A Relaxing Day in Boppard

Today was a much needed relaxing day. We stayed in Boppard -- no driving and not too much walking. We slept in a bit, ate breakfast downstairs, then took our time getting ready before heading out to enjoy the wine festival.

We did a little souvenir shopping on the town square, ate crepes, enjoyed a couple of glasses of local wine and watched the bands play -- bands of the more traditional nature, more marching band than contemporary music groups. It was very lively and there were a number of large tourist groups in town today -- including one Japanese group and one English-speaking group that included a number of older Americans.

Then, we took a mid-afternoon nap.

Moon rising over the Rhine.

And woke up to stroll along the Rhine and mill about town some more before buying a bottle of wine, two bratwursts in buns and coming back to our room to watch the evening fireworks.

The market square was incredibly crowded tonight and folks began snagging their spot along the Rhine more than an hour before fireworks were scheduled to start, so we considered ourselves very fortunate to have a prime seat on our balcony.



Couldn't ask for a better seat for the fireworks.



We were directly across from the fireworks on the opposite side of the river. We had our wine and food, a warm blankie and all the conveniences you could ask for. It was a pretty impressive fireworks display. I only captured some of the early fireworks on camera and video. Per usual, they grew in scale and complexity as the show progressed, but I wanted to enjoy the show not be behind the camera lens all night. 



So, that was our very relaxing, do-nothing day. Tomorrow, we hit the road again -- backtracking to Rothenburg ob der Tauber.

Boppard

We drove to Boppard yesterday. It was a 6-7 hour drive from Prague. We arrived at the hotel around 6 p.m., ate dinner at a restaurant a short walk away and went to bed. As we were getting ready for bed, we discovered we left a small gift we had bought in Prague; we're not sure where we left/lost it, but our best guess is that we sat it down when we were trying to pay/validate the parking garage ticket and failed to pick it up when we walked out to our car. We were incredibly disappointed, but at least it was a very inexpensive gift. There are much more valuable or sentimental things we could have left behind.



The view from our balcony in Boppard



Boppard is a cute little town in the wine country, in the Middle Rhine region. Our room overlooks the Rhine River.

The weather is supposed to be sunny and in the high 50s or low 60s all weekend. That's about what it was today. It was rather chilly out tonight, but comfortable during the day.

Lotus Evora S in Wiesbaden

We drove to Wiesbaden today. It was a rather uneventful trip other than walking and seeing another city. The most exciting thing was probably having our 2nd and 3rd Lotus sighting. Scott saw one on the road in the Czech Republic; I missed that one. Then, there was an orange Lotus Evora S at the Wiesbaden City Fest where they had a bunch of new cars from various manufacturers. That was the only Lotus. Scott talked with the guy that was there and sat in the car. The other Lotus we saw was an older yellow Elise. We passed it going the opposite direction on the way back from Wiesbaden.

There's a wine festival going on this weekend. It started today, so we had a glass of Reisling from one of the local vineyards this evening. We'll stick around Boppard tomorrow for the wine festival as well, no more driving--until Sunday at least when we head to Rothenburg.

Day 3 - Walking (of course) around Prague

St. Vitus Cathedral at Prague Castle

Each day, I think, "Wow, I'm so exhausted, but in a good way." That couldn't be any more true than today. Not only did we walk a lot as usual, but we went to the Prague Castle, which is up a rather steep hill. We didn't walk through much of the castle / palace interiors opting instead to walk through the Royal Gardens, which were very pretty. It sure seemed like a quick walk back compared to the trip there -- ah, the beauty of going down hill.  We walked home via the famous Charles Bridge and saw three different couples taking wedding photos.



Scott's semi-dark lager



For lunch, we stopped at a local brewery and restaurant called Il Tri Ruzi (I'm guessing "The Three Roses" based upon the logo). Scott enjoyed their semi-dark lager, and while we enjoyed all the food we ordered, I was particularly impressed with a salad that contained beets and a delicious grilled goat cheese. It was so simple, yet so good. 

Other than that, we didn't do much eventful -- just lots of walking and window shopping, which was a perfect day for us. We took a mid-afternoon nap before heading back out for more walking and window shopping, plus a little actual shopping. Now, my legs are so sore that it hurts to get up. That should make walking back to our car with our luggage in the morning fun.

Tomorrow, we head back to Germany for the remainder of our vacation. Our next stop: the small town of Boppard, on the Rhine River. It's a 6-hour drive, so I'm sure we'll break it up a bit along the way at least to eat a bite and stretch our legs. Boppard will be our hub for a few days while we explore other nearby towns as well. More walking and more eating I'm sure.

