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Lindt balls
YUUMMM!! Jealous Dad? Well you shouldn't be cause we didn't actually get to taste these ones :(So we are currently in the car driving from Heidelburg to the Black Forest, so just an update on the last few days in Germany.
Our first stop in Germany was Cologne, or Koln as its said here. We arrived there at 2am in the morning, after the horrid fridge day we just wanted to get to Germany so we drove late at night after dinner and a rest.
We had 1 full day in Cologne, first stop was the Schokoladen Museum (aka Lindt city yummm!!) The museum part was kind of boring but the Lindt factory part was great! Not enough taste testing if you ask me, but the smell of the Lindt chocolate and watching the lindt balls/truffles being made was agony - pure chocoholic nightmare! Got some pics for you too Dad - i know how you would’ve killed to be there with the Lindt balls too! Hehe. So next we visited Koln Dom (their massive gothic cathedral - it is amazing, the size and detail of this cathedral is unbelievable). Koln Dom (no you sickos not Condom, Koln Dom!!) also contains the shrine of the three magi (which is apparently the bones of the three wise
Lindt bunnies
The gold bunny seat in the Lindt factory men).
After this we went across Hohenzollernbrucke bridge which has lovely views over the city and a tradition that appears only quiet recent - they have padlocks all over the bridge that people put on there with little messages and dates of events - weird but interesting! Once over the bridge we went up Koln Triangle (and stupidly paid to get in at a machine when we could’ve easily just walked in and not paid - we’re still not in proper backpacker mode clearly!) which gives you a birds eye view over the whole city.
Lastly in Koln we had their local beer “Kolsch” and their local snack a “halver haln” which translates to half a chicken without the feathers. Go figure when the dish is a slab of gouda cheese, bread, salad, gherkin and mustard - where’s the chicken??
We left Koln and drove to the Rhine River/Valley. We arrived in Boppard, which is right on the Rhine River and took a little train journey through the mountains - meant to be the best in Germany....hmmm not sure on that one - maybe they really like trees or something! Afterwards we wandered through the quaint little
Giant lindt ball
Vince's dream come true town and had a glass each of Bopparda Hamm (the local wine - which was really nice, well mine was as Vince spilt his entire glass everywhere!) and had some Currywurst. We then continued down the Rhine River to Rheinefels. Rheinefels Castle is lovely and just what you imagine when you think of the Rhine. We climbed up a very steep mountain (well poor Jonesy climbed it actually) to Rheinefels castle. I would definitely recommend checking this castle out - but note, take torches!! There are so many tunnels and cave parts of the castle that are really scary to walk through as you can barely see anything!
From there we went to Loreley which is a cliff that is extremely steep and overlooks the Rhine. It is the thinnest and used to be the most dangerous part of the river. Many ships used to get grounded there and would crash into the cliff to their doom! Really nice views up there and funny little tales to listen to about the myths of Loreley. So back down again and across the Rhine on a ferry and off to Bingen for a night of awesome free camping right next to
Koln Dom
View outside the Dom the Rhine River - money can’t buy those views!
The next day was our Wine Trail adventure....maybe! It was a lovely sunny day and perfect for wine tasting. We searched high and wide for an ENGLISH guided tour of the region, but nothing, nothing at all. Even after checking in with travel expert Hayley in London, there was nothing to be found. So we set off to tour on our own. After being little chickens and not going into any wineries cause they couldn’t speak English, we finally went into a winery and me using my good German “Sprechen Sie Englisch” found someone who spoke English. We tried several wines and started to feel a bit weird cause we were just drinking all their wine for free, so we bought 4 bottles and headed off. We felt like cheap skates and must’ve looked like idiots cause everyone else was buying them by the caseload and spending hundreds of euros (but 4 is all we could fit in the van!).
We then headed out into the vineyards for some authentic wine tasting of our own ahahha! We found a 5 star spot right on top of the mountain in
Koln Dom
See what i mean - it is huge! the vineyard (yep poor Jonesy had to struggle up the steep dirt road again). Beautiful views, beautiful sun, fantastic wine, and a platter fit for kings with cheese, meats, fruit and bickies! Didn’t feel like backpackers then thats for sure. So after a lovely evening of drinking, singing and dancing in the vineyards we hit the hay - and what a spot to camp for free too - lucky the farmer didn’t find us 😊
It was a great night until we heard someone walk past the car at like 11pm. So Vince thought he would be funny and he started telling horror stories about us being out in the vineyards with crazy psychos under the car with farmer sithes (you know the ones out of scream??) going to cut our Achilles as we get out to go for a wee! Thanks honey, just what i needed for a great night sleep!
Anyhow next day we headed out of the wine trail to Heidelberg, a really cute little town just south of the wine trail. We explored the old castle up an even steeper hill that we had to walk this time (yep another castle!), then walked through
Stained glass window
A pretty stained glass window in the Dom their little cobbled streets with sweets shops, markets, and lots of touristy german shops. Just on dusk we climbed the other side of the town - the Philosophers pathway - apparently back in the day all the artists, poets, authors etc of the region would climb up here for inspiration. Anyway it was a beautiful view of Heidelberg.
We then headed down for dinner in a little German restaurant. Had some awesome authentic german food (saukerkraut, weiner, crispy pork strips, breaded pork, country potatos and a little german salad) and then struggled to ride home with our full fat bellies of food. We got home hot and sweaty ready for bed and a shower - oh yeah forgot to mention this was our 6th night in a row of free camping and we were in the middle of nowhere the night before so we hadn’t showered since our night next to the Rhine River, that makes 2 days without a shower ewwwwwwwwww! Trust me i was not happy jan but what can you do when you are in the middle of nowhere? Price you have to pay for the views i guess. Luckily for us today on our way
Padlock bridge
The weird tradition of putting locks on the bridge to the Black Forest we could stop off the highway at a great roadside stop for showers. They were lovely too, better than a hotel these ones! Hehehe
So almost at the Black Forest now, i’m dying to see these damn Cuckoo clocks that are meant to be the size of houses! Can’t wait will update you soon.
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Phoebe
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U GUYS LOOK LIKE U R HAVN THE ABSOLUTE TIME OF UR LIVES!!! AGHHHH IT MAKES ME SOOO HAPPY TO KNW U BOTH R TOO!!! TAKE CARE BOTH OF U!!! X