Day 8 – Strasbourg

Our last full day in Europe. We enjoyed France so much, we decided to return for our last day. Andrea recommended Strasbourg, calling it the “Venice of France”. This is because it has canals running all through the city. That sounded like a pretty good bet. We got packed up and said our goodbyes to our gracious hosts, and then hit the road once more.






For one thing, Strasbourg has a cathedral that is the most foreboding thing you can imagine. It is Roman Catholic, but Gothic in the extreme. I just picture all the tortures that must have gone on there. It looks like the headquarters for the Inquisition. In reality, it may not be that bad. It actually was the world’s tallest building for over 200 years, all the way until 1874! But it looks like something right out of Lord of the Rings, and I’m talking about the Orc side. Definitely worth seeing…and then moving on.











Strasbourg is also home to “Petite-France”, which is kind of funny since it’s in France already. But it’s an old quarter of the city with classic French architecture, and a mind-boggling number of French-cuisine restaurants. I’m not kidding, I looked up Strasbourg on Yelp and got over 2000 hits. How do you choose? We wandered the streets and browsed the shops, and then stopped for lunch at a little restaurant on a canal with outdoor seating, pergolas overhead, and ivy climbing the chateaux walls. They had a prix fixe meal, so we said, “Oui”. And it was the best meal of our trip. I had this beef in a red wine sauce…words could never do it justice. We spent two and a half hours there through multiple courses, just like good little Europeans.

The final leg of our journey was to finish shopping in Strasbourg, and then head back up the road into Germany and on to Frankfurt. We’re staying a little non-descript airport hotel to make it easy to jump off in the morning. It’s gonna be a long trip home (flying through Chicago). But as wonderful as this trip has been, we’re ready to be home again. The appeal of our own house, our own bed, our own stuff, our own routine, all are calling us. We’ve learned a lot on this trip, and we definitely plan to return, but I feel satisfied for now.

Day 7 - Basel

Lest you think all we did is take scenery shots, here is a sampling of personal pictures from the trip...

Day 6 - Munster

Driving update: I still haven’t managed to break my land-speed record (135mph). I made it up to 125mph in Germany, and I get the feeling the car might have a little more left in it if I could get enough clear runway. At that speed you eat up the roadway extremely quickly, and inevitably there is a curve or a car that requires you to let up a bit. France puts a cap at a stately 80mph, so no chances there. But I’ll have one final chance in Germany on Monday, and it’s the straight and wide A-5, so I’m still holding out hope.

We started the day with another wonderful breakfast, this time with the welcome addition of French croissants and baguette. Then we did a little more browsing through Riquewihr, and Nicole found a hand-made casserole dish that she was extremely excited about. We haven’t figured out how we’re going to get it back home yet, but it’s the kind of thing that could be an heirloom someday.

We reluctantly said goodbye to Riquewihr, but continued our journey through the countryside. The wine merchant we had seen told us that Riesling goes well with the local cheese, Munster, which comes from a town just 15 miles away. That coincidently is Dori’s favorite cheese, so we had to go see it for ourselves. Vineyards gave way to pastures, and soon the smells of cows and cheese were in the air. Munster is the largest town in a cluster of villages along the valley floor that is more suitable for cows than vines. The traditional Munster cheese is soft and pungent, somewhat similar to a firm and more odorous Brie. The town itself is a little more working-class than some of the fancier wine towns, but it is still picturesque. And since this is Saturday, there was a farmer’s market going on in the town square. We sampled cheeses and sausages and pastries, and bought pretty much everything we tried, since it was all amazing. The French know their food.

In previous stores in this area we kept seeing little trinkets and collectables with cranes on them. We figured it must be some sort of local symbol. In Munster we found out why. There were nests on all the rooftops, sometimes as many as 8 cranes on one building. We saw them swooping overhead, often settling right near the chimneys. I’m not sure if there’s a difference between cranes and storks (they look the same to me), but it was pretty easy to see how the stork/baby fairytale could have come to be.

Next it was on to Basel in Switzerland, a different country, but only an hour away. We had intended to make some stops along the way and not arrive to Bryan and Andrea’s until evening, but that stretch is actually kind of empty and we didn’t see anywhere to stop, so we found ourselves there in the early afternoon. We’ll be touring the area more tomorrow, but let me say this. The Swiss love their bicycles! We passed a large office building in downtown Basel that had at least 500 bikes in front of it. It was astounding, almost a little freakish. But Bryan and Andrea live in the outskirts in a town called Liestal. Their apartment is directly above a restaurant, and they live right next to the main walkplatz. It’s a really great spot.

We finished the day with an amazing rooftop meal provided by Andrea. It was a raclette party, which is sort of like fondue except you can also grill your ingredients before mixing them with the melted cheese. The sun was still warm, and we sat up there through dinner and dessert, telling stories and catching up.






I have been struggling with extremely slow upload speeds at the previous hotels we’ve been at, so I’ve been very limited in the number of pictures I could upload. Now that we’re at a real home, it’s much easier, so I’m throwing in an extra one from last night. Enjoy!

