Day 7
Today we went to Marksburg. It’s the only castle on the Rhein that was never destroyed. Getting to the castle is feat in and of itself. It’s about a 30 minute hike uphill. Yeah, I made it but dear God I didn’t think I was gonna make it. I thought I was going to die. To make matters worse, I started getting a migraine about halfway up and it wasn’t fun. The scenery getting up the hill wasn’t bad and luckily they had benches strategically placed so the unfit could stop and rest occasionally.
After we finally got to Marksburg, we went to the restaurant and ate lunch. Cliff got bratwurst mit pommes and I got a noodle with sauce and veggie dish that was really good. After lunch, we went and bought tickets for our guided tour and I found out that Cliff really can’t understand the Germans speaking English. He has some sort of block against them. Our tour was for 1:55 and he said it was for 3:55. So, from now on, I’m dealing with all the shop keepers, etc. Cliff is not dealing with anybody over here. Oy .
Marksburg was a pretty impressive castle. We went through various rooms of the castle and because it’s a German only tour, we had our little guide book in English (lovely) and stuck out like a sore thumb. This lovely, lovely German tourist was oh so lovely and was a complete and utter bitch when it came to getting her pictures. She was going to get that picture and everybody else be damned. She actually pushed us out of the way to get a couple of shots. Mein Gott! The best room, in my opinion, was the wine cellar. Yeah, I know. I’m a lush. But hey, it was the wine cellar. Go up a floor and they had the original wine press. What more can you ask for? Cliff liked the torture dungeon. I wanted to see some demonstrations and was going to offer Cliff as an example, but he wouldn’t let me. The castle itself isn’t as impressive as some of the other castles that we’ve seen, but I guess because it’s the only castle not to be destroyed that’s pretty impressive. The only damage done to the castle was from WWII artillery shots from the US. Nice huh?
On the way back from Marksburg, we ran into our tour guide and said bye. She’s such a nice lady. Again, *much* nicer than the lady from Rome. I’m getting the feeling she didn’t have a couple of biddies to contend with like the lady from Rome had. But I stopped at the store and got a bottle of eiswine. Yay! I’m so happy. That’s something you can’t really get back home and it’s only for special occasions. I’m going to order a *good* bottle when I get paid again.
Right now, my legs are killing me from that hike. So I think I’m gonna just lay down and curl up in a blanket. We still haven’t figured out how to work the heating in the living room. Who uses radiators for heating these days??? I’m outta here! Cheers!
Me.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Day 5
Day 5
Day 5 and we still have no internet. I’m over here and I’m fucking freezing. OMG. Cliff’s answer: It’s nice, enjoy it and shut up. Okay. Enough of that. In the house it’s 17 degrees Celsius and I can’t remember my conversions but I KNOW IT’S COLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have a down blanket so I think I’ll be okay. Maybe. If I don’t make it home, just know I froze to death in Germany. ‘k? Hold a memorial service for me and donate blankets to the American Tourists in Germany in my memory.
Today we went to Mainz. Mainz is the home of Johannes Gutenberg. All I wanted to do was go to the Gutenberg museum. Cliff indulged me and went. Yay. That made me happy. He told me that he views our trips to Europe as day spa trips and any day he doesn’t spend walking is a day wasted. We had no idea where we were going , so we hit a book store to see if we could find a map. Luckily, we found a walking map of Mainz in English. Talking about luck. We bought it and went all over the city. I got to see my museum and Bibles that Gutenberg himself printed on his first printing press. Talk about history? These Bibles are in a special room with so much security. At night, I think they drop the room down into the floor so that they’re not even stolen. Wow. Also in the museum, I saw some early prints of “Canterbury Tales”, “Paradise Lost” some of Martin Luther’s early works and other works. For any history buff, it was really cool. But to me, the Bibles were the best. Attached to the museum was an exhibit of Asian print work as well. We saw some printings from the Chinese in the 13th century. Again, for the history buff, it kicked much ass. For the non-history buff, it may have been pretty boring. It’s amazing to me that Gutenberg is credited with the whole printing and stuff, but the Chinese were doing it much earlier than Gutenberg.
