Traveling Diaries: Germany

Put on your Hawaiian shirt and sunglasses and together let’s be tacky tourists in GERMANY!!! We traveled from Amsterdam to Rhine Valley and seriously guys, Rhine Valley is STUN-ING!! As we were driving it felt like every five minutes there was a castle to take a picture of. The backdrop was beautiful with lush green trees, clear river water and of course the amazing architecture. Our bus had to go to the very top of a mountain in order to drive through a town to get to our hotel. It was quite the complicated process. A part of the freeway was closed I recall, so we had to go a different way. As we were coming through the town, our bus was so big that we were not sure if we could make it. But the driver did it, and we all cheered! We had an awesome drivers and tour guide! We didn’t spend a lot of time in the Valley, although I wish we could have. It’s a place you can’t miss when visiting Germany, it’s also definitely a city on my list of “Visit again”! The Rhine River is one of most important waterways in Europe. It stretches 1,320km from Switzerland all the way to the Netherlands and black sea. There are a bunch of day trips you can take to go hiking, biking, and river excursions. The top thing I would do if I went back there is visit as many castles and cathedrals as possible. I am a complete architecture and history nut, I love experiencing it firsthand. If you’re into cathedral’s check out the 11th-century Cathedral of St. Peter in Worms. It’s one of the oldest towns in Germany. Mannheim is famous for its medieval architecture, for example Old Town Hall and the Lower Parish Church.

To find day trips to Rhine Valley, check out: http://www.viator.com/Rhine-River/d767-ttd

  

  The next day was spent driving from Rhine Valley and visiting the lovely city of Munich. Munich is famous for the largest folk fair in the world called Oktoberfest. Germany is very proud of their language, In Munich we found that people knew English but not a whole lot. We spent our time walking around trying to find the Rathaus-Glockenspiel which is a belltower in the heart of Munich that re-enacts events from history. We kept asking where it was and everyone said “Marienplatz”, and being tourists we had no idea what that was. It took us a while to find! The shops are great; we visited H&M and Karl Lagerfeld. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to visit any museums but we did see the Museum district which consist of the Alte Pinakothek, the Neue Pinakothek, and the Pinakothek der Moderne. You know I’m a foodie, and the food was excellent! Start with schnitzel or pork and dumplings called Knödel. Weißwurst is also very popular which is white sausage. I tried the red sausage; it’s the spicy version and was amazing. Finish off your Bavarian meal with a pretzel and sweet mustard. Yummy, I’m getting hungry just thinking about it! Have you ever been to Rhine Valley or Munich? Or maybe you’re from Germany? Let me know below what your favourite things to do in Germany?!