Last German Adventures
Cheeky and I have a few adventures to talk about because I've been lazy with writing blog posts! This will also be my last post before heading home. Yay!! I've been in Germany just about 6 months now and I am ever so anxious to get back home to friends and family. More on the summary of my trip later. For now, let me tell you what I've been up to the past two weeks!
Cochem Castle
One of the guys that works next to me has been trying to get to this castle for almost the entire deployment. He's signed up with the on base tour groups a few times, but for one reason or another it just didn't work out. Finally, we gathered a small group, made reservations and went on our own. The castle at Cochem was built around the year 1000. After quite a history, it burned almost completely down in 1689. 200 years later, it was purchased by a Frenchman and restored to the way it looks today. The castle is owned by the city of Cochem and is a nice destination for tourists, including Viking River Cruises!
The drive to the castle was less than two hours from Ramstein. We had a tour and dinner reservations around 6, but we needed to be there by 5:30 since there was no parking close to the castle. The 7 of us arrived around 4, so we had a little time to explore the city first. Once we found a parking spot, we stumbled upon a busy area with shops, restaurants, and lots of people. It was situated right on the Moselle river, so it made for some good photos. We could see the castle high up on the hill in the distance. This was why we needed to arrive early! It would be a little bit of a walk! Since we weren't sure how long it would take us, we started following signs that pointed us in the direction of the castle. The city was like many old German cities. It had lots of character.
We kept hiking upwards and saw what looked like a small photo opportunity. There was a tiny castle spire on an overlook we wanted to stop at. What we originally didn't see was the actual castle looming over us! It popped into view like coming around a corner. Bam! There it was. A fantastic surprise! We stopped to take a few photos then continued our hike upwards.
We noticed a religious stone carving with a II over it. Then there was one with III. Then IV. We had discovered a trail of the Stations of the Cross. Four of us decided to see where the path would lead us. The remainder of the group went towards the castle and waited for us there. It lead us down a wooded path and ended at a very small one room church with a large crucifix in front. There were also some great views of the castle from there. We eventually found all 14.
We had to go back after dinner to find the first station. Somehow we missed it on the way up to the castle. After our side hike, we made it to the castle to check in before dinner. We still had time to grab a cup of coffee and buy a few souvenirs. Charlotte is getting a comic book style story about the castle. Complete with a couple of friendly ghosts, some history, murder, and a quiz at the end! (Yes, you read that right!)
Finally at 6pm, it was time for our tour. We were prepared to understand nothing as we were told it was a German only tour. Luckily, there were enough English speaking people, that the tour was split into two groups. The tour took about 40 minutes. It was interesting and not too long.
After the tour was a medieval style dinner. There had to be 50+ people in the room. We were situated at long tables split between German and English speaking. The narrator spoke almost exclusively in German, but we had a script that we could follow along with. There was also a "Lord and Lady" of the dinner. They sat at the front of the room. It looks like they were picked from the crowd. When the maidens "waitresses" were bringing us our drinks I asked how I could order the vegetarian option. She just said, "Oh, no you can't. That should have been done when you made the reservation. You can just pick the meat out of the soup." Fantastic. Needless to say, I got all the extra bread.
Our narrator told us stories of how a knightly meal would progress, different parts of the meal would be brought out (beverages, carrot sticks and dip, bread, soup, etc). There was some singing and dancing too! I got to dance with the narrator. Fun! At one point the "Lord" of the dinner came over to talk to us. He was a German, but spoke very good English. We all got to talking and he asked if any of us had been to Milwaukee. I was shocked and said that I lived there. He asked if I had ever been to the Highbury bar (which I have). He told me to talk to the owner, Joe, and let him know that Sacha said hello. He used to live in Milwaukee! How crazy! We spoke briefly about Bayview and how we both liked that area.
Finally it was time for the main course. What else do you have at a medieval dinner but turkey legs. I reluctantly grabbed a leg and immediately handed it over to my hungry neighbor. He was pretty happy to have two legs. I ate more bread. Cheeky was not happy about the turkey either. Everyone else seemed to enjoy their food.
Once dinner was over, it was time for the competition! Two people from the audience would endure three challenges so that they may become a Knight of Cochem. Luckily, one of our group, Angelo was asked to participate! The first challenge was to saw a log. He lost terribly. We think the other guy was part lumberjack. The second challenge was to sing a song. The German guy went first. He sang some tune that every German in the room knew. We thought all was lost. But alas! Angelo had chosen his tune wisely. THIS is what he chose. He started with the first line or two then jumped into the chorus. The entire room was singing! He clearly won that challenge! I had the song in my head for a few days after that night. The third and final challenge was to drink a pint of beer. Angelo's German counterpart officially won, but from where we were sitting, he spilled quite a bit of beer. Angelo was the winner in our eyes! But of course, in the end, they were both knighted. They even received some cool certificates to go with it. I'd say the competition was the best part of the evening.