After the museum, we went to The Cathedral. It wasn’t as impressive as Koln, but it was impressive nonetheless. Cliff was a good little monkey and took off his hat in all the churches. He told me he was raised Southern, he knows what to do. Go figure. We’ve got some pictures of all the churches. This was another Gothic church and the carvings were just as nice and everything as Koln, but on a lesser scale. All these places are so hard to describe unless you’re actually there. The last church we went to…this is the only way I can describe it. I felt like I needed a slot machine and a bucket of quarters. It was so Vegas. It’s pretty recent, built in 1748. The façade is Gothic and the interior is almost like Renaissance but super gaudy. Really, it’s G-A-U-D-Y. Gold everywhere, pink columns, cherubs, etc. The pictures we too make it seem much classier than it really is. But it was truly an experience that I don’t think I’d give up.
For supper, we at in a little mom & pop owned restaurant. I had the German version of pizza and it was based on true Italian pizza. It was really good. Cliff had the German version of lasagna. Um, I don’t think they’ve got it down pat yet. He said it was 2 noodles, soupy cheese on one side and meat on the other. But that it was pretty good. After supper we went exploring. We finally made it to the store under the place where we’re staying. The place serves as a Christmas store and a wine store. We tried peach brandy (OMG SO GOOD!) eisweiss (oh. My. God. Even better than the peach brandy) and a few other drinks. We ended up buying the peach brandy, apple winter, blackberry and strawberry. We got little travel/trial sizes so we can take them home. The GOOD thing: they ship to America. Woo Hoo! So now I can get the cheap Eisweiss to take home and let people try and get the good stuff for me. Hehe Eisweiss is so nice and smooth. Cliff, who is not a wine drinker, liked it. It’s just so expensive though. Even the cheap stuff is about 25 Euros for a small bottle and that’s about 30$. The good stuff is 70 Euros and that’s about 80$. Eisweiss is wine made from the frozen grape and one bottle takes about 65 lbs of grapes to make. But, I’m about to break out the Riesling and have a glass or two before bed. Cheers!
Me
Day 5 and we still have no internet. I’m over here and I’m fucking freezing. OMG. Cliff’s answer: It’s nice, enjoy it and shut up. Okay. Enough of that. In the house it’s 17 degrees Celsius and I can’t remember my conversions but I KNOW IT’S COLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have a down blanket so I think I’ll be okay. Maybe. If I don’t make it home, just know I froze to death in Germany. ‘k? Hold a memorial service for me and donate blankets to the American Tourists in Germany in my memory.
Today we went to Mainz. Mainz is the home of Johannes Gutenberg. All I wanted to do was go to the Gutenberg museum. Cliff indulged me and went. Yay. That made me happy. He told me that he views our trips to Europe as day spa trips and any day he doesn’t spend walking is a day wasted. We had no idea where we were going , so we hit a book store to see if we could find a map. Luckily, we found a walking map of Mainz in English. Talking about luck. We bought it and went all over the city. I got to see my museum and Bibles that Gutenberg himself printed on his first printing press. Talk about history? These Bibles are in a special room with so much security. At night, I think they drop the room down into the floor so that they’re not even stolen. Wow. Also in the museum, I saw some early prints of “Canterbury Tales”, “Paradise Lost” some of Martin Luther’s early works and other works. For any history buff, it was really cool. But to me, the Bibles were the best. Attached to the museum was an exhibit of Asian print work as well. We saw some printings from the Chinese in the 13th century. Again, for the history buff, it kicked much ass. For the non-history buff, it may have been pretty boring. It’s amazing to me that Gutenberg is credited with the whole printing and stuff, but the Chinese were doing it much earlier than Gutenberg.
After the museum, we went to The Cathedral. It wasn’t as impressive as Koln, but it was impressive nonetheless. Cliff was a good little monkey and took off his hat in all the churches. He told me he was raised Southern, he knows what to do. Go figure. We’ve got some pictures of all the churches. This was another Gothic church and the carvings were just as nice and everything as Koln, but on a lesser scale. All these places are so hard to describe unless you’re actually there. The last church we went to…this is the only way I can describe it. I felt like I needed a slot machine and a bucket of quarters. It was so Vegas. It’s pretty recent, built in 1748. The façade is Gothic and the interior is almost like Renaissance but super gaudy. Really, it’s G-A-U-D-Y. Gold everywhere, pink columns, cherubs, etc. The pictures we too make it seem much classier than it really is. But it was truly an experience that I don’t think I’d give up.
