the only people there. Unfortunately, some local school kids where there on a tour this time, but they really were not an issue. Also, it is across a valley from a re-created Celtic village (which is worth a visit of its own) which makes for some great photo opportunities. Finally, due to the remoteness of the site there is a lot of nature to experience.
Once we arrived at the ruin Cecily, Dave and I headed down the hill towards the stream to look around. Deille, Kai and Elisabeth stayed up on the castle ruin to explore. I had suggested that anyone who wanted to hike should wear long pants and shoes that could get muddy, as I have learned that nettles grow tend to grow along the edge of the stream. We should have also have had bug spray as the mosquitoes were very active. The angle on the hill caused Cecily to give up rather quickly (her knees are not so good), but Dave and I lasted a couple of hours exploring the area. In defense of Cecily, the slope is very steep and the hill consists of mud and slate which tends to give ways as you climb it. We realized that a slip to the bottom would have been uncomfortable to say the least. It’s funny how concerns like this never entered my mind when I was in my early twenties. We would have stayed longer but our instincts for self-preservation kicked in (fear of our wives, not fear of falling). After returning to our cars we drove to the other side of the valley and visited the Celtic village before returning via the scenic route to our ferienwohnung.
For dinner Deille and I went with Dave and Kai to Guesthouse owned by our ferienwohnung hosts in the next little town. Guesthouses are very common in Germany. They are like small hotels that have restaurants attached to them. The food was pretty good and the son of our host was singing for a bunch of elderly German tourists (This is why our host is known as the “singing host”, as he sings as well). While his voice was good the choice of traditional German pop songs left a bit to be desired. Why is it that traditional music often sounds the same (German om-pah-pah, Mexican mariachi, traditional Greek music)?
<b>Mittwoch also known as Wednesday</b>
Wednesday morning Deille and Elisabeth took the morning off. Dave and I dropped Cecily and Kai off in St. Goar to shop and we drove back up to Burg Rheinfels. Without Elisabeth to worry about Dave and I were able to really scout the site. We discovered a whole section of what had once been the fortress portion of the site. In this section we found many more underground passages, some that would have required us to crawl through muck to explore. My flashlight came in very handy in those passages that we could walk through. After getting Kai, Cecily, Deille and Elisabeth and grabbing some lunch, Dave and Kai had to head home to the Netherlands.
As our trip starts to wind down I am starting to look forward to sleeping in my own bed. So far we have had a great time and seen a lot of cool stuff. We still have two days left and I will be sure to write about them but I doubt I will send that email until we are back in Arizona.
Talk to you soon,
Jack
The drive from Detmold to Bacharach went very well. Sundays are always a good day to be on the autobahns here in Germany. There are a lot less trucks to deal with as most are prohibited from being on the road on Sundays. We made good time and even with the stop to drop off the crib in Muenster we still made it to Cologne by about noon.
<b>A Sample of Cologne</b>
We stopped in Cologne to meet up with Deille’s friend Hedy and her family. It was Hedy who introduced Deille to the SCA (A medieval re-enactment club in which we participate). So in my twisted, convoluted sense of reasoning she is partially responsible for Deille and I meeting and for Elisabeth. Hedy is married to Helmet, who is a giant of a man, and they have three children. We met them outside the Dom which is the giant gothic cathedral. It is one of the most famous in Europe. From here we went and ate at an American style steakhouse, which made Cecily very happy. We briefly toured the altstadt (old city) and walked along the Rhein before continuing our drive to Bacharach. We will spend the day and stay the night in Cologne on Friday, so this was just a teaser.
<b>Bacharach and the Middle Rhein</b>
The ferienwohnung we are staying at in Bacharach is by far the nicest of the three we have stayed in and the other two were pretty nice themselves. It is a very spacious and modernly equipped two-bedroom apartment. It is on a hill several hundred feet above Bacharach proper and the river. The view across the Rhein valley is spectacular. The owners have just finished remodeling and refurnishing the place, in fact they still have quite a bit of work to complete on the outside of the building. The best part is that it is considerably cheaper than the other ferienwohnung that we have stayed at.
