Pat & Gary's Trip to Germany

Link to Pictures

Friday: We took off for Dallas then Dallas to Frankfort Germany. We arrived in Frankfort on Saturday AM more or less rested.

Saturday: We drove to Koln. The Dom which is a cathedral was gorgeous though in the process of repair and dirty on the outside. We climbed the circular steps up the tower—300 feet at least—past the bells to the top and what a view. It certainly got our hearts pumping so no jet lag. The organ was playing and filled the cathedral—gorgeous. I lit a candle for the family. We then walked the shopping area which is without cars yet extensive. We ate bratwurst/suaerkraut/golden potatoes at a sidewalk café!! /we then drove to Germund to locate our timeshare and goes grocery shopping. We enjoyed a baguette with salami and cheese and truly crashed.

Sunday: We walked into Germund to get a park map. We then hiked through beautiful forest to Wolfgarten. A really neat town and enjoyed a lunch. The food is all fresh and extremely good with wonderful German beer.

Our neighbors are from East Germany (Berlin) the husband is a professor at Koblenz and the wife a dentist in East Germany with a brother who is retired after a stroke rather early. We learned that they learned Russian instead of English but the professor was quite good at English so we learned a lot about East Germany and also several places to visit in the area. Later we took wine over and shared an evening with them. We learned that the castle on the hill was formerly a military training facility in WWII disguised as a castle. After 60 years it is not open to the public. We clearly noticed much building that is post WWII which made us realize how unscathed Britain was in the bombings.

Monday: On Monday we drove to Luxenburg and found that with road construction on the autobahns it took longer than coming back the back roads. The country side is beautiful and much like western Pennsylvania with very rolling his and gorgeous rock free soil. The forest is quite dense. The villages are scattered through out and they are very clean. The roads are wider than Britain with no hedgerows so easier to drive. There are gorgeous flowers everywhere. We found the people very friendly and helpful in spite of limited English and of course with us having no German. It rained in Luxemburg but we did enjoy the cathedral, palace etc. We parked at the train station. The roads in Luxemburg and Belgium follow the contours of the land as ours do whereas in Germany they are flat and straight often elevated so more speed.

Tuesday: I overslept so we went to Vogel sung the Belgium castle/military training base near our timeshare. It has been run by the Belgium, the Nazis, the US, The British and then back to the Belgium for NATO training. It has now reverted to public use for the Germans. We had a great hike there stopped for a beer and proceeded to Belgium to Jetsuthen back to Moshu German. It is a quaint little tourist village on a river which was gorgeous and we had a great dinner.

Wednesday: The wine tour was today so we drove to Cochem on the Moselle River which is wine country. This is the season for getting new wine and onion cakes which are both quite enjoyable. This town had a restored castle which was restored privately prior to WWII. It is high above the town with the greatest views. The river is very fast moving with some coal barges etc as traffic. We enjoyed the winding streets and medieval buildings.

Thursday: Our destination was Aachen with a diversion to Belgium to get chocolate as gifts. Aachen was the city from which Charlemagne and the following 30 kings ruled Germany. The relics are amazing. Again they have made the walking malls around the town squares of the historic section with lots of shops/coffee shops and bakeries. The cathedral and government buildings are very impressive and the restoration work amazing.

Friday: Trier was our destination as the oldest town in Germany. It dates to the first century. We saw the Roman baths, the arena where first animals then men and animals then men fought. We also toured the gorgeous cathedral and walked extensively making a full day.

Saturday: We checked out of our time share and headed for Koblenz to go on our Rhine tour. We visited Roman ruins and a castle in Gerolstein. We drove some back roads to see the small villages such as Boos. We wanted to find Ooos. We then went to tour Marksburg which an authentically restored castle south of Koblenz overlooking the Rhine. It was painted brightly as was typical. This castle has been inhabited for over 700 years.

Sunday-Monday: We drove to Saint Goar to catch our cruise. It was a very interesting village which we enjoyed exploring. We caught the boat to sail to Rudeshin. What a great experience looking at the grapes and the castle. It is a beautiful river. We met a couple from the military and had fun with them. We met them for dinner at a place they had found and we had a great time. Our bed and breakfast was a long walk up a hill—not a pleasant walk. The next day we caught the ferry back to St Goar and got into our car for the drive to Heidelberg.

Monday: We drove to Heidelberg on Monday and stayed at a lovely hotel in the old town. It is such a mix of students and business people from all over the world. We found a very old beer garden to eat in had a great dinner.

Tuesday: We spent most of the day in the castle which is very huge and extensive. We met some Irish folks on vacation and chatted with them.

Wednesday: We walked through old town and tour a museum which was very interesting as it had art, the ceramics and furnishings from the Roman times plus graves and bones just very well presented and quite interesting. We then left for Frankfort to locate our bed and breakfast so we could fly out Thursday AM. We walked into the little town and ate where no one spoke a word of English.

We had such a great time and returned very relaxed and happy!!!