Friday, July 21, 2017

Day 9: A relaxing day in German wine country

One more day of adventure for our European vacay today. Sad, but it was a good way to end the trip!

We started out w/ a morning trip to The Chocolate House in Luxembourg. Erin had told me about this treasure and we didn't make it there before it closed on Tuesday, so we went first thing Wednesday morning. They have a WALL of make your own hot chocolate sticks. SO many flavors. I could have had like 5, but I wouldn't have felt well. :) So, I had a hazelnut one and Michael and a caramel sea salt one. SO GOOD and creamy and delicious. This is a genius idea.



After our hot chocolates it was time to head to German wine country, one bus and two trains later (with some very close connections) we met up w/ Cathy in Neustadt an der Weinstraße for a day of touring the Rheinpfalz region. Cathy had a full day of yummy foods and wine adventures planned for us. It was nice to have something planned by someone else and she did a great job! It's wonderful to have friends that live in amazing places! 



We first stopped at Cathy and Martin's apartment for a nice lunch of flammkuchen and watermelon. It was perfect pre-wine drinking food. The views from their place are also AMAZING! Vineyards everywhere! It's a magical little village (Bad Durkheim for those that want to see where it is on a map). 




Then, it was off to our first winery. It was a crazy hot day (in the 90s), so Martin was nice enough to drive us there even though we likely would have walked if it wasn't so hot. That's how close Cathy lives to these wineries! Amazing! At the German wineries you taste as much as you want for free(!) and Cathy had picked out some of her favorites to take us to. They're known for their rieslings in this region and they're not sweet like many people think of German rieslings. They're very crisp and refreshing and were lovely on a hot day.








Then, we hiked through the village to some castle ruins where we had a wine schorle (wine mixed w/ sparkling water). Great views!!














Next up was the 2nd winery where we tasted more wines, this time one red and some sparkling stuff. All yummy. We even bought a bottle to bring home with us. 




Before we left we had to get our pic in front of the biggest wine barrel in the world. A nice roadside attraction!! :) There is even a restaurant inside!





Next up was tea and cake time (and time w/ Onyx the cat) back at Cathy's apartment followed by nap time! So much wine tasting!




Then, we had dinner in a neighboring village outside next to the grape vines. So magical and the food was good too! :) 








It was a great visit and I have a feeling we'll be back to visit them next time we're in the region. It was a nice relaxing way to end our vacation and we're thankful for Cathy and Martin's hospitality and all their great planning! 




Wednesday, July 19, 2017

Day 8: Hi Luxembourg

Here we go again! This time a 6:30 train to Luxembourg. We arrived around 10:00, dropped our bags, bought a Luxembourg Card and headed out. First stop: a museum...any museum with a bathroom. Our card got us in to all sorts of sights so it wasn't hard to find one. The winner: The City Museum of Luxembourg. We did stroll around the museum a bit too, but the main purpose here was to find a bathroom. :)




Next up: Lunch. We didn't do much planning for Luxembourg so we didn't have a place picked out and that was a bust. We almost ate at McDonald's we were so desperate and Michael wanted to make sure Alison avoided a hangry attack. But, at the last minute Google led us to a cute sandwich place with Charles in the name and we had great little sandwiches overlooking the street. We'd say the city center is not the place to eat---too expensive and not well reviewed. Oh and things don't open until 12 for lunch and we were trying to eat at 11 so that was also a problem, but it all worked out!



Then, it was off to the castle! No trip to Europe is complete w/o a stop at a castle and for us this was Vianden Castle. It was a 1 hour trip via train and bus, but that was all free w/ our card. This little town was adorable and we walked around a bit to find the chair lift (also free w/ our card). It was a hot, sunny day today so we baked in the sun on the way up, but then got some great views and got to do this rocky climb over to the castle. Not sure we were wearing the right shoes for that, but we made it work.









The castle was nice. It had been reconstructed quite a bit, but it was still fun to walk around the grounds and get out of the heat.














Then, it was back to Luxembourg City. We checked in to our hotel and then tried to go have dinner. It was 6PM and apparently that's too early for dinner as all the places we tried didn't start serving food until 7. We didn't realize that at the Big Beer Company until after we had ordered drinks, so we drank quickly because we had another tourist attraction to see. Food had to wait and Alison had to fight off a hangry attack, but it was worth it!

The Bock Casemates were amazing! We were the only ones there and it was fun to explore them by ourselves. It was just a system of underground tunnels used to defend the city and such back in the day. So cool.








After that we strolled down a windy street to the area below the city known as Grund. There was an outdoor concert by Passenger happening so it was crazy packed with concert goers, but we got our name on a list for dinner at 8:30 and walked across the street to Scott's Pub for a drink and the biggest bowl of tortilla chips ever invented! Then we had dinner at this cute Bistro where we had Flamkuchen and spatzle! Finally!






Then, we strolled around this part of town a bit and heard some great jazz at Liquid Bar, so we went in there for a bit to listen to the great tunes. We could have stayed all night, but Alison wanted to check out a wine bar back in the city center. That was a bust, so we could have stayed longer. Bummer!










Then, it was back to the hotel, but Michael did have one more late night adventure searching for the scarce resource of cold water. He eventually returned w/ 4 bottles all of which were more than what we wanted to pay, but at least we could have some water before we went to sleep.