After arriving on Sunday the remainder of the day was spent settling in. Cecily and I went in search of food, but in Germany finding a grocery store open on a late Sunday afternoon, especially in a small town like Bacharach is unlikely. We ended up finding take-out from an Italian restaurant. On Monday Elisabeth and I got up early and visited the grocery store to get what we needed for breakfast.
After Elisabeth’s morning nap, we headed to the town of St. Goar about 10 miles from where we are staying. There we visited the very impressive ruins of Burg Rheinfels. This castle had a long and impressive history, and was eventually one of the largest castles on the Rhein. Construction on the castle began in 1245 and it was originally designed to allow the local rulers to cash in on the lucrative river toll industry. The castle was continually added to until by the middle of the 18th century it was a full-fledged fortress. In 1794 it was captured by French revolutionary army and destroyed. The great thing about ruins is that you generally get more access to the site than you do in intact castles. You can go around the entire ruins at your own pace without being in a tour. This ruin in particular as several small tunnels and passage ways that you can access. There are still some areas off limits due to safety concerns but overall it is pretty accessible.
Monday afternoon we met up with our friends Dave and Kai from Mesa, Arizona. They are currently living in Amsterdam where Dave works for ATT. I gave them a tour of Bacharach showing them the sites and explaining the history behind them. Bacharach has a lot to offer especially for a town of its size. The city wall is almost completely intact with more than half-a-dozen towers (Dave and Kai’s bed and breakfast was in one of these towers). There is a very nice looking 12th century castle containing a youth hostel overlooking the town and the Templar chapter house has been converted to a pub. There is also the remains of what must have been a pretty impressive chapel on the side of the hill between the main town church and the castle. This is known as the Wernerkapelle and was named for a boy whose body was found on the spot in the middle ages. Using the very scientific methods available at the time the local clergy were able to determine that the boy had been murdered by Jews who had used the boy for their “dark rituals.” This made the boy a martyr and therefore a saint. The chapel was built and pilgrims quickly flocked to it bolstering the economy of the town and local parish. After the French destroyed the chapel during one of the many wars the ravaged the area in the late middle ages, it was determined that Werner had not been murdered by Jews and so his saintly status was revoked. The chapel was never rebuilt, but I bet the pilgrims did not get a refund.
<b>Getting Back to Nature.. mud, mosquitos and all</b>
Tuesday we took Dave, Kai and Cecily to Schmidtburg, which is about an hour away from where we are staying. Schmidtburg is a ruined castle that I was first shown when I was stationed here and that Deille and I have since visited several times. There are many great things about Schmidtburg. First it is in the middle of nowhere and does not even show up on maps. Only the locals really know about it. Secondly, it is rather difficult to get to and unless you know exactly where to go you have to walk several miles to get to it. So it is usually rather empty. We have often been the only people there. Unfortunately, some local school kids where there on a tour this time, but they really were not an issue. Also, it is across a valley from a re-created Celtic village (which is worth a visit of its own) which makes for some great photo opportunities. Finally, due to the remoteness of the site there is a lot of nature to experience.
Once we arrived at the ruin Cecily, Dave and I headed down the hill towards the stream to look around. Deille, Kai and Elisabeth stayed up on the castle ruin to explore. I had suggested that anyone who wanted to hike should wear long pants and shoes that could get muddy, as I have learned that nettles grow tend to grow along the edge of the stream. We should have also have had bug spray as the mosquitoes were very active. The angle on the hill caused Cecily to give up rather quickly (her knees are not so good), but Dave and I lasted a couple of hours exploring the area. In defense of Cecily, the slope is very steep and the hill consists of mud and slate which tends to give ways as you climb it. We realized that a slip to the bottom would have been uncomfortable to say the least. It’s funny how concerns like this never entered my mind when I was in my early twenties. We would have stayed longer but our instincts for self-preservation kicked in (fear of our wives, not fear of falling). After returning to our cars we drove to the other side of the valley and visited the Celtic village before returning via the scenic route to our ferienwohnung.
For dinner Deille and I went with Dave and Kai to Guesthouse owned by our ferienwohnung hosts in the next little town. Guesthouses are very common in Germany. They are like small hotels that have restaurants attached to them. The food was pretty good and the son of our host was singing for a bunch of elderly German tourists (This is why our host is known as the “singing host”, as he sings as well). While his voice was good the choice of traditional German pop songs left a bit to be desired. Why is it that traditional music often sounds the same (German om-pah-pah, Mexican mariachi, traditional Greek music)?