Log Sawing Preparing to Sing Chug, chug, chug!
Overall, the dinner lasted almost 4 hours! Once that wrapped up, we still had the long drive home. I was thankful I didn't have to drive. I scooted into the back seat. I did get a little nervous zooming on the Autobahn, but we made it home safely. After a quick chat with Ross, I was off to bed.
Movie and Dinner
The following weekend, the movie Ready Player One came out. I had to go see it! It's all about virtual reality, 80's nostalgia, AND has a DeLorean! Heck yes! It was definitely different than the book, but it was a fun movie. I went with a group of 12. It started as a small group of 5 and quickly grew from there. The more the merrier! We all piled into the small theater and enjoyed the show. Afterwards we chatted a bit about what we liked and then headed to dinner. We had reservations at Safari. This was another place we had been trying to get a group to go to for at least 4 months. Safari is an Ethiopian restaurant and rated as the best restaurant in Kaiserslautern. It was delicious! It was just like the Ethiopian I had while in Djibouti and at a place called Alem in Milwaukee. The food might look a little weird, but it is very flavorful! A few of us ordered drinks, I had a pineapple beer, and when they brought them out, a wooden bowl was put in front of us. Confused, the waiter poured my beer into the bowl. Everyone else followed suit, and we drank from those! Cheers to that! Everyone enjoyed their meals and we closed down the place.
One More Country
Up to this point I had visited 5 countries (Germany, France, The Netherlands, Niger, Djibouti). I wanted to get one more and a few people were headed to Luxembourg for the day, so I tagged along! Luxembourg is only about a 2 hour drive which made it perfect for a day trip. 4 of us piled into the car and set off for Luxembourg City for lunch.
When we got to the city, we needed to find parking. Like many European cities, the streets are narrow and it's sometimes hard to tell if we're allowed to park in certain spots. We thought we found one and Angelo did a superb job of parallel parking. Once he finally got squeezed into his spot, a business owner walked out of his shop and told us we couldn't park there. Whoops. The search continued. As we were driving through the city, it was hard to tell if we were actually allowed to drive where we were. The cobblestone streets blended in with the sidewalks and there weren't many other cars driving around. We were a little nervous about it, but no one stopped us or came yelling at us that we were in the wrong place. We seemed to have explored half the city just trying to find a parking spot. Finally, we spotted a sign for a parking garage. There were two entrances with lift arm gates. Since one lane was occupied, we went to the other one. What we didn't realize was that it was for monthly pass holders and you needed a card to get in. The sign on the post was in French. So we had to wait for traffic and pedestrians to clear out, back out of the lane we were in, and go back into the first lane. Phew! Finally made it into the garage. We found a spot and headed into the city. It was colder than we expected when we arrived. It had been chilly in Germany, but noticeably colder when we arrived.
One of the first things we did was find a place for some hot chocolate. We were all chilled! We found this chocolate shop that had lots of treats and hot chocolate. The fun part about the drinks was that you went over to this wall and all the flavors of hot chocolate were there for your choosing. They were chunks of flavored chocolate on a wooden spoon. We all mulled over the many options, gave our choice to the barista, she steamed some milk, and plopped our stick of chocolate into the cup. We gave it a good stir to melt the chunk and we were ready to go. I opted for the Dark Mint. So tasty!
Across the street from the chocolate shop was the Grand Ducal Palace. There were two guards marching back and forth. It looked like a miserable job, especially on a cold day. I suppose someone has to do it. Now that we had a warm drink in hand, we wandered the streets to see what we could see. We had no plans. It's a nice city with lots of old charm. There were a lot of high end stores, but just about everything was closed. It was Sunday and Easter. We poked our head into a macaroon shop, but no one bought anything. I was happy I had brought my umbrella, it was raining on and off too. We reached a point where we were all ready for lunch.
There seemed to be plenty of options, and we settled on a burger joint called Snooze. I had a veggie burger, Angelo and Chavez split a pumpkin/sweet potato burger, and Kyle had a regular cheese burger. I didn't realize mine was coming with cheese, but I went with it. The texture was weird and the cheese wasn't good. Kyle said his was off too. I tried the sweet potato patty and thought it was pretty good. About half way through my burger, my stomach started turning. Kyle said the same thing. Before either of us could finish our food, we were both in the bathroom. Ugh. My guess was the cheese since the other patty didn't have it. Probably one of the worst meals of my entire deployment. I think Kyle and I both ended up in bathrooms one or two more times before the drive back to Ramstein. We thought we were getting a good meal...April Fools! Ah well! It gives a story to tell. :)
Since Kyle and I were not feeling well, we didn't spend much more time in Luxembourg. Angelo picked up a souvenir, we made bathroom stops and found our car. I definitely didn't go anywhere else the rest of the day. My stomach still felt a little off the next day, but no more bathroom trips, so it could have been much worse.
