Day 3: Swabengarten, Rhine Falls and Autobaun

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Day 3

Leinfelden, Germany

When we rented the car yesterday Mandy joked with the attendant and said, ‘we have to walk to the car? You aren’t going to bring it to us?’ She laughed at her and said, ‘This isn’t the US, honey, this is Germany the home on no service.’ Ha! Yep, that pretty much sums up our experience with Germans so far.

I think Jason (Lori’s husband) explained it well when he told us that Germans think they are being polite by leaving you alone.

We got to Lori’s neighborhood and it is so cute. I find it a little weird that there are shutters on the outside of the house. After being in Lori’s house I can assume it’s because of the way the windows all tilt out. The shutters just remind me of hurricane shutters.

I thought since there was an Army post nearby there would be lots of Americans around but they actually live in a very German neighborhood.

Their apartment is on the third story and overlooks the neighborhood. We sat on her front balcony and ate and drank and just couldn’t get over the fact that we were all together and in GERMANY!

Swabengarten

Lori and Jason wanted to take us to one of their favorite beer gardens. For Tallahassee folks it is like Proof Brewing patio times 500.

The ‘garden’ is a gravel picnic area with oversized picnic tables everywhere. They have a little sand area with beach chairs that I thought was kind of funny. They also have a playground for the kiddos.

Everything was a la carte so you walk up to the counter and order your beer and food and then pay at the cashier when you walk out back into the garden.

Jason and Lori had to explain the menu because none of it was in English. I think we’ve seen enough German the last couple of days so we are getting the jist of some things.

I wasn’t feeling beer. Truthfully I’m a Bud Light kind of girl and I haven’t found the one I like yet. I’ll let you know when I find something I like. We decided on a white wine. There was a gentleman that helped us choose the wine. After he helped us he looked at me and said, ‘please.’ I looked at him because I felt a little scolded like when the kids ask me for something and they didn’t say please. I asked Jason and he just laughed because he knew the guy probably didn’t know English and got his please and thank you backwards. Maybe you had to be there but it was pretty funny.

So us Americans sat in the beer garden eating, drinking, probably making too much noise and laughing a lot. Now being in Germany is starting to feel real.

Autobahn to Switzerland

We all slept really really well and woke up adjusted to German time.

Lori took us by the bakery on the way to Rhine Falls. They have a wide assortment of pasties and Diet Coke. I love Diet Coke!

We had to stop at a rest area on the way because we needed to get a sticker (vignette) so we could pass into Switzerland. It’s kind of like a SunPass sticker.

Now this Rest Area had everything anyone ever wanted. It even had a Hotel. A hotel at a rest area. I mean Germany has taken resting to a different level.

They had a full restaurant, a playground for the kids and an overlook area with binocular stations that illustrated the terrain so you knew which landmarks were in the distance.

Back on the road to Switzerland.

Rhine Falls

When we passed over into Switzerland and it was totally uneventful. We totally thought maybe the car would be stopped and maybe our ids checked. Nope, nothing. We did see them checking someone’s car but they did not care about us. Total let down. Anyway, onward.

Rhine Falls is the largest waterfall in Europe. I perspective to Niagara Falls I would say it is probably a fourth of the size. It is a spectacular sight to see. You can hear the power of the water rushing over the ledge in the parking lot.

We start walking towards the falls and you can feel the air get a little cooler from the falls. Kind is a neat feeling.

As you approach the falls area you see food vendors and souvenir shops. You can tell when it is high season the Falls are filled with tourist. Fortunately for us it is obviously off-season. We walked up to the ticket booth at 1:10pm and our boat ride time was at 1:30pm. I’m thinking in the summer you would have to get there pretty early in the morning to get a decent time.

The tickets we bought were for the Observation Rock and a ride over to the Laufen Castle.

We head down to the boat and board it. On our boat there were only us five and three other people. The Observation Rock is a large rock that is in the smack dab in the middle of the falls. I’ve seen YouTube videos about the Observation Deck and it was so packed that it was a single filed line and you shuffle along up and down.

It was really cool to kind of have the place to ourselves. We took our time going up the crazy steep stairs. We could stop and take pictures and had time to walk around the deck at the top.

I will say that I don’t think Switzerland has the same safety standards that the US might. Some of the railings we a little sketchy and I did not stay on the top deck too long. First I don’t like heights and if a good gust of wind came we were goners.

On our way back on the boat to the visitors center the boat captain took us into the falls so we all got sprayed by the mist. It was pretty funny and cute.

Before we took the boat to the Laufen Castle we stopped by the cafe and had lunch. Couple of funny things about Germany/Switzerland that we’ve found out is they don’t serve plastic ware. They provide actual silverware. Kim thought it was funny that the mustard packets are actually dijion mustard and they charge you 50 cents extra for every ketchup packet. Kirby would not make it here. I’d have to carry ketchup bottle in my backpack for him.

The park still wasn’t packed so we were able to find a nice table looking towards the falls. We just took our time eating and enjoying each other’s company.

Laufen Castle

We boarded the second boat and again it was just us and and maybe a couple of other people. Our ticket only included the boat ride over to Laufen Castle but it did not include the tour and the walkway alongside the long walkway that follows the falls.

We looked around the gift shop and then bought our tickets.

We head over to tour the inside of the castle. I’d love to tell you some history about the castle but they do not have a book about the history of the castle or the falls. When they tell me this I think that is kinda of weird.

Well, we walk into the tour of the inside of the castle and what a disappointment. I’ve been to actual castles and this is not a castle. If it is then someone needs to share the knowledge. I did not see anything that would date back 1,000 years.

We scoot along the long winding walkway that follows along the falls. It was nice and shaded and you got a nice up close view of the falls.

At this point we had seen water so we didn’t stop for too many pictures. It was getting late in the afternoon so we got the next boat back to the visitors center. We bought a few souvenirs and decided to head out to the Munot Fort.

Munot Fort

Funny story about the Munot Fort, we drove around for about 45 minutes (yes, using the GPS) and we never found the damn thing. So, I’d love to tell you about it but I got nothing.

The only thing is semi-know is from a cashier at the Rhine Falls gift shop.

She told me, you know the yellow Switzerland flag (uh, no but go on), we still use that flag and I’ll tell you why.

She said one time the fortress was in a stand off. This invasion had lasted for sometime so both sides were running low on supplies mainly food. The solders that were guarding Muran had a single Ram left. They could keep it and eat it but they decided to release the Ram for the invaders to see. Needless to say, the invaders thought if they have a Ram to release then they must have enough provisions to survive. So they won the invasion and now they celebrate the Ram.

Who knows if this is true because we could never find the stupid fortress. On the upside we visited a bunch of neighborhoods and drove down lots of streets we probably weren’t legally allowed to drive on.

We gave up and head back to Stuttgart.

The Evening

As Lori clocked 165 kph (102 mph) we made it home in record time. Since we gained a little time we decided to stop by Edeka. That is a grocery store. Holy moly Cheryl and I were like kids in a candy store. I’m pretty sure we are going to need to buy a suitcase to bring these fun foods home. Forget the wine tasting we are going to have a German food tasting when I get back ladies!!

We arrived at Lori’s apartment and her super awesome husband had ribs, potatoes and sausage waiting for us.

We had a nice evening again on the porch and decided on a game plan for tomorrow.

Tomorrow we buy Birkenstocks, visit a chocolate factory, visit a castle, eat lunch at some hobbit looking restaurant and visit downtown Stuttgart.

Later,
O.

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