<b>Mittwoch also known as Wednesday</b>
Wednesday morning Deille and Elisabeth took the morning off. Dave and I dropped Cecily and Kai off in St. Goar to shop and we drove back up to Burg Rheinfels. Without Elisabeth to worry about Dave and I were able to really scout the site. We discovered a whole section of what had once been the fortress portion of the site. In this section we found many more underground passages, some that would have required us to crawl through muck to explore. My flashlight came in very handy in those passages that we could walk through. After getting Kai, Cecily, Deille and Elisabeth and grabbing some lunch, Dave and Kai had to head home to the Netherlands.
As our trip starts to wind down I am starting to look forward to sleeping in my own bed. So far we have had a great time and seen a lot of cool stuff. We still have two days left and I will be sure to write about them but I doubt I will send that email until we are back in Arizona.
Talk to you soon,
Jack
Mar 23rd, 2008, 07:43 PM
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<i>This email was originally sent on 6/21/2007</i>
This is the final installment in my travelogue for our Germany Tripfest 2007 Travelogue Extravaganza. We are safely back in Arizona although we have no definitive answer on where our luggage is, but I will get to that later…
<b>Last Day on the Middle Rhein</b>
Thursday was our last day in the Bacharach and the Middle Rhein region. We decided we would drive to an area known as the Kannenbäckerstraße (potter baker’s road), which is a region that it famous for its pottery production. We first stopped at a museum dedicated to the history of pottery. The museum was very nice, and it did have some historic pieces, but in general it did not have enough of interest to keep us there for very long. I am sure that someone who was more interested in pottery in general would have found it fascinating. It did have a remarkably nice cafeteria where we got lunch. Afterwards we attempted to visit a potter that gave demonstrations but he was not open, so we decided to head towards the town of Boppard back in the direction of Bacharach.
To get there we decided to take a car ferry across the Rhein. For 5 euros I think it is worth the experience. I would say that these ferries can maybe hold 8 cars at the most, and it takes less than 15 minutes to get across the river. It is just kind of exciting to float across the river. Deille and Cecily decided to just stay in the car, but I got out and took pictures.
Once we got to Boppard we checked out the remains of the Roman camp that had once been located there. They also have the remnants of some 8th century Frankish graves, which are very interesting. Finally we went to the city museum. The whole second floor of this museum is dedicated to their most famous resident, Michael Thonet (born 1796). He was the person who first developed the process for creating bentwood furniture. Using steam, heat and water he would create chairs, rockers and all other sorts of furniture, and even tennis racquets. There was an older German man who obviously was very excited to share all that he could about this person with anyone interested. I was interested so he flipped chairs over to show me how they were constructed, had me feel how smooth the curves of this valuable, collectable furniture was. Overall it was a really neat experience, and made me realize how a genuinely interested guide can make or break a museum experience. This is not something I would normally think I would be interested in, but in the end I bought a book and plan to research more about this person and his techniques.
<b>The End is Near</b>
Friday we got up, I got to play Tetris again (this time in the rain) and we headed for Cologne. We arrived in Cologne without incident and checked into our hotel. We stayed at the Marriott in the center of the city, and despite it being a Marriott I was still unprepared for how nice and luxurious the room was. I was also unprepared to find a bidet in our bathroom. Now I know what a bidet is and how it works in theory, but I am unsure that I could bring myself to use it. Luckily they also provided good ole toilet paper as well, so I was not forced to experiment.
After grabbing lunch at McDonalds (where they always have McRibs), Deille and Cecily went to the Römisch-Germanisches Museum (Romano-Germanic Museum) while I stayed with Elisabeth for her nap. This museum in Cologne is probably the best Roman museum I have ever seen. While I would have enjoyed seeing it again it is not a good place for small children. Since Cecily had never seen it and Deille has more interest in that time period and the fact that I really wanted a nap myself, it seemed like good enough reason to volunteer for baby duty.
We finished the day doing some last minute shopping for people back home. Deille and I got to go out for one more dinner together and then we got some sleep because we knew the next day would be long and trying.
