A long entry for a very full visit with our (second set of) kids!

So, as some of you may know, the wife was back in the states for a quick work trip last week, she flew back in last Sunday (arriving Monday morning). Some friends of ours from our time in Tennessee arrived on Wednesday to spend a week with us; we euphemistically call them "the kids," as there's a bit of an age difference between us. They're in their early thirties, (she has asked me to refer to her as 'in her late 20's', despite TODAY being her birthday!) and do what they can to keep us feeling young... as opposed to our true kids, who go out of their way to make us feel old!

I met them at the airport and we immediately headed out to the Army base to fill the tank in the Shores-mobile. I need to break off and give you some background...

Gas over here is expensive... around $7.00 a gallon if we buy it on the local economy. Because of the wife's position, we have access to military bases here, and we receive a "ration" of gas every month, 400 liters. We are allowed to purchase 400 liters at a lower price each month, and carry a prepaid balance on our Esso card to use when getting gas on the economy. When we get gas on base, the amount of fuel is decremented off of our ration, but we can pay for it separately. The ration does not roll over; whatever portion of our ration remains at the end of the month goes away, and we start each month with 400 liters. The kids arrived on January 31st, so I needed to top the tank off before our travels, on the January ration. Ergo, the base trip.

And now, back to our normally "scheduled" blog post. They arrived a little before noon, and the trip from the airport to the base is around a half hour, so we got there right around lunch time. We ate at one of the restaurants at the food court on base. That's right - they flew halfway around the world to visit us in Germany, and our first real stop was Taco Bell. Go ahead and laugh, just come back when you're done.

After lunch, we stopped at the base commissary for some road trip snacks, filled up the tank and drove home. They rested for a little while, then we went back into town to pick the boss up from work. We headed downtown and dragged them around the shopping area, and down to the tourist district. There's a bit of a story around the tourist district, but if I haven't shared it yet, I'm not going to now; I've got to save *some* info for when y'all come to visit!

We ate dinner in a food court. This should come as no surprise to my regular readers - y'all know how much I love malls and food courts. It was a local restaurant, not fast food - does that make any difference in this case?

Next morning, we left a little early for Garmisch, a little tourist town south of Munich - you might have read about it in our previous visits. We stopped on the way into town to visit the monastery in the nearby town of Ettal, and to visit our favorite woodcarving shop.

We checked into the hotel, then went out exploring. We wandered around the town, buying some local chocolate, then drove over to the other side of town to a local Bavarian restaurant. 

One of the things that they do there is traditional Bavarian "slap dancing." Here's a movie of some guys performing the dance. Please note, these were not the performers at the restaurant. The guys who performed that night at the restaurant were 10 or 11 years old, and what they lacked in skill, they more than made up for with enthusiasm. There's a portion of the dance (not in the video above, unfortunately), where the participants yodel. Well, they're supposed to yodel. What these young gentlemen did sounded more like a chicken with a fork stuck in its throat. While being run over by a bicycle. That was being ridden by a goblin who was maniacally cackling. We verified with the waiter that they were "yodeling."

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and went down to the hot tub for a postprandial beverage. Of all of the brands of beer available, the kids chose to drink Miller Lite. While sitting in a hot tub in Germany, in the middle of the majestic Alps. In the shadow of the tallest mountain in Germany. Miller Lite. Let's just let that sink in, shall we? I need to take a moment.

Saturday morning, we woke up bright and early to get some breakfast in town. We found our way to a place called Wafflehaus - not the same chain as you see across the American south. Breakfast was very good - will visit again.

We drove out of Garmisch into Austria, then back into Germany on our way to.... Neuschwanstein. We first visited in 2010, and not much has changed in the intervening 14 years. We had to wait a few minutes for the carriage, so we had to sprint up the final couple hundred yards, arriving 5 minutes before our tour time, but quite out of breath. Way too many stairs in that castle. We were in King Ludwig's bedchamber, and Sam wasn't feeling well, enough that he rushed out of the room without telling us what was going on. After our guide finished telling us about that room and moved on, Erica spoke to the guide in the room behind us, and the guide said (quite matter of factly) "Yes, we saw him. He wanted to leave you!" We figured we'd meet up with him later on. (Spoiler alert: we met up with him later on).

Neuschwanstein was one of King Ludwig's vanity projects which was ultimately unfinished. Ludwig did as much as he could to bankrupt the country, leaving half finished castles all over Bavaria. If you'd like to read a bit more about Neuschwanstein, you could (a) do your own research, or (b) ask your intrepid blog author for a link to his previous missive - oh look, here's a link!