Day 2, Nuremberg & Prague

My apple breakfast



Wow, I'm so tired! In a good way, but exhausted nonetheless. I can barely put together sentences -- in English much less any other language although I did break out some pretty fabulous Spanish tonight. More on that later. So, here's a fragmented, bulleted version of our day.

We started the day in Nuremberg. Got up early. Walked around a bit before most stores opened (at 9 or 10 a.m.). Grabbed some breakfast -- a sugar-coated apple. Yum! Explored a few parts of town we didn't see yesterday by foot. Bought a few souvenirs -- including some scrumptuous Elisen gingerbread for ourselves, which of course, we had to "test" right away. Headed back to our hotel. Checked out. Drove to the Documentation Centre Nazi Party Rally Grounds, an incredibly moving, somber and educational accounting of Hitler's rise to power and resulting atrocities. The museum is on the site of unfinished site where the Nazi party rallies took place in Germany.

 

The view of Tyn Cathedral from our room

 

Then, we headed to Prague. It was supposed to be a 3-hour drive to our hotel, but we left Nuremberg a bit later than expected and hit rush hour. Then, our hotel is located in a pedestrian only zone. We passed the parking garage where we intended to park and getting back around amidst heavy traffic (cars & people) and one-way streets took forever. We finally got settled in around 8 p.m.

It was difficult to get up and moving again, but we knew we'd be grumpy if we didn't eat soon, so we went out to explore the city. We're right next door to Tyn Cathedral and one of main squares in the old town where there's an astronomical clock (the 3rd oldest in the world, and the oldest still working). We grabbed a bite to eat -- proscuitto di praga (Prague ham) -- from a street vendor along Wenceslas Square.

Tyn Cathedral from the Square

There, a couple from Mexico City with their grown daughter joined us at our high-boy table, so we chatted for a bit. This is where I got to use my Spanish. They had just arrived today as well.



We walked and walked and walked some more to explore the city. It's such a lovely place. I'm looking forward to a full day tomorrow. I'm sure we'll log a significant number of steps on the pedometer; we've got to balance out all the food we're indulging in.

We've arrived - Germany day 1

It's been an exhausting 24 hours. We left Atlanta -- out of the new international terminal, which opened in mid-May -- Sunday afternoon Atlanta time and arrived in Frankfurt, Germany just before 8 a.m. local time. It was about a 9 1/2 hour flight, which went relatively quickly thanks to free inflight movies and a couple of meals. We tried to sleep a bit, but didn't get as much sleep as we would have liked.

We rented a car at the Frankfurt airport. We had reserved an automatic, but they only had manual's left when we arrived. I hear that's pretty common here  (to not get an automatic even though you've reserved one). We typically take trains between locations when we travel, but with relatively limited time here, we didn't want to be reliant upon train schedules. Anyway, Scott drives manual, so it wasn't a problem. And they drive on the same side of the road as the U.S. and the steering wheel is on the same side, so it was a pretty easy transition. Our car is a 4-door diesel Ford C-Max, which I don't think they have in the U.S. It's a little bigger than the economy size car we reserved since they gave us a manual.

With the car rented, we headed to Nuremberg. It was rainy the first bit of the trip, but cleared up about have way. It was just over a two-hour drive, but you could probably do it in two hours if you aren't driving at rush hour which we were this a.m. We took an autobahn most of the way, with the exception of a scenic detour through a small town and forest area, which were very pretty. The autobahn is a lot like U.S. interstates. Despite the myth that there are no speed limits on the autobahn, there are speed limits in many places and speed limit "recommendations" in others. Most of the time the posted speed limit was 100 or 120/kmh (60-74 mph), but we certainly saw plenty of speed deamons on the road.

Our private balcony at the hotel

We arrived in Nuremberg around noon; checked in; put our luggage in our room; parked our car; then went for a brief walk. We grabbed a bite to eat -- a Nurenberger Mit Sauerkraut (a few, small Nuremberg style sausages with sauerkraut on a hamburger bun size role) -- from a street stand. Yum! Then, we headed back to the hotel for a nap.  After our nap, we walked around the Old Town again. The autumn market (Herbst Markt) is going on here now - September 13-30 - as is the Nuremberg Old Town Festival (Alstadfest) - September 13-24. The market has some foods and handmade items as well as other miscellaneous goods for sale in a series of stalls. The festival is like a scaled down Octoberfest with lots of tables set up under tents around restaurants serving sausages and various German food...and, of course, beer! We ate more Nuremberg style sausages, sauerkraut, potato salad and cole slaw. Scott got a beer and after we walked around and shopped a little, I got an Amaretto crepe.