And with that, this is the last post I'll make from Germany! I'll do one more once I get home. I can't believe it's finally time to pack up and head back to Wisconsin, but I couldn't be happier. I miss everyone and my own home! I'm glad we jumped on the blog train. It's been a great way to record our adventures and memories. Our inspiration came from these two: Two SOBs and The Zahns. They've been great friends for a long time! I hope that some day the 6 of us go on an adventure and all blog about it. I'd like to see how each of us tell the tale! (What do you say guys?!)
I'll see you all soon!
Current Stats
Days Remaining: 10
Replacement Arrives: Tomorrow
Number of Bags Packed: None
Cochem Castle
 |
| Moselle River |
The drive to the castle was less than two hours from Ramstein. We had a tour and dinner reservations around 6, but we needed to be there by 5:30 since there was no parking close to the castle. The 7 of us arrived around 4, so we had a little time to explore the city first. Once we found a parking spot, we stumbled upon a busy area with shops, restaurants, and lots of people. It was situated right on the Moselle river, so it made for some good photos. We could see the castle high up on the hill in the distance. This was why we needed to arrive early! It would be a little bit of a walk! Since we weren't sure how long it would take us, we started following signs that pointed us in the direction of the castle. The city was like many old German cities. It had lots of character.
We kept hiking upwards and saw what looked like a small photo opportunity. There was a tiny castle spire on an overlook we wanted to stop at. What we originally didn't see was the actual castle looming over us! It popped into view like coming around a corner. Bam! There it was. A fantastic surprise! We stopped to take a few photos then continued our hike upwards.
We noticed a religious stone carving with a II over it. Then there was one with III. Then IV. We had discovered a trail of the Stations of the Cross. Four of us decided to see where the path would lead us. The remainder of the group went towards the castle and waited for us there. It lead us down a wooded path and ended at a very small one room church with a large crucifix in front. There were also some great views of the castle from there. We eventually found all 14.
We had to go back after dinner to find the first station. Somehow we missed it on the way up to the castle. After our side hike, we made it to the castle to check in before dinner. We still had time to grab a cup of coffee and buy a few souvenirs. Charlotte is getting a comic book style story about the castle. Complete with a couple of friendly ghosts, some history, murder, and a quiz at the end! (Yes, you read that right!)
Finally at 6pm, it was time for our tour. We were prepared to understand nothing as we were told it was a German only tour. Luckily, there were enough English speaking people, that the tour was split into two groups. The tour took about 40 minutes. It was interesting and not too long.
After the tour was a medieval style dinner. There had to be 50+ people in the room. We were situated at long tables split between German and English speaking. The narrator spoke almost exclusively in German, but we had a script that we could follow along with. There was also a "Lord and Lady" of the dinner. They sat at the front of the room. It looks like they were picked from the crowd. When the maidens "waitresses" were bringing us our drinks I asked how I could order the vegetarian option. She just said, "Oh, no you can't. That should have been done when you made the reservation. You can just pick the meat out of the soup." Fantastic. Needless to say, I got all the extra bread.
Our narrator told us stories of how a knightly meal would progress, different parts of the meal would be brought out (beverages, carrot sticks and dip, bread, soup, etc). There was some singing and dancing too! I got to dance with the narrator. Fun! At one point the "Lord" of the dinner came over to talk to us. He was a German, but spoke very good English. We all got to talking and he asked if any of us had been to Milwaukee. I was shocked and said that I lived there. He asked if I had ever been to the Highbury bar (which I have). He told me to talk to the owner, Joe, and let him know that Sacha said hello. He used to live in Milwaukee! How crazy! We spoke briefly about Bayview and how we both liked that area.
Finally it was time for the main course. What else do you have at a medieval dinner but turkey legs. I reluctantly grabbed a leg and immediately handed it over to my hungry neighbor. He was pretty happy to have two legs. I ate more bread. Cheeky was not happy about the turkey either. Everyone else seemed to enjoy their food.
Once dinner was over, it was time for the competition! Two people from the audience would endure three challenges so that they may become a Knight of Cochem. Luckily, one of our group, Angelo was asked to participate! The first challenge was to saw a log. He lost terribly. We think the other guy was part lumberjack. The second challenge was to sing a song. The German guy went first. He sang some tune that every German in the room knew. We thought all was lost. But alas! Angelo had chosen his tune wisely. THIS is what he chose. He started with the first line or two then jumped into the chorus. The entire room was singing! He clearly won that challenge! I had the song in my head for a few days after that night. The third and final challenge was to drink a pint of beer. Angelo's German counterpart officially won, but from where we were sitting, he spilled quite a bit of beer. Angelo was the winner in our eyes! But of course, in the end, they were both knighted. They even received some cool certificates to go with it. I'd say the competition was the best part of the evening.
