Europe Trip Recap – The Rhine River Valley in Germany
If you’ve been following along, Hubby and I spent a couple nights in The Netherlands, followed by 4 nights in Belgium. Up next on our European vacation was Germany. We took a high speed train to Cologne. Upon exiting the Cologne train station, we were immediately impressed by the massive cathedral (Dom). We decided to do the highly recommended Dom Tour at 2:30pm so we had a few hours to kill.
We grabbed our first meal in Germany at a beer house. We enjoyed sitting outside in the nice weather, beer, and pork for lunch. After that we walked around Cologne before the tour. During the tour, they were testing the organs which was quite the experience to hear! The tour of the cathedral was amazing. Very informative and worth the 7 Euro price tag. After the tour, we picked up our rental car and headed off to St Goar. I was pretty tired, so I snoozed while Hubby drove. I’m glad I did because Hubby said he was enjoying the fact that there wasn’t a speed limit on the Autobahn… I don’t even want to know how fast he was driving…
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| Inside the Dom in Cologne |
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| My first meal in Germany – Pork and Beans! (with a beer, obviously) |
Our hotel in St Goar was right on the Rhine River. We enjoyed walking along the river for a while before grabbing dinner at the restaurant in our hotel. We sat outside and enjoyed a couple beers before doing some quick laundry in our room then heading to bed.
We woke up the next day to a cloudy, grey day. We decided to hike to the Reinsfeld Castle. The castle was in complete ruins and was a lot of fun to explore and search through. After the ruined castle, we hit up a grocery store to grab a picnic lunch. We feasted on salami, Gouda, apple, and freshly baked bread at the park while doing some barge watching along the river.
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| Driving through the German countryside to St Goar |
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| Ruins of the Reinsfeld Castle in St Goar |
Next we hopped on to a boat for a leasurely cruise to Bacharach. Once we got there, we followed the Rick Steves walking tour around Bacharach. After the walk, we hiked to the castle in Bacharach to enjoy a beer with a great view. The vineyards along the steep countryside were amazing. Next we enjoyed a wine tasting before heading to dinner. Hubby had one of our favorite meals of the trip that night – Sauerbraten – which was pork with a braised red cabbage and potato dumplings.
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| The castle turned Youth Hostel in Bacharach |
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| Vineyards on the mountainside in Bacharach |
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| View from the hike in Bacharach |
For our last day in St Goar, we slept in and did some shopping in the morning. Hubby bought an umbrella because it was raining. He ended up using that umbrella almost every day the rest of the trip. And then he forgot it in the airplane when we landed in Boston!
We drove to Burg Eltz, which is an operating castle that Rick Steves says is one of his favorites. It was cold and rainy that day but we still opted for the 45 minute hike through the mountains to the castle. Once we got there, we did the 45 minute tour. We were both underwhelmed with this castle. It was interesting to see, but our tour guide was less than enthused to be there, which just put a damper on the day. The cold rainy weather didn’t help either. We had lunch at the castle before heading back to our 45 minute hike through the mountains to get to the car. We laid low that evening and I skyped with my family to say hi.
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| Walking up to Burg Eltz |
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| Part of the drive to Burg Eltz. It was hilly and curvy to say the least. |
For our last day in the Germany countryside, we drove to Rothenburg. We did the Rick Steves walking tour again, making a stop at the Crime and Punishment Museum. It was a little scatterbrained and overwhelming, but worth a stop. When we came upon the main square, the sun came out, so we grabbed a beer.
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| The town of Rothenburg |
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| Rothenburg |
Next we went to the Kathe Wohlfahrt Christmas shop. For those of you who don’t know me in real life, I love Christmas. Especially ornaments. This shop was like heaven to me. You couldn’t take pictures inside which made me sad. We capped off the evening with the highly recommended Night Watchman Tour. It was a fun, informative, and entertaining way to spend the night.
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| Entrance to Rothenburg |
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| Doorway in Rothenburg |
Rothenburg was such a cute little town and we really enjoyed our time there. We grabbed the majority of the souvenirs for our family in Rothenburg. We were shocked at how quickly the entire town shut down. When we got back from the Night Watchman Tour, almost everything was closed. After our one night in Rothenburg, we hit the road to head to Munich for the final leg of our trip. Watch for that recap soon.
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| Enjoying a beer in Rothenburg |
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| Night Watchman Tour in Rothenburg |
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| Entrance to Rothenburg |
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
Wow, that sounds like an incredible trip! I really hope to make my way over there someday. So nice of Hershey to do all that!
Wow, this looks like a fantastic trip! I went to Hershey World once when I was small and all I remember were the rides! 🙂
That chocolate tour sounds really fun! I went on a Callier facotry tour in Switzerland. It was pretty lame and not as high tech(they did have a tasting room though).
How can I get in on this action next time?! How fun!! I think I would go crazy with that much chocolate.
Hershey is a fun place to go, even as an adult. I go every 6 months with 2 friends of mine and we spend a day at the Chocolate Spa at Hotel Hershey (hopefully you had a chance to go – it’s AMAZING). The Hotel Hershey is gorgeous and is even better in the spring/summer, when the gardens behind the hotel are in bloom. And I love shopping at Chocolate World for all of the baking items that are so hard to find elsewhere! Can’t wait to hear about the rest of your trip.
Wow! Totally jealous of that trip! And I am so going on a mini pb cup search soon – my kitchen needs them 🙂
I live about an hour from there and we were just there on New Year’s Eve. Looks like you had an amazing time. Don’t you just love how it smells like chocolate everywhere?!?!?!? I have never stayed at the hotel hershey because we live so close, but maybe hubby and i need to do a night away!!! can’t wait to see the rest of your trip!!!
Chocolate bubble bath?! nice! What a great experience for you. I went on a family road trip here (and to Reading, PA – Amish Country!) when I was a kid. I had so much fun!!!
how neat you got to make your own candy bar!! awesome choices 🙂
the shaws by me has cinnamon chips now, if you need any more 😉
Wow, what a trip! I’m somewhere between insanely jealous and ravenously hungry now, haha. Thanks for sharing! It looks like you had a lot of fun. I’m so glad I found your blog. Looking forward to exploring your recipes and seeing what’s next! – Georgia
I love Hershey:-) It’s always been one of my favorite places. It sounds like you got the royal treatment, jealous!
i have to say, i never thought of visiting hershey…but it sounds like you fun, and i am a sucker for any “food factory” tour. it was so nice of them to show you ladies such a good time!!
Looks like you had a ton of fun! And now I want to take a chocolate bubble bath too
Your chocolate bar looks amazing! And the store looks pretty cool too. I’d love to go to Hershey at some point.
How cool! I love the make your own candy bar part and I agree with you, I would have wanted lots of salty pretzels in there! So fun!
Great Post and we had a fabulous time! It was wonderful meeting you and your Blog is fabulous!
Leslie
Leslie Loves Veggies
Talk about a delicious trip! You have totally made me want to go! I love the make-your-own. I definitely would be a toffee and dark chocolate person!
What a cool trip! Looks like you had fun. Can’t wait to hear about the rest of it!
This sounds absolutely fabulous. You might have to go into business with that candy bar. I was ready to buy one after the description… with more pretzels please. rom the accommodations to the shopping to that chocolate bath… wow!
How fun! I want some mini Reese’s cups to bake with!