Germany, Day 1: August is full of travel this year, and Rob has been so excited to go to the printing museums in Germany. So after a few long plane rides, we went right to Mainz to see the Gutenberg Museum (temp location right now, which they never explained but oh well, still very cool). He, of course, loved it all, soaking in all the print works, explanations, demonstrations, etc.. Once he got his fill (yeah right) we headed into Frankfurt proper to check into our Airbnb and tried staying awake for a few hours, and after cold showers and eating didn't work, went to bed in the 6 p.m. hour in our lovely greenery filled Airbnb.
Germany, Day 2: Happy 26th Anniversary to us! It's been quite awhile since we've actually celebrated our anniversary on our actual anniversary and since we are in Germany, I decided to make the most of it. It's unseasonably hot here, so we woke early to go on a city tour that introduced us not only to the new town and old town but the new old town (WWII, sigh) of Frankfurt but also an amazing breakfast of sausage, pickle, mustard and bread at the local market. We love learning and walking together, so it was just so lovely. We also stopped at a few oxfams for treasures and got Rob a pistachio dessert, Rob a doner, and spaghetti ice cream to share.
Once back, we cuddled up to finish season 2 of apocothary diaries. I had already watched it with the kids but it's story (especially the final six episodes) is so well done that I made Rob watch it with me and he was pleasantly surprised.
It is both my favorite to walk around seeing new places and learning together AND enjoying milk and chocolate and pretzels while snuggling watching great media together and we did both. Love this man. 26.
Germany, Day 3: Museums! We hit four museums in one day, starting with the Jewish museum in Frankfurt. Wow. What a complicated story. I learned about gay swing kids, what five Frankfurt rabbis think of homosexuality and the roles of men and women, how almost all the Jewish people were removed from Frankfurt. How Frankfurt still is dealing with antisemitism and so much more.
We had enough time to only do one more museum, so we split up. I went to the Straud and Rob headed to the history museum, both were amazing. I saw so many new-to-me master works and Rob got one floor done in two hours, haha.
One note about Frankfurt is that we're up to like 5 people who have asked us something in German. Somehow my bitner ancestry is coming through and I don't look like a tourist, which is kind of cool.
We still had some time to kill before heading on our night train, so taking Peggy's advice, we went up to the Frankfurt temple. It is so gorgeous and we upped our count (which was already at 4 members) to 10 members we met and talked with after I noticed a woman with her family on the train having a ctr ring and started chatting. Then we talked with a couple missionary from Texas about Lyman wight and his history in that area, but we also got some good facts about the beautiful old mission president villa, the temple and the three sequoias that were planted to stop the building of it.
Back to Frankfurt, we stopped by the plaza where everyone goes on Friday to celebrate the end of the work week and marveled at the community just doing that. Then we grabbed some to good to go treats and headed to the station to wait for the night train to Prague. And while sitting there under the moon, I realized it had finally cooled down.
Prague, Day 4: I've never done a night train and I don't know if I'd do another because we literally were hurriedly shepherded into our berth of six beds where three perhaps scary strangers were already sleeping in the dark (it was 1230) and the toilet light didn't work so I had to hope everything went where it was supposed to before trying to sleep. The train movement was quite calming but the stops and announcements were a bit jarring. But as we neared Prague, we woke to a beautiful landscape, nice quiet train companions and a bathroom that I could see.
Ok Prague is a new favorite. It is so beautiful, reminding me of Florence and Bruges but with it's own art deco flair. I love a city with easy to navigate trams and our Airbnb was right in old town. But it is expensive. Our first taste of that was dropping of our luggage at a luggage locker that advertised as the best prices in the city and was 20 for 4 hours.
But cost aside (and our lovely Airbnb was cheap) the city is a marvel. We began by walking through old town to find breakfast at the Saturday markets and hit the old town market and then the river famers market where we bought goulash and a sausage for 30 dollars but it was the best goulash of my life. Then it was time for our Klementinuim tour. Rob was quite excited to see the amazing library (thanks Ben for the suggestion) and was not disappointed. I loved the tower climb and views of Prague.
It was time to check in and our lovely Airbnb provided a much needed shower, laundry load and mid afternoon nap. Refreshed, we headed on our Prague city tour and learned about the history of many of the buildings in old town, ending at the st. Charles bridge where Rob found another printed art piece to go with his Venice one. It was time for our concert at St Francis (thanks Paul for the suggestion) and it was so gorgeous in every way.
