A little bit of Germany

Melanie and I were torn on what to do next. We still had 2 days for traveling before I had to go and had originally planned on going to Amsterdam or Brussels. After some thought we decided to take the night to relax and head back to her house. Besides I wanted to see my niece who I hadn’t seen in over a year. Once we arrived in Germany we headed to Melanie’s house to drop of our stuff and see the family before heading to get food. Keep reading for more on traveling in Germany and Luxembourg!

I unfortunately do not enjoy German food much so, we went to a little Kebab shop in her town to get food. The Kebab’s were amazing… or maybe I was just hungry. We all headed back to her house to relax and make plans for the next few days.
Melanie woke me up Sunday morning excited about going to the Rhein River. We had an early start because I wanted to get a Germany Starbucks mug, I collect them. Once we got Starbucks and a quick breakfast we headed to the Rhein River. We wanted to take the boat up the river to St. Goar, one of the towns off the river. However… life happens and we missed the boat by about 5 minutes, literally watched it pull away. But… when life gives you lemons you make lemonade. We caught the train to St. Goar still seeing beautiful views.

Wine tasting

Once we arrived in St. Goar Melanie had sussed out a winery that we wanted to go to. It was called Stefan’s Wine Paradise. She had read online that he does a free wine tasting, and that was NOT a lie! As soon as we walked in Stefan himself, offered us shot glasses with peach brandy. It was delicious! We tried a few more brandy’s and then some wines. He was great at selling his wines, making sure that we tried what we would like, red or white, sweet or dry… He told us about all the wines and grapes and how each was made. It was an amazing experience. We both got a bottle of sweet red wine.

Next, for 2 euros each we got the bus up the hill to the Rheinfels Castle in St. Goar. It was a castle with beautiful ruins and we enjoyed walking through it before walking back down to the town.

Melanie also picked up some Birkenstocks along the way and I picked up some postcards and a magnet to add to my collection. We caught the boat back down to where we parked her car. We passed the Loreley rock, more towns and lots of castles, some ruins some kept in good conditions.

Boat Tour

This was a really long 2 hours because everything started to look the same and by this time it had gotten chilly and overcast. We were craving some Thai food and went to a place on the way back to Melanie’s house. We ordered a huge sample platter… not even knowing what was on it and pad Thai. Our meal was delicious! We made plans for Monday and called it a night.

Luxembourg

Monday we ran some errands before making the 1.5 hour long drive to Luxembourg. Driving through, the houses were bright and beautiful but it didn’t seem like much was there. We found parking and walked through the shopping streets. It really didn’t seem like this small city/country had much to offer and we weren’t really impressed by it. They had great shopping, especially if you are looking to spend a lot of money!

We did walk to some old ruins as well but we weren’t quite sure what they were, a castle maybe? By this point we were hungry so we set out to find a French Cafe, thinking this would be easy since they speak French and German in Luxembourg. We finally found one and chose a few different things to try. We were let down yet again and really didn’t enjoy any of our food!

Our last stop was an antique shop just to browse. After spending about 3 hours in Luxembourg we were done so we headed back home. We picked up the babes from daycare and went to the grocery store to figure out what we would have for dinner. Missing Italy we decided to have pasta salad with meats, cheeses, and bread. For dessert we made a delicious fruit salad!

This was my last night in Germany. The next morning Melanie took me to the airport and I parted ways with my best friend again for the umteenth time. It’s never easy and as I was walking up the stairs to my plane I was hit with sadness. I am so lucky to have such a great best friend. Our friendship has endured many countries and locations over the past 10 years but we have always stayed close and for this I dropped the sadness. The best part about traveling in Germany and Luxembourg was definitely getting to spend time together! Cant wait to see where our next adventure takes us but until then I am on my own to see what I can see… Check it out here!