German Food

At the deli--all pork products. I had the most amazing ham in Germany--it was like a salami with bits of truffle in it.

In the back are lamb chops and fries. Notice the lamb plate--this is at a restaurant called the Golden Lamb. Front plate has an assortment of sausages, sauerkraut, scalloped potatoes, and this ham patty thing that is special to Heidelberg. Also some mustard.

On the left, potato soup. Front, grilled pork knuckle. In the back schnitzel with mushroom sauce. All of it was really good.

A dish particular to Hessen province, called green sauce. It's yogurt with herbs and eggs.

One of the many gelato places we went to. That thing on the left is gelato spaghetti, which is made with vanilla gelato and strawberry sauce. Sundaes in Europe are so much better than in America!

And lastly, a bit about the food: lots of meat and carbs, and really heavy. Not necessarily greasy, but it would leave me feel like I'd sink like a rock if I fell into the water. Or like I could chop wood with my bare hands. Here are some photos...

The Rhine Valley

Statue in Koblenz

Small town on the river

One of many castles/old buildings

Another small town

Castle

A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Rhine Valley extends from Koblenz southward about 65 km. Following the river, you will pass several small, old looking towns, and many castles--it is like driving into a time machine or a story book, a different era that has been impressively preserved today.

Our first stop was in Rudesheim, where we wandered along cobblestone paths and stopped by wineries and boutiques. Since it is winter, most of the vineyards were barren, but it was still very pretty. There is a wine called Alsach which is produced here. I meant to try it, but forgot to, though I did have some German ice wines.

As we drove along the river, we passed by another small town called Loreley, where people supposedly saw a mermaid. There is a statue there to commemorate this, although the statue is of a girl with legs sitting like a mermaid. Even though the locals call this a mermaid statue, the girl does not have a tail--she looks like an ordinary human girl. Maybe she is a mermaid that is able to develop legs (like the ones in H2O Just Add Water). I didn't get a photo of the statue, but you can google Loreley (or Lorelei) statue if you are really curious.

Koblenz is just a town, but they had a cool statue.

I really love how the castles are lit up at night. Then, it looks magical. Unfortunately most of the pictures cannot properly convey how beautiful that area is, since they are taken from a car. This trail was definitely one of my favorite trips in Europe.

Heidelberg

Castle balcony

Castle stove--there are little doors in the wall in the back where you can load the wood into.

Castle courtyard.

The giant wine barrel and statue of the dwarf.

View of Heidelberg.

I was excited to visit Heidelberg, since several Germans told me that it is a beautiful town. Indeed, it is more like what I imagined a German city to look like (based on TV and my imagination, haha). It is on the river, and has a large castle and several smaller, older looking buildings. Many of these old buildings have small doors, since people back then were shorter due to poorer nutrition.

After parking the car, we climbed a steep, cobblestone path to the castle which has been quite well preserved. A travel website recommended going on the tour, and I'm so glad we did--it is only 2 euros for students, and you see so much more. Without the tour, you do not get to enter the castle. Our tour guide made a lot of bad jokes, but there was a really nice American girl who laughed at them. See, Americans are so nice :P Otherwise there would just be awkward silence, and he's kind of old, so I do think we should try to make old people happy. Anyhow, back to the castle. I especially appreciated a lot of the insignificant details, like the carvings on the doorknobs, and intricacies of the locks. The clock had golden suns on the pointers, and the stove had feet with little lions drawn on them. Apparently there is a ballroom that you can rent for $1000 euros (which is not too bad a price to pay in order to host an event in a castle!)

The castle also houses the world's largest wine barrel, which holds about 200,000 liters of wine. Beside this barrel (there is also a smaller, but also enormous barrel in the adjacent room) is a statue of a dwarf that the King supposedly appointed to guard ti barrels. Since he was always drunk, his name is Perkeo, which is supposed to sound like "porque no," as in "why not," which was his attitude to having an additional glass of wine.

A fun fact about winding staircases in castles--they usually spiral down leftwards because most people are right handed. Thus, it is easier to defend (fighting downwards) than to attack due to the way the stairway is shaped.

And the last joke the guide left us with: "A guide finished his tour, and people asked him, 'are there any ghosts in the castle?' To which he answered, 'no, of course not!' And then the people asked him, 'how long have you been working here?' To which he said, '900 years!'"

After touring the castle, we went to a really nice German restaurant called the "Gulden Sharfe," or the golden sheep (I might have spelled the German wrong), that had amazing lamb dishes. They have been around since the 1700s, and was originally established to serve food to people who worked in the castle. Today, it is delicious and reasonably priced, and I'd highly recommend it if you go to Heidelberg. The decorations are medieval styled, and they have an English menu too. Apparently a lot of German tourists to Heidelberg go there too, which is why they are not as overpriced as other tourist places (or so my friend theorizes).

Wiesbaden

Sunset over the autobahn (highway)

Inside of the Cathedral.

Outside of the Cathedral.
A casino--apparently you have to wear a suit inside, not like Las Vegas where you can wear whatever.

Wiesbaden is a small town close to Frankfurt. It's smaller and more charming. Apparently there is an American army base located there. Some Germans told me that many of the Americans are unhappy to be in Germany, and like to tell Germans how much they hate Germany, haha. There is a special radio stations for Americans which I listened to. Since it's specific to the army, they would have announcement like, "remember, accessing classified information on a non-classified network is a violation...you have a responsibility to protect privileged information." While German tail lights have to be yellow, Americans are allowed to have red ones; they also get square license plates instead of the long rectangular ones.