Our night ended with walking back through old town and grabbing some great to good to go treats, ones that were amazingly delicious but so much cheaper than Prague prices. I also found a thrift store to buy bohemian clothes for myself and the kids that they will delight in. So deals are to be found in Prague if you look carefully. Home, we let Rick Steves teach us a bit more about Prague as we enjoyed our treats before slipping off to sleep.
Germany, Day 5: We left our lovely Prague apartment to catch the flixbus down to Munich and on to Garmish-Partenkirchen since way back 11 years ago, I visited the Crawfords and have wanted to take Rob to this beautiful area since. But first Munich. The last time I was in Munich I found it cold and the food yucky. I was only there for a few hours, but still. Today, going back for another few hours, I found it cold and the food yucky. Rob liked it though. I may have been extra annoyed because my plans to go to Dachau didn't work and so we went to downtown, and it's nice, but just cold. I probably should give it another chance sometime.
But on to Garmish-Partenkirchen. Wow, this is a beautiful part of the world. I found a deal for an old Bavarian hotel filled with beautiful old furniture and decor. And surprise to me, it had a pool and sauna! Yay. We swam and just marveled at the beauty. Then we went on a walk and found a cool old church and then had a traditional Bavarian dinner, and we were treated to both a Bavarian accordian player and two young Bavarian boys dancing. It was so cool and so delicious!
Back to our hotel, we watched the sun set behind the clouds and mountains, while listening to the church bells and drinking peppermint tea from our balcony. Pretty idyllic. And then finished the evening by German cooking shows and Globetrekker: Germany.
Germany/Austria, Day 6: Rob had a few goals for this trip: 1.see the Gutenberg Museum, 2. Go on a hike in the Alps and 3. Bike along the Rhine. Today was number 2. I remember going on one of the best hikes of my life in Garmisch with John Crawford, so I was delighted to be back. The only problem was Rob has been dealing with some leg pain and I reinjured my ankle at bear lake, so instead of doing a giant all day hike, we did the beautiful Partenach Gorge hike. It still ended up being some odd miles. And it was so gorgeous (ha!) and we missed most of the crowds until we got down.
Since we were right by the Olympic stadium walked through it and then, we went up the cable car to see all of Garmisch-partenkichen. Rob gritted his teeth through the heights but it was well worth the incredible views.
So I had thought before this trip, why don't I just go into Austria, but then I thought too complicated but yesterday, the Flixbus was so easy and it was only a 1 hour ish farther to Innsbruck, and Rob was game so we spent the afternoon in Innsbruck. Now I had touched Austria the last time I was here and counted it among my countries, but I hadn't really visited it and Innsbruck is a great introduction. It's pretty similar to Garmisch in landscape but Austria has a whole different vibe and Rob and I walked around, ate some kuchen and saw a beautiful church and other landmarks in just a few hours. After picking up a few treasures, we were back on the bus to Garmisch. Once back in our lovely hotel, I determined I wanted to drink peppermint tea on my balcony, play dominion with Rob, watch travel shows about Austria and eat four different chocolates. It was an absolutely lovely way to end a big day of exploring.
Germany, Day 7: Rob's third thing he wanted to do this trip was explore the Rhine river valley on bike. So this morning we headed out from our lovely Atlas hotel and caught the first of three trains to Boppard. It was pretty uneventful but as we got closer, the castles started dotting the hills. I get why people like cruising this. We settled into our cute little backyard cabin while Rob taught his first U class via zoom because well we're in Germany.
We found a cute little riverside restaurant and ordered my favorite beer substitute: apple juice with sparking water and finally tried the schnitzel. Mmmm. Before biking back to read together in our cosy little space.
Germany, Day 8: Our last full day found us biking miles north in the Rhine in search of a castle. The Marksburg Castle to be exact. It is a gorgeous one that has a tour, and although the tour was in German, we got the gist of most of it. The bike ride and then ferry ride back was just so peaceful and fun. Rob was in his element.
I've connected to my German roots here this trip moreso than 11 years ago. I'm 1/8th German and by all the people joking with me or asking me questions and expecting in-German answers, I think I look it. People are friendly and kind and that's always fun to witness so mostly I just played along. I also realized again that my Grandma is a 2nd generation immigrant, with all the politics and prejudices that brings, especially marrying into a "more respectable” family as she did. I wonder if her dad was proud of her and glad he made the trip. Grandma wasn't always accepted and it's weird to think of that now as she seems the quintessential American. Although her German and Scottish peaks through in a myriad of ways and I'm proud that's part of my heritage.
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