<b>The Long Road Home</b>
Saturday started early for us. The car was loaded one final time and we ate as soon as the breakfast room opened before driving to Düsseldorf to catch our flight. We dropped off the car and our bags before making our way through security without incident and arriving at the gate with more than an hour to spare. We even joked that we could have slept another half hour. The plane boarded on time and we were discussing the fact that we would have plenty of time to grab some lunch in London. Unfortunately this is when things started to go wrong. As the plane started to gain speed to take off the brakes were suddenly applied and we taxied back off the runway. It turned out that there was a minor engine problem. For the next 3+ hours we sat on the plane while they fixed the problem. Finally we were cleared to leave but then weather and plane traffic issues delayed us further. By the time we finally reached London we had missed our connecting flight.
In London we were rerouted on a plane going to Los Angeles, which was supposedly in the process of loading. We had to hurry to the gate, where we then got to wait because of a problem with the air conditioner on that plane. Finally we left London as I envisioned my daughter (who had already been going for 8 hours) having a meltdown sometime during the next 10-hour flight. To my great surprise I was totally wrong and Elisabeth had a great flight (she slept most of it, unlike the rest of us). We arrived in LA tired but intact and proceeded to go through passport control. After passport control we were supposed to gather our bags from the claim area, bring them through customs and recheck them for the last leg of our journey. We waited, and waited and waited for our bags but saw no sign of them. Finally in the crowd of people I was able to locate a British Airways employee who had a list of all the people whose bags had not made the flight. All seven of our bags were on this list. It would have been great if they could have let us know this while we were on the plane or told us to check with this person before we waited for close to an hour for our bags to appear. Due to this fiasco we were forced to basically run to catch our final flight (which we very nearly missed).
In the end we made it home safely. We still have not seen any of our bags and according to British Airways they are still sitting in London with 4000 other bags from this weekend. It is great to know that they are so successful with everyone’s luggage.
<b>What We Learned</b>
Every vacation we learn new things that may help us in the future. Sometimes we learn things never to try again as well. Here is our list from this vacation:
• Ferienwohnung (vacation rentals) are a great value, especially if you want to prepare some of your own meals while on vacation. However, most required a stay of at least three nights.
• Ecco shoes are definitely worth the cost if you will be doing a lot of walking.
• Luggage for four people for more than two weeks takes up a lot of room. Most normal cars cannot transport it.
• Laundromats in Germany are expensive!
• German mosquitoes are not bigoted. They will bite Americans as quickly as they will bite Germans.
• Restaurants that have menu items titled “American” anything should be avoided at all costs.
• Germans use an average of 250 grams of tea a year, but Germans from Friesland use 2500 grams of tea a year. (That is probably too obscure to even be a trivial pursuit question).
• Google Maps does not take closed military training areas into account when creating driving instructions.
• Cecily drinks a lot of Milk.
• Contrary to what many travel forums will tell you, average Germans do wear white tennis shoes in public.
• Do not count on all your bags arriving at your final destination at the same time as you if your itinerary involves Heathrow airport.
I hope you have enjoyed my travelogue. It is always fun writing them.
Jack
P.S. 5 out of the 7 bags finally showed up last night (Wednesday) the other two are still missing.
This is the final installment in my travelogue for our Germany Tripfest 2007 Travelogue Extravaganza. We are safely back in Arizona although we have no definitive answer on where our luggage is, but I will get to that later…
<b>Last Day on the Middle Rhein</b>
Thursday was our last day in the Bacharach and the Middle Rhein region. We decided we would drive to an area known as the Kannenbäckerstraße (potter baker’s road), which is a region that it famous for its pottery production. We first stopped at a museum dedicated to the history of pottery. The museum was very nice, and it did have some historic pieces, but in general it did not have enough of interest to keep us there for very long. I am sure that someone who was more interested in pottery in general would have found it fascinating. It did have a remarkably nice cafeteria where we got lunch. Afterwards we attempted to visit a potter that gave demonstrations but he was not open, so we decided to head towards the town of Boppard back in the direction of Bacharach.
To get there we decided to take a car ferry across the Rhein. For 5 euros I think it is worth the experience. I would say that these ferries can maybe hold 8 cars at the most, and it takes less than 15 minutes to get across the river. It is just kind of exciting to float across the river. Deille and Cecily decided to just stay in the car, but I got out and took pictures.