We met back up with Sam at the end of the tour, in time to head into the gift shop. He was fine, just needed some air. Stuffy building, too many stairs. He unfortunately missed Ludwig's cave, but he already knew that Ludwig was crazy.

There's a specific balcony that we made the kids (Palmer & Cori) take a picture with us on when we visited the castle the first time:

The  boss thought it'd be fun to take another picture there, 14 years later:

And here are the other kids in the same place:

There's a bridge overlooking the castle that we hadn't gone to last time, the wife and kids hiked over there this time, while I headed down to make sure the car was still there. It was. The bridge is really pretty, I'm just getting lazier in my old age.

The wife & kids stopped in the little touristy shops on their way back to the car, and the kids bought an authentic Bavarian beer stein as a memento of their travels, but it was half price, so I don't know if it really counts as a normal tourist activity - normally, the tourist shops mark up the prices!

Our first visit to Neuschwanstein (as you read above), we found a pretty waterfall right as we got to the main road. I stopped for a picture opportunity there as well.

We headed back to Garmisch and ate a late lunch at a restaurant, then wandered around the town stimulating the local economy. We found a little prosecco hut and stopped for some drinks, then headed back to the hotel for some down time. We met in the restaurant at the hotel for drinks, appetizers and desserts later in the evening, then the kids and I headed down to the hot tub again... this time, the kids drank German beer instead of Miller Lite. They grow up so fast, I'm so proud of them!

The next morning, we loaded up the car, checked out of the hotel, and headed up to Munich. We had signed up for a free walking tour; we booked the same tour (with what we assumed was the same guide) as our last tour, but our guide turned out to be a different guy. It was actually interesting to take the "same" tour given by different people, as different guides give you different perspectives and share different things. After our tour, we dragged the kids to the pub under the beer museum for lunch, then we went over to the Hofbräuhaus for a quick beer (just because it's one of the big tourist things in Munich, and one of the oldest bier halls in the world). Erica has groused about the heat indoors everywhere we've gone, and she asked me to share that the Hofbräuhaus was indeed very hot.

Erica tried on a dirndl, one of the traditional Bavarian dresses, but decided not to get it. We weren't allowed to take pictures of her in it, so I can't share one. She said that it was cute. We got back in the car and headed to... Salzburg.

Because of our later departure from Munich, we rolled into Salzburg in time to check in and relax for a few minutes, then we headed out to dinner at our favorite restaurant in Salzburg, the Augustiner Biergarten. I've written previously about this place, but here's a quick reminder:

For beer, you get a mug off of the shelves lining the halls and rinse it out with water, then you pay for the beer you'd like, and take the mug to the gentlemen next to the huge keg and he fills your mug. Repeat as desired. For food, there are several different food booths set up in the halls, with different kinds of food at every booth. There's a booth where you can get grilled meat, a booth where you can get all kinds of sides, one with olives and other snacky kinds of things - pretty much anybody can find something to eat there. Once you get your beer and food, you enter an area with long tables and find a place for your group, sometimes sharing tables with other patrons. Very traditional feeling biergarten setting, mostly locals there, rather than tourists.

Afterwards, we drove down to the pedestrian bridge, and the wife and kids walked out over the middle of the river to take some pics, since the weather was cooperating.

Next morning, we left the hotel and headed out to the salt mines. Really. Salzburg is named after the salt mines, with evidence of salt based activity for 4,500+ years. The salt mines are a big tourist draw for the town and area. 

I'd bought tickets online ahead of time, so we gathered with the rest of the group a few minutes before our tour began. Our guide introduced himself (Felix, in case you were wondering), and we followed him into the dressing area, where we were handed pants and an overcoat, to protect our clothing from the dirt and crud in the mine (don't worry, you'll see pics later). We all pulled on our protective clothing and headed down to the train. The train was pretty cool, and other caves around the world need to come visit, so they can learn how it should be done... the train ran on the normal sized mine car tracks, with an electric engine pushing or pulling 4 or 5 long planks; basically a long flat piece of metal with wheels on each end, with a wooden plank mounted on top of the metal platform. You climb onto the metal platform and straddle the plank, facing the direction of travel. The guide sits on the front of the train, with the engine in the back of the whole train, pushing the whole train into the mine. The train stops at a predetermined spot and you hop off, then follow the guide further into the mine on foot. Here's a photo of the kids with (what I guess is) the mascot for the mine... there was no information at all about the duck, it was never mentioned by the guide, we were just walking through the mine and encountered the duck. We saw a label afterward in the gift shop telling us that the duck's name is Sally:

There are several different stops that you make, where you're shown different steps in the production of salt, including some well produced videos projected onto the cave walls. You continue into the mine until you reach the end of the tour area, at which point there's a slide taking you a layer deeper in the mountain. The slide's pretty cool - it's basically a U shaped bar where you sit on top of the legs of the U and scooch forward until you start sliding, at which point you lean back so you don't faceplant. The first slide isn't too long, about 100 feet long, maybe 50 feet of an elevation change. There's a camera which takes your picture as you get to the bottom of the slide, the wife and I got up to around 20 mph at the bottom.