Cute restaurants on the way to the Alstadfest

Shops close up around 7 or 8 p.m. here, so we headed back to the hotel a bit early to rest up. It started raining on us just as we were heading back -- reinforcing our decision to call it a night. Scott's pedometer says we took more than 6 miles of walking today -- pretty good for our first day in country, with very little sleep.

Tomorrow, we're going to check out a few more things in Nuremberg, then head to Prague, Czech Republic. That should be about a 3-hour drive. We'll be there for 2-3 days. We'll do our best to provide daily updates.

PS. I've discovered I can't easily upload photos from my camera, but can from my cell phone. So, today's photo selection is rather ppor.

2012 Vacation Planning: Germany & Prague

We've finally booked our 2012 vacation. This year, we're headed to Germany and Prague. Croatia was also high on the list but because we are going in late September / early October, we opted to forgo Croatia this year and wait until a year when we go a bit more in the summer season. Maybe next year.

It's been a bit more challenging and frustrating to book this year's trip for 3 reasons:

1. Because of various other activities, work schedules, vacation days, etc., it took us a while to pick a date and we had to fit it in between a couple of other activities we have planned in the U.S.
2. There were a couple of festivals that we want to attend. If we were to plan our trip without this in mind, we could make a nice logical loop through Germany to Prague and back. Instead, to make these festivals, we are back tracking a bit along the way and not going in the order that makes the most sense geographically.
3. The day before we had locked in the exact dates for each location, I selected one to two top hotels for each spot. The next day when I went to book, every single one was booked for the dates we wanted. To make it worse, at least one of the online booking sites tells you when the last available room was booked. All were booked within the past 24 hours, so it was even more annoying to discover that some locations we had selected were booked just 7-10 hours prior. I think I could live without that feature.

I hate getting my heart set on something or making a plan in my head, then having to redo everything. We've now booked all our hotels and all would be absolutely perfect if I hadn't seen the ones we originally selected. :-) But I'm getting over it. And focusing on the fact that we'll be on vacation for two weeks. I can't wait.

So, that's my vent about vacation planning. More next time about where we plan to go.

Wrapping up the trip

Originally written 10/13/11, but just now posting:

We got back a week ago, so I figured I'd do a concluding blog post to report on the trip back home since I haven't written since we left Glasgow.


We flew from Glasgow to Amsterdam and from Amsterdam to Atlanta with a 3-hour layover in Amsterdam. With no direct flights from Glasgow or Belfast to Atlanta, we had to fly the "wrong" direction to get back home. So, it was a long travel day.


So, we started off our day at around 7 a.m. (local time, 2 a.m Atlanta time) and got to the Glasgow airport around 8 or 8:30, where it began to hail while we were dropping off the rental car. Our flight wasn't until 10:50 and there's not as much advanced arrival required when flying between European countries, but we weren't sure of how long it would take to get to the airport, the check-in process, the airport layout, etc., so we figured better safe than sorry. The rental car return took a bit because the family in front of us took forever, but everything else was quick and smooth.


The Amsterdam airport was phenomenal--lots of shopping options, a free mini-art museum, even a casino. We grabbed a bite to eat and milled about for a while. We had to check in at the gate an hour before boarding there, and it's an airport where you go through security again before being let into the glass-enclosed gate area, where you can't get out to go to the bathroom or anything without going through security again. As we waited at the gate for the hour before boarding, I noticed several guys in dark suits all with the same or similar lapel pin follow the pilots onto the airplane, and I thought, "Boy, they're serious about security here!" It turns out they were U.S. Secret Service detail and former President Jimmy Carter was on our flight. He came around and shook everyone's hand before we took off.


The flight back was long 9-10 hours in flight, but it passed rather quickly thanks to the personal TVs on the plane. KLM is great. There were tons of movies, TV shows, video games and such. I think I watched 4 movies on the way back. We landed around 8:30 p.m. (local time) in Atlanta, but by the time we got to the terminal, went through customs, walked to baggage claim after the airport "train" broke down, etc., it was after 10 p.m. And traffic to and around the airport was tough, so it took Scott's brother Tim a bit to get to us after we picked up our luggage. So, we were glad when we finally got home.