We went to a nice Mediterranean restaurant in Wiesbaden, and it was a nice place to take a walk. There were more old buildings, and a pretty cathedral made of red brick. Along the shopping street, there was a small store dedicated to a German stuffed toy company called Steiff (not sure of the spelling). The tiny teddy bears are 40 euros!! Apparently they are really high quality and will last a life time. I have a really cheap stuffed kitty (which I'm pretty sure is actually supposed to be a dog toy, since it has a squeaker), which I still have now, so I'm not sure if the quality argument stands. I guess I'm only in my 20s, so my stuffed kitty hasn't quite stood the test of time yet.

Some words about driving in Germany: there are many small roads, and most roads do have a speed limit. However, there are parts of the highway that do not have a speed limit at all. My friend regularly drives 200 km/hr, which is the first time in my life that I have driven so fast (well, been driven, since I was the passenger). On average, people drive a lot faster, and it's nice since you get places faster too. There are also a lot more Mercedes Benzes and BMWs; I think my car at home probably couldn't handle going over 100 mph (about 160 km/hr).

Frankfurt

I forget what this building is...I think it's an opera house.

The Galeria Shopping Complex

Random castle looking building at night.

The old square that is often featured on Frankfurt postcards.

A shiny building.

For some reason, the font in my last post came out funny. I tried to fix it but failed.

I've heard very mixed things about Frankfurt. Some people said it is an ugly city, others said it was their favorite city in Europe. Both groups however, agree that Frankfurt is like the New York of Europe. It is a big banking city, with large sky scrapers, unlike most major cities in Europe that still look quite old. Since it was bombed heavily during the war, they rebuilt a lot, and seemed to focus more on new and modern buildings instead of trying to preserve existing ones. Today, Frankfurt is flourishing, and has the second largest airport in all of Europe. The first thought I had when we entered Frankfurt was that it is so SHINY! Unlike the cities full of skyscrapers in America, the skyscrapers in Frankfurt look so new--a lot of the buildings look like mirrors, so when it is a nice day, they glisten like giant pieces of jewelry. I didn't think Frankfurt is ugly at all; it's not charming, but it is impressive and more futuristic looking than all other European cities that I have visited so far.

On my first day in Frankfurt, I went down the shopping street, which is lined with these knobby trees that are ugly in a cute way. I made a goal not the buy much though, so I only visited the gummi bear store and picked up prosecco flavored bears and mango/passion fruit bears. The prosecco was disappointing, they just tasted slightly sour, but the mango was really good--reminded me of gummis that I bought from Asian supermarkets as a kid.

On my second visit to Frankfurt, I visited another friend from school. She took me to the older looking part of town, the city hall, which is a nice square with touristy boutiques. She also took me to this awesome department store with an entire floor of chocolate, which I raided. I bought an amazing rose-flavored white chocolate bar from a German brand called Schwermer. Sadly, I don't think I can buy anything similar in the states--they sell it on amazon.de, so perhaps I can get it delivered. I prepared an Easter basket for my friend to thank him for letting me stay with him. Germany has the greatest variety of chocolate eggs that I have ever seen in my life, as well as the greatest collection of alcohol filled chocolate. I had a tiramisu filled egg from a German company called...I don't remember the name, but it begins with an N. Maybe it's not German.

On my third and last visit to Frankfurt, we went to a club called Gekkos. What surprised me was that people can smoke in bars and clubs in Germany. That was kind of gross. The bar however, was very nice, filled with old fashioned looking plush sofas and velvety curtains.

I will post separately about German food!

Königstein im Taunus

Some stables in town

The town castle.

The Mayor's Office. There is a really nice Italian restaurant that doubles as an art gallery here.

Downtown Königstein

Small church

So, taking a break from New York, I went on spring break to Frankfurt, Germany, to visit a very good friend. He lives in a small town by Frankfurt called Königstein im Taunus, which literally translates as Kingstone on Taunus, a mountain.

Upon arriving in the airport, I had a very important goal in mind--finding airplane shaped Haribo gummi bears. I went to information, and asked where I can get Haribo gummi bears, since I couldn't find any stores near the exit--in the past, I always left Germany with several bags from the duty free store. The lady at information however, seemed offended that I would ask such a thing (stereotypes perhaps?), and just snapped, "I don't know, perhaps you should go to a supermarket." I complained to my friend that the customer service was so bad, but then again, perhaps she was not trying to be rude, since German people tend to be more direct than Americans (in my experience). Anyhow, I did end up going to the supermarket (although the airplane shaped ones are only sold at the airports).

My friend showed me his house, and I was surprised to learn that they had a bunker, "just in case." I guess it makes sense for countries that have been bombed a lot to consider something like that. Although, a side note, the country that the Americans bombed the most was Vietnam--we bombed Communist Vietnam far more than Nazi Germany. I wonder if the Vietnamese frequently have bunkers in the their house too, my guess is probably not.

Königstein is like a nice suburb full of old people. It's quite charming and has its own castle, which is beautifully lit up at night. There are some Asian restaurants--one, with sushi and udon, is acceptable. Another, called "My Thai," is the worst Thai food I've had in my life. I ordered pad kee mao, and got lo mein. If you visit Germany and want Asian food, just eat Italian (or better, German food!) instead. There were a lot of really good gelato places, which we lack in the US.

Königstein is only 20 minutes from Frankfurt, and a great place to explore some other German cities from.