Burg Hohenneufen, und Auf Wiedersehen

Auf Wiedersehen, Deutschland! Another trip in the books, we're homeward bound. We did a little final shopping in Stuttgart, including a visit to the tower at Killesberg and some refreshing Schorle (fruit juice mixed with sparkling water, coming soon to a cider pressing near you!) in the park. We missed out on visiting the museum of Jon's new employer (the Mercedes-Benz museum is closed on Monday, Google lied to us!), and Jon had blisters from previous weeks of hiking up and down mountains, and it was bloody hot... but the Apfelschorle was all the more refreshing for it!

Tegelberg (and a check off my bucket list!)

 Since I discovered their existence, I've been wanting to stay overnight in a mountain hut. It's been on my bucket list since I first visited Austria. So when we decided to go to Füßen, we scheduled it for 3 nights and planned on spending the middle ones on the mountain, weather permitting. And did it permit! As we stepped off the mountain at the top of the Tegelbergbahn gondola, we realized we had discovered a magical place.

At the foot of the German Alps

We took the slow train from Regensburg to Füßen, stopping for a lunch (Käsespätzle, of course!) in München. From there, as we went south, the mountains came out of the clouds. The land became more rolling, swiss cows replacing wheat fields, hay sheds dotting green fields. The alps grew taller with every mile, without as much of the hilly preamble that those of us who live near the North Cascades are accustomed to. They are green shouldered and stone toothed, and standing on the top of the nearest shows nothing but spines running east-west as far as the eye can see. We went as far south as we could by train, and stepped off the platform in Füßen, at the foot of the mountains.

Palace Neuschwanstein, Hohenschwangau (knight's castle turned palace), Füßen to the far west

Regensburg, St Paul's Cathedral

We discovered one of my new favorite towns in Germany on a quick stopover from Prague to the Alps. It has all my favorites: Roman gates, a towering cathedral with medieval foundations and Gothic spires, twisting streets, pedestrian bridge from the 1100's that connects a biergarten on one side of the river with the ice cream spot on the other... 

Regensburg across the River

Bad Schandau / Schrammsteine Hike

A few months ago, Jon and I started a shared Trello board to brainstorm ideas for our trip. Jon posted a few places that have shown up as backgrounds in my new Chrome tabs (I use Momentum), and one of them was en route from Berlin to Prague. So we left Berlin in the morning and set off for Bad Schandau, gateway to the National Park Sächsische Schweitz, Saxon Switzerland National Park. Our train wound through Dresden and into the Elbe valley, glimpses of sandstone cliffs sometimes cutting through the thickly forested valley. Eventually, we hopped off the train, applied sunscreen, and caught a ferry for a 10 minute cruise upriver to Bad Schandau. 

the Elbe river valley

A quick visit to Berlin

I told Jon to bring walking shoes on this trip, and we set our benchmark early with a walking tour in Berlin. We were only there two nights, with a single full day in the city... according to my pedometer watch, we covered over 15 miles in the warm Berliner sun!

Buckley's solution to hot weather

Im Schwarzwald Verlaufen (lost in the Black Forest)

Two months ago, tucked into the box of chocolate that arrived as usual from Germany around my birthday, was a little card that read something along the lines of "Credit towards a memorable day." Yesterday I cashed it in for an adventure in the Black Forest with Anne! She planned a hike for us in a beautiful, cliff-lined gorge that proved a little elusive...

Löffingen peaking over the hill... A view we wouldn't have had if we hadn't missed the turn!

Stuttgart

I visited Stuttgart three years ago at about the same time of year. This time around we waited until the last day of our stay to go into the city because the Wine Festival started that day. While we did eventually spend a wonderful evening in the city center eating Maultaschen and chatting friends of our host, we had an entire afternoon to explore the city before everyone was off work.