Once we got to Boppard we checked out the remains of the Roman camp that had once been located there. They also have the remnants of some 8th century Frankish graves, which are very interesting. Finally we went to the city museum. The whole second floor of this museum is dedicated to their most famous resident, Michael Thonet (born 1796). He was the person who first developed the process for creating bentwood furniture. Using steam, heat and water he would create chairs, rockers and all other sorts of furniture, and even tennis racquets. There was an older German man who obviously was very excited to share all that he could about this person with anyone interested. I was interested so he flipped chairs over to show me how they were constructed, had me feel how smooth the curves of this valuable, collectable furniture was. Overall it was a really neat experience, and made me realize how a genuinely interested guide can make or break a museum experience. This is not something I would normally think I would be interested in, but in the end I bought a book and plan to research more about this person and his techniques.
<b>The End is Near</b>
Friday we got up, I got to play Tetris again (this time in the rain) and we headed for Cologne. We arrived in Cologne without incident and checked into our hotel. We stayed at the Marriott in the center of the city, and despite it being a Marriott I was still unprepared for how nice and luxurious the room was. I was also unprepared to find a bidet in our bathroom. Now I know what a bidet is and how it works in theory, but I am unsure that I could bring myself to use it. Luckily they also provided good ole toilet paper as well, so I was not forced to experiment.
After grabbing lunch at McDonalds (where they always have McRibs), Deille and Cecily went to the Römisch-Germanisches Museum (Romano-Germanic Museum) while I stayed with Elisabeth for her nap. This museum in Cologne is probably the best Roman museum I have ever seen. While I would have enjoyed seeing it again it is not a good place for small children. Since Cecily had never seen it and Deille has more interest in that time period and the fact that I really wanted a nap myself, it seemed like good enough reason to volunteer for baby duty.
We finished the day doing some last minute shopping for people back home. Deille and I got to go out for one more dinner together and then we got some sleep because we knew the next day would be long and trying.
<b>The Long Road Home</b>
Saturday started early for us. The car was loaded one final time and we ate as soon as the breakfast room opened before driving to Düsseldorf to catch our flight. We dropped off the car and our bags before making our way through security without incident and arriving at the gate with more than an hour to spare. We even joked that we could have slept another half hour. The plane boarded on time and we were discussing the fact that we would have plenty of time to grab some lunch in London. Unfortunately this is when things started to go wrong. As the plane started to gain speed to take off the brakes were suddenly applied and we taxied back off the runway. It turned out that there was a minor engine problem. For the next 3+ hours we sat on the plane while they fixed the problem. Finally we were cleared to leave but then weather and plane traffic issues delayed us further. By the time we finally reached London we had missed our connecting flight.
In London we were rerouted on a plane going to Los Angeles, which was supposedly in the process of loading. We had to hurry to the gate, where we then got to wait because of a problem with the air conditioner on that plane. Finally we left London as I envisioned my daughter (who had already been going for 8 hours) having a meltdown sometime during the next 10-hour flight. To my great surprise I was totally wrong and Elisabeth had a great flight (she slept most of it, unlike the rest of us). We arrived in LA tired but intact and proceeded to go through passport control. After passport control we were supposed to gather our bags from the claim area, bring them through customs and recheck them for the last leg of our journey. We waited, and waited and waited for our bags but saw no sign of them. Finally in the crowd of people I was able to locate a British Airways employee who had a list of all the people whose bags had not made the flight. All seven of our bags were on this list. It would have been great if they could have let us know this while we were on the plane or told us to check with this person before we waited for close to an hour for our bags to appear. Due to this fiasco we were forced to basically run to catch our final flight (which we very nearly missed).
In the end we made it home safely. We still have not seen any of our bags and according to British Airways they are still sitting in London with 4000 other bags from this weekend. It is great to know that they are so successful with everyone’s luggage.
<b>What We Learned</b>
Every vacation we learn new things that may help us in the future. Sometimes we learn things never to try again as well. Here is our list from this vacation:
• Ferienwohnung (vacation rentals) are a great value, especially if you want to prepare some of your own meals while on vacation. However, most required a stay of at least three nights.