Day 5 - Riquewihr

No disrespect to Germany, but I think we hit a new high today in France. We had to say goodbye to Ramstein and move on with our European adventure, and it turned out that we found a storybook ending.

Our first stop was just before leaving Germany in a small town called Homburg. There is a typical castle ruin on the hill, but underneath are 12 stories of excavated caves. These were dug between the 11th and 17th Centuries. And then during WW-II they were expanded into a barracks to house up to 5,000 people during air raids. This has always been one of my favorite German sites to see, so I thought it would be fun to show Nicole. And it was still pretty cool, but as with many of my experiences in Ramstein, things have changed a lot! Now they’ve built a hotel over the top of it, you have to wear hardhats and be given a tour, and there are cement and metal bracings everywhere, and they’ve significantly shortened the extent of the caves you can see. Most disappointing was that they closed most of the underground barracks, and we were no longer able to see the cool spot where 12 stories extend in a shaft above you. This certainly is a unique site, just not quite a cool as before.

So on to France and wine country. Riquewihr (pronounced RICK-veer) may not be a household name in the US, but it should be. It is a medieval walled city, nestled in the heart of the Alsace region. In particular, the specialties here are Riesling and Gewertseminer wines. There are 25 wineries that call Riquewihr home, and they grow wine on literally every flat surface surrounding the towns. It’s not just here and there on a particular wine estate. The whole place is a vineyard! And this town is very old. The walls and gate, which are still standing today, were originally built in 1291. We bought wine from a winery that was started in 1572.

It was awesome to hear the gasps of delight from the girls as we pulled up to the town, as we walked up to the hotel, as we strolled into the main street. This place is right out of a fairytale, and you honestly wouldn’t believe there was a real place like it if you didn’t see it with your own eyes. The cars park outside the town, and inside is just pedestrian traffic. So it has a feel similar to Venice, where things are quieter and closer together. And the architecture is just amazing, one colorful Tudor-style house after another, all enclosed within an ancient wall. Our hotel has a series of narrow staircases and balconies to cross to reach our room, which sits up in the peak of the roof and has a bed up in a loft.

We explored the shops and did some wine tasting in one of the cellars. Dori kept remarking how much it reminded her of her home back in Iowa, and of the Pennsylvania Dutch. That’s kind of a surprising idea, but it actually makes sense, as this is a region all about farming: wine and dairy. The recipes and décor are all homestyle. It’s now becoming clear to her how their French heritage was more than just a coincidence. This place is far removed from the haute-mode of Paris, and Dori feels right at home.











Hava has been getting exposed to all kind of exotic foods lately. She still doesn’t eat solids, but she’ll go for just about anything with a soft texture. Tonight we found out she loves Quiche Lorraine. I had been excited to get to have authentic French cooking. We ate in a typical Alsacian restaurant off of the prix fixe menu. It was multiple courses of quiches and casseroles and tarts. And as to be expected, whether the name of the dish sounded appetizing or not, the actual product was uniformly scrumptious.

Day 4 – Trier

The weather has been absolutely gorgeous here. It was in the low 70’s today, sunny and clear. Everything is an extremely rich green, and trees are in full bloom.

Our main destination for today was Trier, a medium-sized city a little northwest of us. It is considered to be the oldest city in Germany, dating back to 2000 BC. It was also a major Roman colony, nicknamed “Second Rome”. Much of the original Roman walls are still standing, and a highlight is the Porta Nigra, the original Roman gate and fortress. It’s just amazing to think that it is almost 2,000 years old and it is still standing. And it’s actually quite solid and foreboding. It sits right at the start of the Trier walkplatz and provides a great view of the town center. The walkplatz is full of shops, cafes, department stores, and street performers. Munching a lemon gelato while walking in the sun through ancient and modern buildings coexisting…it can’t be beat!

A little further is the largest hall still standing from antiquity. It is the Emperor Constantine;s Throne Room, and it was build in 310 AD. Constantine himself was in that building with those same bricks. It’s just hard to fathom. I don’t think Trier has received its full due for the role it played in history, nor for the wonderful charm it still holds today.






Right next door is a more modern palace that dates back to the 17th Century, with a beautiful garden terrace in front. Marble statues line the walk, intricate hedges divide it. The magnolia trees are in full bloom, and were raining down leaves almost like snow. Nicole sat and nursed Hava under one, and then I let Hava kick her feet in the fountain. Did I mention this place is idyllic?





Our last stop of the day was just a little ways away in Luxemburg. We visited the American Military Cemetery there. It is a WW-II memorial where thousands of US soldiers who died in the Battle of the Bulge are buried, including Gen. George S. Patton himself. It’s a somber but beautiful and peaceful place, and I’m always heartened by the way we’ve commemorated it. There is an inscription from Eisenhower that reads: “All who shall hereafter live in freedom will be here reminded that to these men and their comrades we owe a debt to be paid with grateful remembrance of their sacrifice and with the high resolve that the cause for which they died shall live eternally."

Tomorrow we head to France.

PS – This is the hospital in Kusel where my sweet little Gracie first came into the world.