Über Ulm

In German there is a "Zungenbrecher" (tongue-breaker) about a city in Baden-Würtemberg, Ulm. It goes like so: In Ulm, um Ulm, und um Ulm herum. Try saying that 5x fast! "It doesn't flow as well in English, "in Ulm, about Ulm and all around Ulm." On our third full day in Germany, we added a preposition; we went Über Ulm. The thing that the city is most famous for is its church tower, the tallest in the world (aside from the yet incomplete Sagrada Familia). On the recommendation of a friend's friend, we headed over to hike to the top.

Castles and churches in Esslingen

Monday was a holiday for us, but the rest of the world was back to work. Anne rode her bike to the office that morning so that we could use her car to go to Esslingen, a town only 20 minutes away by car but an hour away by train. Still unsure of what all the road signs meant, we jumped into the kiwi and went on an adventure.

Löwenstein

We spent our first full day in Germany with friends in the wine region around Stuttgart. Bea, who visited us with Anne in April, is from a town called Löwenstein. Most of her family still lives there and operates a wonderful winery.

Not-Quite-Bavaria

I have a bad habit of seeking out any part of a state that claims to resemble Germany. There was the infamous Oktoberfest road trip to Helen, GA two years ago, and those first and second visits to München last year. Any town that claims to resemble Germay - or the American vision of Germany - is a potential target. So, yesterday I found myself driving north to Frankenmuth, Germany.

Photo from a Frankenmuth advertisement site

Auf Wiedersehen

I hate saying goodbye. It seems so final. So instead I say auf wiedersehen, "until next time."  It wasn't easy to leave Germany on Wednesday afternoon. As the plane taxied, a squall blew in and gave me a wonderful image to remember Stuttgart by. I didn't have to cry. The clouds were tearing up for me.

Mercedes Benz

Having already been in Stuttgart a week, there was one thing I had to do before I left Stuttgart. I was in the motor capital of the world and had not visited the shrine of one of the original car makers.

Rittersport and Wein, our last day with Erin and John

Baden-Wurttemburg didn't offer its best weather as we left Stuttgart Sunday morning. That didn't matter much though, because we were going to a chocolate factory and a vineyard! Anne usually brings several kilos of chocolate with her when she comes to the States, and Rittersport is one of our favorites.

München - Oktoberfest

Prost!

One of John's requests when he and Erin started planning their trip to Germany was a visit to the legendary Oktoberfest in München. Thunder, lightning, and downpour the night before lifted as we woke up Saturday morning to breakfast in Siegertsbrunn before joining the thousands of trachten-clad people headed to the Wies'n.

München - Arriving

Really, we are excited to be here. Just a little tired.

 After a 6 hour drive full of traffic, "Rude" on the radio, and occasional tickle fights, we finally found our little hotel in Siegertsbrunn on the outskirts of München. So did nearly a million other people, and as we rode the S-bahn into downtown there was an unusual busyness in the city. There were also  black thunderheads rolling our way.

Goslar and the Hartz Mountains

The arrival of Erin and John in Germany kicked off a new round of touring with Anne as our host, guide, and driver. We started with a massive breakfast at the Stein house in the Harz mountains of Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony).

Berlin Blitz

I have blitz-visited Berlin once before, as part of a class trip during my 2008 study in Bremen. We were there only a evening and a day, but I was impressed by its size, its freshly minted sparkle, and the rawness of the story it has to tell. It's changed since then, but only a little. Cranes still fly high over the skyline, but there are fewer of them in the city center. The wall is still crowded by tourists, but the people I met who are my own age don't remember a divided nation.

Stuttgart Preview and Quiet History

I am realizing throughout this trip just how amazing my friends are. It isn't really news (they've always been great), but every once in a while it hits me even harder. I spent a few days in Stuttgart this week, and it was one of those moments.

Myself, Anne, and Bea in Heilbronn

Anne, Bea, and I hung out Thursday evening in Heilbronn for pasta, ice cream, and swapping stories an a mash up of English and German (I think Anne is the only person who got 100% of it!)