• Ecco shoes are definitely worth the cost if you will be doing a lot of walking.
• Luggage for four people for more than two weeks takes up a lot of room. Most normal cars cannot transport it.
• Laundromats in Germany are expensive!
• German mosquitoes are not bigoted. They will bite Americans as quickly as they will bite Germans.
• Restaurants that have menu items titled “American” anything should be avoided at all costs.
• Germans use an average of 250 grams of tea a year, but Germans from Friesland use 2500 grams of tea a year. (That is probably too obscure to even be a trivial pursuit question).
• Google Maps does not take closed military training areas into account when creating driving instructions.
• Cecily drinks a lot of Milk.
• Contrary to what many travel forums will tell you, average Germans do wear white tennis shoes in public.
• Do not count on all your bags arriving at your final destination at the same time as you if your itinerary involves Heathrow airport.
I hope you have enjoyed my travelogue. It is always fun writing them.
Jack
P.S. 5 out of the 7 bags finally showed up last night (Wednesday) the other two are still missing.
Mar 24th, 2008, 06:12 AM
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Great report. I enjoyed every bit, but especially liked the parts describing Elisabeth's reactions to sights and sounds.
Are your pictures posted anywhere?
Did the last two bags ever arrive?
Thanks for sharing.
Are your pictures posted anywhere?
Did the last two bags ever arrive?
Thanks for sharing.
Mar 24th, 2008, 08:18 AM
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Unfortunately I do not have any pictures posted online. I will create an album with some of the best ones and post the link here shortly.
As for the two missing bags… well that is a disappointing story. One of them showed up over a week after we returned home. The final one never did. I kept following up on it for over a month. First it was a flood, then a bomb scare, I think a strike and who knows what else that was the excuse for the bag being stuck in London.
The bag that didn’t arrive was kind of a catch-all bag. It had mostly souvenirs and literature from many of the sights we had visited, clothes that we could not fit into other suitcases, and electronics that we would not need during the flight (very stupid on our part). I suspect that the electronics are the reason we never saw the bag again. I figured that conservatively we had $800 work of stuff in there (not counting the souvenirs). Most of this was supported by receipts.
I made a claim to British Airways and eventually received a reply. They stated that we should have made the claim through U.S. Airways since this was the final airline (LAX to PHX) we were rerouted onto after we missed our connection. I think that was kind of messed up since U.S. Airways never had possession of any of our bags (even the bags we got came directly from London to Phoenix on the daily non-stop flight). They also said that they did not cover electronics, which we also knew. In the end they gave us $300 as a show of good will. While I was somewhat disappointed about the situation, I think they handled it well overall (they didn't really need to give us anything by their rules). We should have packed differently, but I also think they need to do a major overhaul of their baggage system. Apparently they have problems with backed up bags there on a regular basis.
Jack
As for the two missing bags… well that is a disappointing story. One of them showed up over a week after we returned home. The final one never did. I kept following up on it for over a month. First it was a flood, then a bomb scare, I think a strike and who knows what else that was the excuse for the bag being stuck in London.
The bag that didn’t arrive was kind of a catch-all bag. It had mostly souvenirs and literature from many of the sights we had visited, clothes that we could not fit into other suitcases, and electronics that we would not need during the flight (very stupid on our part). I suspect that the electronics are the reason we never saw the bag again. I figured that conservatively we had $800 work of stuff in there (not counting the souvenirs). Most of this was supported by receipts.
I made a claim to British Airways and eventually received a reply. They stated that we should have made the claim through U.S. Airways since this was the final airline (LAX to PHX) we were rerouted onto after we missed our connection. I think that was kind of messed up since U.S. Airways never had possession of any of our bags (even the bags we got came directly from London to Phoenix on the daily non-stop flight). They also said that they did not cover electronics, which we also knew. In the end they gave us $300 as a show of good will. While I was somewhat disappointed about the situation, I think they handled it well overall (they didn't really need to give us anything by their rules). We should have packed differently, but I also think they need to do a major overhaul of their baggage system. Apparently they have problems with backed up bags there on a regular basis.
Jack
Mar 25th, 2008, 08:37 PM
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Here is a link to a sampling of the pictures we took:
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/w...p;linkid=link4
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/w...p;linkid=link4
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