On this level of the mine, they walk you through what they did in the past, showing us how salt was mined in previous eras. Portions of the mine actually cross from Austria into Germany (and back); the oldest trade treaty in Europe actually covers the mine, and allowed miners to cross back and forth between the two countries during the course of their work days. They had arches set up in the tunnel with "Leaving Austria," and "Entering Germany" signs. At the end of this section, there was another slide, a little longer this time (but no speed camera at the bottom). More exhibits, more videos. Very well done. 

The VERY best part though... at the end of the lowest level, there's an escalator that takes you back up to get back to the train. The guide rides in the back, and the engine drags you back out of the mine. Why can't caves in the states do this? Why doesn't Carlsbad Cavern have an escalator?!? We couldn't have walked more than a mile or so - the worst part of going to caverns (for me, at least) is having to climb all the stairs coming back out. Caves need more escalators.

After we finished up at the salt mine, we went to Stiegl Brauwelt for lunch - you've probably read about it in previous blog posts; if not, I can't be held responsible - you've gotta put in SOME work here! It's our other favorite restaurant in Salzburg. When you come, we'll take you there too.

After we finished lunch, we headed over to the Red Bull hanger for a quick tour. The kids walked around, but didn't seem to get much out of it. We'd been told by a previous visitor (Nancy, last December) that the bathroom in the museum was the best one in Europe, so we had to check it out. I have to say.... meh. It would have gotten a higher rating from me if there had been dividers between the urinals. They did have rolled white washcloths for you to dry your hands off on (with a hamper right next to each sink) - very nice, overall, but the lack of dividers take it down quite a few notches. There's supposedly a massive fresh floral arrangement in the women's bathroom, but the guys definitely didn't get one, so I can't let that affect my rating.

Sam had a FaceTime call scheduled, but the ladies wanted to wander around, so we dropped them off next to the Mirabelle Gardens and headed back to the hotel (and stable wifi) for his call. After he was done, we drove back downtown and met the girls at a cafe in Mozartplatz for a quick drink. It was getting toward Sunday evening, so we stopped at the Manner store (you'll remember them from Vienna and previous visits to Salzburg), and then headed back to the hotel. We ended up ordering dinner to be delivered to the hotel, and sat in the lobby eating and chatting.

The next morning, we packed up the car, checked out of the hotel, and headed back into town for a tour of the fortress. This was our second time to visit the fortress - the first time was when we took Nancy to town. To recap, old fortress, dating back to (I think) 1077 AD. Lots of architectural expansion over the years - basically impressive old fortress overlooking the town. Great view of the Alps that day. Afterward, we stopped at a place in town for lunch, an Italian place. I saw as we came in that they had a salad bar, not a popular thing in Europe. Was enjoyable, and just the right amount of food for me.

While in Salzburg, encountered a bus named after Sam, had to capture the moment:

We headed back to Frankfurt and got back in time for Erica to talk Sam into watching the first half of The Sound of Music, since he'd never seen it. The wife had already gone to bed, and I have a strict rule against watching any musical where you can't do the Time Warp and throw rice at the screen. Poor guy stuck it out until intermission (since that was still a thing when The Hills were Alive with the Sound of Cheesy 60's Musicals).

And now, I have a bit of bad news to relate. Not so much for you, but for the kids.

Please bear in mind that we're constantly learning new things about living over here and imparting that wisdom to you, dear reader. I'll share with you the lesson of the day for February 6th, 2024, that Erica unfortunately had to learn on her birthday: the town of Rüdesheim is effectively closed for the months of January and February.

We had planned a full day wandering around the picturesque tourist town. What we got was a ghost town - I believe I actually saw a tumbleweed blow down the main street, which was extra concerning since tumbleweeds aren't typically found within around 5000 miles of German wine country.

We found two places that were open, one of which was a restaurant where we stopped to have drinks. I saw on the sign that they offered something called "Rüdesheimer Kaffee," which I hadn't heard of before - so I ordered one.