For supper, we at in a little mom & pop owned restaurant. I had the German version of pizza and it was based on true Italian pizza. It was really good. Cliff had the German version of lasagna. Um, I don’t think they’ve got it down pat yet. He said it was 2 noodles, soupy cheese on one side and meat on the other. But that it was pretty good. After supper we went exploring. We finally made it to the store under the place where we’re staying. The place serves as a Christmas store and a wine store. We tried peach brandy (OMG SO GOOD!) eisweiss (oh. My. God. Even better than the peach brandy) and a few other drinks. We ended up buying the peach brandy, apple winter, blackberry and strawberry. We got little travel/trial sizes so we can take them home. The GOOD thing: they ship to America. Woo Hoo! So now I can get the cheap Eisweiss to take home and let people try and get the good stuff for me. Hehe Eisweiss is so nice and smooth. Cliff, who is not a wine drinker, liked it. It’s just so expensive though. Even the cheap stuff is about 25 Euros for a small bottle and that’s about 30$. The good stuff is 70 Euros and that’s about 80$. Eisweiss is wine made from the frozen grape and one bottle takes about 65 lbs of grapes to make. But, I’m about to break out the Riesling and have a glass or two before bed. Cheers!
Me
Day 4
Day 4
Today we went to Koln. Cliff wanted to go here for Koln Cathedral. I tagged along because A: I’m in Germany, B: it’s a church and C: it’s Koln. Yes, I’m spelling it right :-) Germans spell it Koln, um I can’t figure out how to put the umlauts on the “o” but they spell it Koln, not Cologne. So we get off the DB (train) and walk out of the station. Right outside the station is the Koln Cathedral. Yeah, it’s a pretty freaking big cathedral. It’s this huge monstrosity of a church and totally Gothic. We walked and got pictures, and of course Cliff had to have me stand next to a door so he could get a scale picture. Go figure. While we’re there, we see a few tourists and now we know *why* stereotypes are sometimes true. I’ll just say this: the Japanese love their cameras and taking pictures.
We went through the cathedral museum and looked at some of the treasures of the church. It’s very interesting. The older the artifacts, the more ornate and more just out there. Does the archbishop really need a sword that’s decorated in precious stones and metals? But as the church got less popular I guess, crusades became less profitable and exploring was lessening, the jewelry, clothing, and props became much less ornate. It was a most interesting progression. Also, they had the shrine to the magi. Even though I’m not Catholic, I felt that I needed to bend down and cross myself. Don’t ask me why. I just felt the need to do so. In another room in the museum, we saw a supposed nail from the cross and several bones from saints. Those were kind of cool.
Back to Koln Cathedral. My dad joked around that he was worried that Cliff and I would end up on Warsaw and he’d get an e-mail: “Daddy, how do you get from Warsaw to Berlin”. Nah, that didn’t happen. But, we did run into a biker rally in Koln. We’re coming around the cathedral trying to find the door to get in and there are hundreds of bikers. Cliff and I are thinking omg what’s going on. Everybody had warned us about the pick-pockets and we knew that these were the last people you wanted to pick-pocket, so we felt pretty safe. We finally found the door to go in so we went inside the church. It turns out that inside the church was a special mass to bless the bikers on their journey. They had gathered at the church for a charity event headed by the priest at the cathedral. They rode from the church to another place and it was all for charity. Want to talk about being somewhere at the right time? All these bikers in Koln Cathedral for a special mass blessing their trip. That was pretty neat. After mass, we walked around the church. The builders of the church knew what they were doing. You had to look to the ceiling and admire the view. The church was just freaking gorgeous. The ceilings are so high and just lovely. The sculptures, stained glass, organ, everything is so gothic in style and just wonderful.
After the church, we wandered around Koln for a while. We visited the outdoor mall. We both liked the concept of the outdoor mall. They even had a Lego store! YAY! I didn’t go in cause it was so crowded. But walking around, we found a couple of other churches. One of the churches we went in was a working church and pretty. The original stained glass windows from the 1400s were destroyed in WWII. So sad. Ate lunch at Hard Rock Café. That’s becoming a tradition with us. Eating lunch at HRC and getting a t-shirt and shot glass. Cliff gets the shirt, I get the shot glass. After that, we came home and just chilled the rest of the night. On that note, I’m going to bed. Cheers!
Me
Today we went to Koln. Cliff wanted to go here for Koln Cathedral. I tagged along because A: I’m in Germany, B: it’s a church and C: it’s Koln. Yes, I’m spelling it right :-) Germans spell it Koln, um I can’t figure out how to put the umlauts on the “o” but they spell it Koln, not Cologne. So we get off the DB (train) and walk out of the station. Right outside the station is the Koln Cathedral. Yeah, it’s a pretty freaking big cathedral. It’s this huge monstrosity of a church and totally Gothic. We walked and got pictures, and of course Cliff had to have me stand next to a door so he could get a scale picture. Go figure. While we’re there, we see a few tourists and now we know *why* stereotypes are sometimes true. I’ll just say this: the Japanese love their cameras and taking pictures.
