Cologne
After picking up our leased car in Lille, we set up the new GPS, and we were off! It was a little confusing as our GPS does not give line by line driving directions, so we never knew where we were. Our drive took us
through a tiny part of France, back through Belgium, and then into Cologne, Germany. That night we were staying with friends Gloria and her husband Biagio, a truly international couple (she's Mexican, he's Italian, and they are living in Germany); we had plans to watch the Germany game. Since the weather looked inclement, and the train did not go all the way to downtown (due to the number of people in the square and in front of the tracks), we first went to a small bar downtown where we had a few Kolsch beers while watching the game. They cost about $2.80 USD apiece, and the barman just kept bringing trays around to people since they are only smaller glasses. We then went to a brewery downtown - the bar was a little crazy – a good mix of young and old, and the ones that had been drinking, plus one barking dog perched on its owners lap. It was a convivial group that got louder and louder as it became clearer and clearer who would win. Germany won 4-0! At the end, everyone went crazy and danced, and the bar played Madonna’s “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina,” which was classic. As we walked through town, there was also a huge gay festival happening, so there were all sorts of colorful people celebrating. The main street in 
town was also closed off, full of people waving flags, singing and mulling about – later we would hear fireworks from downtown. The streets that were open around downtown became an informal parade route, with beeping cars and people hanging out car windows and waving flags. The crazy thing as that there was no heavy police presence, it was all quite calm. Downtown Cologne was also impressive - a nice mix of shops, a lovely cathedral, cafes - all along a river. That night, Biagio made us homemade pizza, which was outstanding! It was quite possibly the best pizza we have had in ages, and we ate it all, followed by ice cream and appertifs for dessert. Europeans really know how to entertain, and we were sorry to move on!Rhine River Drive/Mainz
The Rhine River was quite broad and fast moving, and flanked by roads on either side, along with bike path
s on either side. Our road had quite a low speed limit and was one way in either direction, so we were able to enjoy the views. For a few miles, the land was flat, then soon enough, there were hills and bluffs, which also soon became covered with vineyards. Then we started playing, “Hey look there’s a castle!”… there was one every few minutes on both sides of the river. It was outstanding, and something we have never seen before. We stopped in Koblenz, which is where the confluence of the Mosel and the Rhine rivers occurs. Both are important rivers, particularly for the respective areas of viniculture. We had a really good time at a local festival there, especially watching a local "battle of the bands."Rothenburg ob der Tauber “over the Tauber” (river)
We pulled into Rothenburg in the sweltering mid afternoon heat. We disregarded our GPS directions initially as we did not think our hotel was actually in the walled city, but turns out, it was located immediately within, so we took a small one lane bridge straight in. Fortunately, the Gasthof Breiterle had its own small parking lot, which was very convenient. Rothenbu
rg is a walled medieval town dating back hundreds of years; in 1142 King Konrad erected the Imperial Castle and slowly, a community developed around the site and it became a strategic town, noted for it’s hillside location, moat, and tall walls. Two prominent churches were also located in town, including St. Jacob’s, which is meant to have the most impressive altar in Germany, and holds a drop of Christ’s blood. Rothenburg also had medieval walls that you could walk on, at least for a portion of some of the city. However, we learned that some wall portions were destroyed in 1945, but were rebuilt over 20 years with the help of donations, beginning in the 70’s. We saw someone from Elmhurst, Illinois who had donated, and had his name on a brick! As it turns out 40% of the eastern part of the city was destroyed, but rebuilt, and the entire city is now protected by preservation laws.Our first afternoon there, we took a long walk around the town. We’re not sure where we read that Rothenburg was adorable, but everyone else seemed to have it on their radar screen as well. We even saw busloads of Japanese! The Castle Gate was really neat, and there was a mask on the wall
where hot pitch was poured onto attackers; there is still a black stain at the bottom of this face! One of our favorite sites in town was called the Plonlein, or “Little Square,” which was a small medieval square with a picturesque house. Town was just so cute you wanted to squeeze its cheeks! Town also had outstanding water fountains --- for drinking water and for fire purposes, since housing materials were very flammable and posed a great threat. We saw one fountain that had a statue that looked like a popular religious figure on a coffee chain’s corporate logo.Rothenburg also had really great eating options, which is something else we noticed as we had started to head away from Belgium --- the food got better looking and became cheaper! We saw a ton of restaurants selling sausages from their windows, and also some good looking small eateries. The first night we were there we tried a restaurant on the plaza. Yes, we know that restaurants usually that are located on the plaza are not the best to eat at – quality, quantity and price-wise. However, this trended against that – the prices were about 8-12 euros for the main German fare (schnitzel, sausages, etc.), and were immense. Christy ordered pork, and it came with three massive cuts, a huge bowl of red cabbage and two large dumplings.