There's a famous type of brandy here called Asbach Uralt, which was actually founded in Rüdesheim. The coffee that they make with it is evidently quite famous as well; they put 3 sugar cubes into a special type of coffee mug and pour a shot of warmed brandy over them, then light it on fire and stir the cubes around for about a minute. Then they pour coffee into the cup, stopping a little less than an inch below the rim. They deposit a big scoop of whipped cream that's flavored with vanilla sugar, then dust the top of the drink with shaved dark chocolate.

All of this preparation is done (at least on this slow day, at this pretty deserted restaurant) tableside, with the appropriate amount of pomp and ritual. Almost a performance art, like Benihana, but with less (or fewer, depending on your grammatical tendencies) onion volcanoes and flying shrimp. Quite impressive, and tasty. Now I want to buy some of the cups before we move back to the states. I'll have to work on my presentation skills though.

When the waiter found out that it was Erica's birthday, he brought out four small glasses of Ice Wine for us; it's a very sweet white wine that can only be made after the first frost of the year, where the grapes have to be harvested within a few hours of sunrise on the first morning after the first frost. The freezing expands the water in the grapes and destroys the cell walls, which makes them rot quickly. Quite good, and I'll be on the lookout for bottles of it.

Here's a pic that the wife took in Rüdesheim that wasn't staged at all - honest! Pay no attention to the fact that the bottle of liquor is still full and sealed:

One of our original plans was to ride the gondola from the town up to the statue of Germania, which commemorates the unification of Germany in 1871. Since the gondola was closed down, we figured out how to drive up there instead, and showed the kids the view of the Rhine river - luckily they hadn't closed the parking lot down for the winter too.

We were still looking for something to do for Erica's birthday, so we drove to a winery in the area (Schloss Johannisberg). While the wine store was open, nothing else at the winery was. Another bust.

The original plan was to go to dinner at the Ratskeller in Wiesbaden, so we headed out of the mountains in time to get to town at around 4:30. I dropped the wife and kids off in town and headed for the nearby base to top up the gas tank for our next day's adventures.

I got back to town and met up with them at a bar/restaurant in the town square where we hung out and drank until it was time for dinner. We walked over to the Ratskeller, where the boss had her favorite schnitzel (a breaded pork tenderloin, crusted with crushed pretzels and smothered in a sweet mustard sauce). Sam had a steak, and Erica had a big plate of spätzel - a German type of noodle. Spätzel is made from a batter that's pushed through a colander into boiling water. The wife likes to call it the German equivalent to macaroni and cheese (since it's usually got bunches of cheese melted into it). Quite popular over here.

Interestingly enough (to us, at least... your mileage may vary); it took the boss a few visits to (a) remember the name of her favorite dish (Oberbayrische Schnitzel), and (b) consistently get the pronunciation correct (not gonna try to type out the phonics for that one). This visit, guess what. They changed the name to "Landtag Schnitzel." "Landtag" evidently means "State Parliament." Not sure what connection that's got with a Bavarian recipe for schnitzel... Wiesbaden is the capital of the state of Hesse. The recipe is from the state of Bavaria. That'd be like a restaurant in Virginia having a "Texas Chicken Fried Steak" on the menu, and changing the name to "State Government Chicken Fried Steak." You'd have questions, right? The waiter had no idea either.

Afterwards we headed back to the house, since we had a long day planned for the next day. They evidently finished up The Sound of Music that night (and poor Sam hasn't been the same since). I watched TV in the back while the ladies tortured Sam.

We ate a quick breakfast before leaving at around 9 to visit Cologne (Köln for y'all Deutsche-peeps reading). Took a little longer to get there than we were thinking, so we didn't roll in until a few minutes before noon. We parked and walked to the Sion Restaurant and Brewery, supposedly the oldest in Cologne. We ate lunch and introduced the kids to Kölsch beer (I've written about it here before).

After lunch, we walked over to the Cathedral for a tour. This guide demonstrated another example of the value of taking tours given by different guides. While there were certain things that were pointed out on our first tour, this guide was an art specialist of some kind, with a focus on 16th century art. He didn't spend as much time telling us about the physical structure - he covered the major parts: flying buttresses, thin walls, lots of stained glass - and then he talked in depth about some of the figures and meaning behind the windows and different parts of the building itself. He spoke for about 15 minutes on one specific set of windows, going over specific examples of figures on the windows and using those figures and concepts he discussed to demonstrate larger artistic examples of symmetry within the displays, and the messages behind some of the artistic choices made. He was incredibly passionate about the cathedral, and it was pretty cool hearing a fairly in depth talk about things we'd overlooked on our first visit by someone whose passion was almost infectious. Please note, I carefully used the word "almost." I appreciated his passion and enjoyed listening to him, but I absolutely will not be studying art history, and will not be giving you folks any in-depth writeups about the deeper meaning behind different pieces of art, so you don't have to worry about that. Here's a picture of the reliquary of the three kings (you can read more about it in my previous entry about Cologne, but you'll have to find it yourself):

After our tour, we left the cathedral and headed over to the cologne store - remember the oldest recipe in the world for cologne from our last visit? No? Well, go back and read it. I'll wait.