We went through the cathedral museum and looked at some of the treasures of the church. It’s very interesting. The older the artifacts, the more ornate and more just out there. Does the archbishop really need a sword that’s decorated in precious stones and metals? But as the church got less popular I guess, crusades became less profitable and exploring was lessening, the jewelry, clothing, and props became much less ornate. It was a most interesting progression. Also, they had the shrine to the magi. Even though I’m not Catholic, I felt that I needed to bend down and cross myself. Don’t ask me why. I just felt the need to do so. In another room in the museum, we saw a supposed nail from the cross and several bones from saints. Those were kind of cool.
Back to Koln Cathedral. My dad joked around that he was worried that Cliff and I would end up on Warsaw and he’d get an e-mail: “Daddy, how do you get from Warsaw to Berlin”. Nah, that didn’t happen. But, we did run into a biker rally in Koln. We’re coming around the cathedral trying to find the door to get in and there are hundreds of bikers. Cliff and I are thinking omg what’s going on. Everybody had warned us about the pick-pockets and we knew that these were the last people you wanted to pick-pocket, so we felt pretty safe. We finally found the door to go in so we went inside the church. It turns out that inside the church was a special mass to bless the bikers on their journey. They had gathered at the church for a charity event headed by the priest at the cathedral. They rode from the church to another place and it was all for charity. Want to talk about being somewhere at the right time? All these bikers in Koln Cathedral for a special mass blessing their trip. That was pretty neat. After mass, we walked around the church. The builders of the church knew what they were doing. You had to look to the ceiling and admire the view. The church was just freaking gorgeous. The ceilings are so high and just lovely. The sculptures, stained glass, organ, everything is so gothic in style and just wonderful.
After the church, we wandered around Koln for a while. We visited the outdoor mall. We both liked the concept of the outdoor mall. They even had a Lego store! YAY! I didn’t go in cause it was so crowded. But walking around, we found a couple of other churches. One of the churches we went in was a working church and pretty. The original stained glass windows from the 1400s were destroyed in WWII. So sad. Ate lunch at Hard Rock Café. That’s becoming a tradition with us. Eating lunch at HRC and getting a t-shirt and shot glass. Cliff gets the shirt, I get the shot glass. After that, we came home and just chilled the rest of the night. On that note, I’m going to bed. Cheers!
Me
Day 3
I’m sitting here in my apartment with the window open (it’s about 55 degrees and I’m *freezing*!) listening to the Rhein (yeah, I spelled it right) River and the boats going up the Rhein. It’s so peaceful. I think I could live here. All I really need right now is my cat and my cup of tea and I’d be a happy girl. A very happy girl.
Today we took a sight-seeing tour to Cochem and it was rather nice. Oh, it was so nice. There were 7 people in the tour and we walked all around town, walked up to the castle, but didn’t tour it, and had lunch. I got to try fedderweissen or however the hell you spell it. Oh my god. It’s only available this time of year when the wine is still fermenting and it’s damn good. Too bad I can’t bring it back home with me. It’s not sealed because it’s still fermenting and because it’s not sealed, you can’t bring it home. It’s also a buy now drink now kind of wine. But damn, it’s good. Back to Cochem. Cochem is a nice quaint little town on die Mosel River. It’s very touristy but still laid back. The castle there is gorgeous but Cliff and I didn’t take a tour. The reason we didn’t take a tour is because it’s a guided tour and we like to go at our own pace and wander all over. The food here is out of this world. They don’t play around with the food. I got a veggie plate and it was broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, and carrots over a plate of rice. It was freaking HUGE! Cliff got potatoes, side salad and schnitzel. We still can’t figure out what the hell schnitzel is. But we’ll find out.
I have made a new friend over here. Yay! I just have to remember to look her up on FB when I finally get internet access. It’s the contact lady for Untours and she’s been super nice and helpful. But I’m outa here. All this walking around has made me super tired. I think we’ve walked as much if not more than Rome.
Me.