Log Sawing Preparing to Sing Chug, chug, chug!Overall, the dinner lasted almost 4 hours! Once that wrapped up, we still had the long drive home. I was thankful I didn't have to drive. I scooted into the back seat. I did get a little nervous zooming on the Autobahn, but we made it home safely. After a quick chat with Ross, I was off to bed.
 |
| Cheeky got his own sword! |
Movie and Dinner
One More Country
When we got to the city, we needed to find parking. Like many European cities, the streets are narrow and it's sometimes hard to tell if we're allowed to park in certain spots. We thought we found one and Angelo did a superb job of parallel parking. Once he finally got squeezed into his spot, a business owner walked out of his shop and told us we couldn't park there. Whoops. The search continued. As we were driving through the city, it was hard to tell if we were actually allowed to drive where we were. The cobblestone streets blended in with the sidewalks and there weren't many other cars driving around. We were a little nervous about it, but no one stopped us or came yelling at us that we were in the wrong place. We seemed to have explored half the city just trying to find a parking spot. Finally, we spotted a sign for a parking garage. There were two entrances with lift arm gates. Since one lane was occupied, we went to the other one. What we didn't realize was that it was for monthly pass holders and you needed a card to get in. The sign on the post was in French. So we had to wait for traffic and pedestrians to clear out, back out of the lane we were in, and go back into the first lane. Phew! Finally made it into the garage. We found a spot and headed into the city. It was colder than we expected when we arrived. It had been chilly in Germany, but noticeably colder when we arrived.
One of the first things we did was find a place for some hot chocolate. We were all chilled! We found this chocolate shop that had lots of treats and hot chocolate. The fun part about the drinks was that you went over to this wall and all the flavors of hot chocolate were there for your choosing. They were chunks of flavored chocolate on a wooden spoon. We all mulled over the many options, gave our choice to the barista, she steamed some milk, and plopped our stick of chocolate into the cup. We gave it a good stir to melt the chunk and we were ready to go. I opted for the Dark Mint. So tasty!
Across the street from the chocolate shop was the Grand Ducal Palace. There were two guards marching back and forth. It looked like a miserable job, especially on a cold day. I suppose someone has to do it. Now that we had a warm drink in hand, we wandered the streets to see what we could see. We had no plans. It's a nice city with lots of old charm. There were a lot of high end stores, but just about everything was closed. It was Sunday and Easter. We poked our head into a macaroon shop, but no one bought anything. I was happy I had brought my umbrella, it was raining on and off too. We reached a point where we were all ready for lunch.
There seemed to be plenty of options, and we settled on a burger joint called Snooze. I had a veggie burger, Angelo and Chavez split a pumpkin/sweet potato burger, and Kyle had a regular cheese burger. I didn't realize mine was coming with cheese, but I went with it. The texture was weird and the cheese wasn't good. Kyle said his was off too. I tried the sweet potato patty and thought it was pretty good. About half way through my burger, my stomach started turning. Kyle said the same thing. Before either of us could finish our food, we were both in the bathroom. Ugh. My guess was the cheese since the other patty didn't have it. Probably one of the worst meals of my entire deployment. I think Kyle and I both ended up in bathrooms one or two more times before the drive back to Ramstein. We thought we were getting a good meal...April Fools! Ah well! It gives a story to tell. :)
Since Kyle and I were not feeling well, we didn't spend much more time in Luxembourg. Angelo picked up a souvenir, we made bathroom stops and found our car. I definitely didn't go anywhere else the rest of the day. My stomach still felt a little off the next day, but no more bathroom trips, so it could have been much worse.
 |
| Moments before sickness |
And with that, this is the last post I'll make from Germany! I'll do one more once I get home. I can't believe it's finally time to pack up and head back to Wisconsin, but I couldn't be happier. I miss everyone and my own home! I'm glad we jumped on the blog train. It's been a great way to record our adventures and memories. Our inspiration came from these two: Two SOBs and The Zahns. They've been great friends for a long time! I hope that some day the 6 of us go on an adventure and all blog about it. I'd like to see how each of us tell the tale! (What do you say guys?!)
I'll see you all soon!
Current Stats
Days Remaining: 10
Replacement Arrives: Tomorrow
Number of Bags Packed: None
You know we're down for said adventure!!! Can't wait to see you in just a matter of days!!
ReplyDelete'Coming Home' ...you made my day!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing all your adventures... it's been wonderful hearing, and seeing, where you've been and what you, and Cheeky, have done... I look forward to hearing your 'back-home' follow-up blog as well!
Safe travels, and don't forget your warm coat... Wisconsin spring (?) is less-than spring-like! ...or so I hear! :(
Love,
Meem