You're back? Wow - that was quick!

So we took the kids to the cologne store (in Cologne) to share that part of our previous adventure with them, then took off to wander the city some more. Our original plans included a visit to the Chocolate Museum, but it turns out that it was closed. Evidently (and we didn't know this when making our plans), Carnival starts on February 8th this year, and a lot of the city is closed down either heading into Carnival (to get ready to participate), or to finish battening down the hatches to protect their businesses from all the drunk partiers. As is my custom on this blog, I've since done a bit of extra research to share with y'all:

You're used to Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter, right? Well, turns out there are five seasons in Cologne. Those four, and Carnival. Carnival actually begins at 11:11 on 11/11, and is immediately suspended until 11:11 on the Thursday before the beginning of Lent. The earliest record I could find was that in 1341, the celebration had gotten so crazy that the town decided not to fund it any more, at which point the local townspeople decided to pay for it themselves. I'm not sure how long that lasted, but in the 18th century (while the French were in charge) the balls and costume parties were usually devoted to the aristocracy, mimicking the traditions in Vienna. Once the Prussians came to power, they opened the celebrations back up to the people at large.

Basically, it's Germany's version of Mardi Gras. It's a non-stop 6 day party, where bars and restaurants suspend their hours, and continue serving beer (and other drinks, to a lesser extent) for 6 continuous days. Parades, parties, drinking, dancing, lots of good natured carousing. One of the "requirements" is that you wear some sort of costume, the more outlandish, the better. One restaurant we were having some drinks at, a guy riding a dinosaur, an elf, a ship's captain from the early 1900's, and an FBI agent came into the restaurant for a bite to eat. Absolutely nuts, considering that the Carnival didn't start in earnest until the next day, and they were already dressed up and drinking.

Another group of patrons came in wearing some goofy hats, and I quickly decided that I had to have one of them, so I started looking online for the nearest store that would have one, and as luck would have it, there was a store specifically devoted to costumes for Carnival a few blocks away. After we left the restaurant, we wandered down to the shop, which (surprise, surprise!) was completely jam packed. We found all kinds of treasures, including my hat. There were two lines for the checkout stand which stretched through the entire store; I got in one of the lines to pay. I waited for about a half hour in line while the wife and kids found a nearby Irish bar to get some drinks.

Once we reunited, we left the bar and were going to head back over toward the cathedral to find a place to eat... but we encountered a marching band first. We took some pictures and video before they marched off, but then we thought: "why couldn't we just follow them?" So, we just joined in a few paces behind them, and wandered through a little bit of the old town. The wife was particularly enjoying herself, dancing and skipping with first one, then the other kid, just enjoying the atmosphere. I enjoyed the atmosphere as well, but I'm not a "skipping" kind of guy. The band made their way to their destination, a private party in one of the local restaurants. The entire band of 30 or so guys filed slowly into the restaurant, then they closed the door, leaving us bemused and laughing about having followed (and in some cases participated with) a random marching band the night before Carnival.

One of the things Sam wanted to try while he was here was döner - basically a gyro. We found a döner place and went in, but the ladies couldn't find anything they were really in the mood for, so Sam and I ate döner while they had beers and kept us company. We left there and walked around to find a place for them to eat - they chose an Italian place (which turned out to be one of the better decisions). Cute little restaurant with a friendly waiter who was fluent in quite a few languages. We were able to partially communicate with him in English, and our pidgin versions of German, Italian, and Spanish, I'm pretty sure he knew enough to communicate with just about anybody who walked in the door.

We left there and wandered (some of us drunkenly) back to the car to make the 2 hour trek home. Here's my hat, and a cool pic one of us took of the Cathedral:

All in all, they seemed to enjoy their visit, not even complaining (much) about Rüdesheim being closed. We asked for feedback on the itinerary we'd planned, and we all agreed that we'd put together a visit to cities with quite different atmospheres, and while we were mostly going, going, going during their time here, we did manage to fit quite a bit in.

We're already starting the plan for their next visit, but lemme know what places you're interested in seeing, and I'll start working on an itinerary for YOUR visit!