PPS – And this is the home we brought her back to. The second floor was ours for the first two years I lived in Germany back in the early 90’s.

Day 3 – Hardenburg

I got to have a great date-night with Nicole tonight, so this is going to be a short post. Dori watched Hava for us and Nicole and I went out to the Alt Landstuhl, one of the nicer German restaurants in this area. We shared the chateaubriand, the house specialty, and a good bottle of French Bordeaux. It was great to have some alone time, and it was a phenomenal meal!

The first of today’s major attractions was Ramstein Air Base. I was very excited to see all of my old haunts and relive my 7 years there. I had originally planned to drive us around and tour at our leisure, but security is extra tight right now, so we could only come on the base as someone’s guest in their vehicle. But I have a friend who still lives there and he agreed to show us around. And it’s good I wasn’t the one giving the tour, because EVERYTHING is different! I didn’t even recognize it. There are new buildings and roads everywhere. The home I used to live in is gone, as are many of the buildings I worked in. In their place are new housing, huge new air terminals, a massive NATO building, the biggest BX in the world, etc. It was bittersweet to tell the truth. It no longer felt like home. It’s more “militarized” now. I didn’t have access to the places I used to. Basically, my life has moved on, and so has the base. I think it’s going to take some time to process. I was mostly prevented from taking interesting pictures, but I did manage to snap this one of a huge chunk of the original Berlin Wall.

Our other big attraction was more satisfying. We visited the Hardenburg castle ruins near Bad Durkheim. In my opinion, these are the best ruins in Germany, even though they are practically unknown. There are a few other castles that have been restored and show more of how they were originally, but Hardenburg lets you roam and climb all over it, and it is massive. And tall, and ancient. And to get there you drive through the gorgeous German wine region countryside. It was a bit of hike to the top, but I think the girls really enjoyed it.











We stopped first at a German supermarket and got fresh rolls and meats and cheeses and fruit, and then we had a picnic up among the ruins. A true German outing!

Day 2 – Heidelberg/Ramstein

We made it through the night, the long, jet-lagged night. Actually, we did pretty well. Hava had a period at 3:30am where she thought it was the middle of the day, but we all got at least 6 or 7 good hours of sleep, if not all at once. And what we had to look forward to was an excellent German breakfast. The rolls, the yogurt with fruit and granola, the meats and cheeses, the coffee, the nutella, the soft-boiled egg, they had it all. I dreamed about it at night, and awoke to a fulfilled reality.

Next it was on to the castle, one of the most famous in Germany. It’s mostly a ruin, but has some restored interior buildings. It was started in the 15th century, and was a royal center during the 16th and 17th centuries, and then destroyed by the French in the 18th century. Plus Mark Twain went there in the 19th century, and Jesse Schrater in the 20th and 21st. I mostly love just exploring these things on my own, but we did take a small one-hour tour that provided a lot of background information on all the people who lived there (yawn). I’m most impressed by the big chunk of one of the turrets that was blown clean off.

They also have what is arguably the largest wine cask in the world. It’s completely intact, and saying it’s massive is an understatement. However, Mark Twain pretty much said it best: “It is a wine-cask as big as a cottage, and some traditions say it holds eighteen thousand bottles, and other traditions say it holds eighteen hundred million barrels. I think it likely that one of these statements is a mistake, and the other is a lie. However, the mere matter of capacity is a thing of no sort of consequence, since the cask is empty, and indeed has always been empty, history says. An empty cask the size of a cathedral could excite but little emotion in me.” Yep.

Still, I love Heidelberg. It is beautiful, it is both quaint and modern, it is full of students, and it is popular with both Germans and foreigners alike. We did quite a bit of shopping, including picking up some stuff from the all-year Christmas market. We also had AMAZING doner kebaps and curry fries, not to be missed. And then it was on to Ramstein, just a short one-hour drive away. We found it easy enough, since that was my neck of the woods, but there were several new traffic circles, a whole new road, and other changes that kept me guessing a bit until I got my bearings. Our hotel is nice, and it’s funny to be here since I used to drive past if just about every day for 7 years, but have never stayed here before. We had a little snack of cappuccinos and crepes in the village, and then later had dinner at my old favorite, the Mexican Cantina. The memories are flooding back! And tomorrow we visit the base.

Little ways I’m reminded I’m back in Germany:
-- Church bells ringing the time in the town square
-- Extremely modern furniture in very old rooms
-- Door handles instead of knobs
-- Spray wand in all the showers
-- Separate twin mattresses and blankets in a “king” bed
-- Kinder eggs
-- Anything less that 100mph feels slow, and yet nice Audis still come screaming up behind you wanting to pass
-- San Bennedetto peach iced tea
-- Everyone still smokes
-- Exterior doors open in instead of out (if they didn’t, they’d swing out into traffic since houses are so close to the street)
-- The sound of driving on cobbles
-- Windows that swing wide open or tilt open at the top
-- Hofferflocken, nutella, brotchen for breakfast
-- Curry fries
-- Chio chips (delectable thin potato chips with lots of paprika on them)