Today we took a sight-seeing tour to Cochem and it was rather nice. Oh, it was so nice. There were 7 people in the tour and we walked all around town, walked up to the castle, but didn’t tour it, and had lunch. I got to try fedderweissen or however the hell you spell it. Oh my god. It’s only available this time of year when the wine is still fermenting and it’s damn good. Too bad I can’t bring it back home with me. It’s not sealed because it’s still fermenting and because it’s not sealed, you can’t bring it home. It’s also a buy now drink now kind of wine. But damn, it’s good. Back to Cochem. Cochem is a nice quaint little town on die Mosel River. It’s very touristy but still laid back. The castle there is gorgeous but Cliff and I didn’t take a tour. The reason we didn’t take a tour is because it’s a guided tour and we like to go at our own pace and wander all over. The food here is out of this world. They don’t play around with the food. I got a veggie plate and it was broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, and carrots over a plate of rice. It was freaking HUGE! Cliff got potatoes, side salad and schnitzel. We still can’t figure out what the hell schnitzel is. But we’ll find out.
I have made a new friend over here. Yay! I just have to remember to look her up on FB when I finally get internet access. It’s the contact lady for Untours and she’s been super nice and helpful. But I’m outa here. All this walking around has made me super tired. I think we’ve walked as much if not more than Rome.
Me.
Day 2
Today, we had orientation and our contact lady is so nice. Tracy is much nicer than the lady from Rome. Orientation was supposed to last an hr and a half; it ended up lasting over 2 hours. One of the couples cancelled their trip to Germany due to family problems so there are only 4 people over here right now. After orientation, we all ended up eating lunch together. I had tomato soup with bread and it was almost as good as mom’s. Cliff had bratwurst, sauerkraut, and potatoes. Can I say that the water here SUCKS? They have tap water which isn’t bad and mineral water which sucks. At least Cliff has the sodas to fall back on. But orientation was great. I learned a lot about the area and we’re going on a sight- seeing tour to see a castle. It should be fun. After orientation today, we visited castle ruins. Holy moly. This was the largest castle on the Rhein River and it’s in ruins. Only about one-third is left. If only one-third is left, I can’t imagine what the entire castle looked like. It was a functioning castle and it was ginormous. We walked all over it and it took about an hour and a half. I refused to walk on top but Cliff got some excellent pictures. We also went by the Cuckoo Clock store. I found my dad’s Christmas present. God help me.
Germany is so damn clean that it’s not even funny. Walking through the streets, I haven’t seen any stray papers, cans, etc. It’s amazing. Going through the castle, they had a worker walking picking up scraps of paper. Not something you’d really see back home. It’s just so clean. You don’t have to hunt for trash bins or anything. I love it.
We’re sitting here watching tv tonight and we don’t know German. We’re making up our own dialogue for each show. It’s most interesting watching TV when you don’t even understand the language. Hopefully we can contact the apartment owner tomorrow and get the password for the internet so I can actually update my blog, e-mail home and let everybody know we’re okay. On that note, I’m outta here.
Cheers!
Germany is so damn clean that it’s not even funny. Walking through the streets, I haven’t seen any stray papers, cans, etc. It’s amazing. Going through the castle, they had a worker walking picking up scraps of paper. Not something you’d really see back home. It’s just so clean. You don’t have to hunt for trash bins or anything. I love it.
We’re sitting here watching tv tonight and we don’t know German. We’re making up our own dialogue for each show. It’s most interesting watching TV when you don’t even understand the language. Hopefully we can contact the apartment owner tomorrow and get the password for the internet so I can actually update my blog, e-mail home and let everybody know we’re okay. On that note, I’m outta here.
Cheers!
Day 1
Today we traveled from Atlanta to London to Germany. OMG. I’m exhausted. Flying into Heathrow London is an experience I don’t wish to repeat, but I know I’m going to do it again. We had to exit the plane and get on a bus to get to the airport and wait about 5 hours for our commuter flight. Lovely huh? Coming into Germany? Customs was so easy. The police just looked at my passport, stamped it and said Danke. Then we got our train vouchers validated and waited an hour and a half for our train. Got to the house and it’s nice. The living room has a view right over the Rhein River. It’s so gorgeous. Looking out the window, I’ve also got a view of Burg Katz and down the river is Burg Maus. I’m exhausted. Going to bed. Cheers.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
30 days!
Woo Hoo! 30 days until we leave for Germany. I've got my books, I know what phrases *not* to say and I'm ready to go. I think. Still got to get my international driving permit, hotel and train passage from the castle to Berlin but I think it'll work out. :) Yay! soo excited!
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