In addition to the huge sizes of beer that they served, we felt like we won the food lottery! Lastly, there seemed to be a regional specialty of “schneeballen,” which (we think) is an … end product of leftover pie crust which is baked/fried into a large ball. This eventually led to an evolvement of the delicacy, and newer forms of it found it in various chocolate or caramel or sprinkle covered forms. Crazy, but we tried it!Ulm
In our hurried
research to learn more about the area we were driving through, we came across the Romantic Road, which was a small road of castles and small medieval towns stretching from mid-country to the border of Austria. In Rothenburg, we were able to garner a map with English information on highlights of the entire German Romantic Road, which had more information than we were able to find on our own. Our favorite town we stopped at was Nordlingen, which was magical, and looked like a German Disney. All of the houses were tall and had many floors, painted bright colors, with brimming colorful flowerboxes in every window. All of the houses if not colored, were built in the white walled-dark timber fashion, and were simply huge! Some of the roofs held stork nests, which we have not seen since Spain! The town center was big enough to host a few guesthouses; and we likely would have stayed had we not had plans elsewhere. There were enough shops and restaurants and a nice town vibe. We filled our German sausagefest wish again, this time with a street vendors’ specialty, which were two long thin sausages in a small bun. We sat and ate guiltily on the church plaza, enjoying the sausage and shade.We drove into Ulm to stay with friends Maike and her boyfriend Andi, who lived in a popular area of Ulm, one of the last stops on the tram to the west side of Ulm. Their neighborhood was really quiet and residential, and really adorable! That night, Andi grilled a smorgasboard of meats and sausages, including one local specialty called “fire sausage,” that was a thin very long spicy sausage. We also met their neighbors, Tina and Matt, and found out Matt was a New Zealand transplant. At one point, Maike brought out a bottle of schnapps and gave us all a shot of it. She explained that it was given to her by her grandfather who had just turned 100; he swore the schnapps was the secret to long life.
The next day we left early to avoid the heat of the day to climb the Ulm Munster. Surprisingly, it was relatively inexpensive to ascend- only 4 euros to climb 768+ stairs and get an incredible view. If the weather cooperated you could see the Alps, some 2 hours driving away! The Ulm Munster was completed in 1890, and – amazingly – survived heavy bombing during World War II. The climb actually took part in three
stages, an ascent to the first level, where people were going both up and down, which was hot, but not too challenging. This brought you to a veranda and floor where you could see the bells below; we joked about who would be put in the pulley and wheeled down to bang the bells, which turned out to be automatic anyways. This level had a really nice wider (but fenced for the “jumpers”) verandah around this floor. The next ascent took us up further up a narrow one way tower, where a sign pronounced “no way down,” and left us at the top of one belltower, where we started to get a little more freaked out due to the heights. The next level was really freaky – you climbed inside an actual spire, which had barely covered stone windows.The city centre of Ulm is gorgeous, and really pretty, and maybe our favorite in Germany so far. The newer parts of the city had a modernistic sleekness. The older section of the city was built along the primary river, and a smaller section of the river, which ran through the buildings. We loved the older section of the city, where the clear river ran right through between older buildings, brimming with the flowerboxes, it was just spectacular. The town hall building, which dated back from 1370, had the most amazing frescoes. This is the section of the city also known as the Fishermen’s and Tanner’s Quarters (also the most expensive real estate!), where, during the Ulm Festival, they water joust.That night, we had plans for the group of us to head to Wilder Mann, a downtown bar to watch Germany battle for 3rd place in the World Cup. We were there about 2.5 hours early, and we thought, based on the amount of activity we had all day, we would need a nap by the riverfront. However, as the hours went by, the crowds gathered, and the craziness ensued. We saw a Bier Bike go by, slowly pedaling and singing… check out www.bierbike.de to see what they
look like. (Incidentally the company claims to be calorie neutral and produces zero emissions… hilarious!)Finally, the game played, and the crowds went wild! As soon as the Germans won… we heard a rumor that the Wild Mann was offering free beer. Let's just say a good time was had by all, there was even dancing and arms up in the air, we had a blast!Germany was simply put, so much fun! We truly thank the friends and new friends we met there --- you made our stay so much more special! :) Germany is a fantastic place to visit - easy roads, great foods, and amazing scenery. We had such a good time we're routing ourselves for our return trip to hit northern Germany!
Next Up: How will Austria compare?
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