Celebrating 5 years of marriage in the Rhine Valley

Noah and I recently celebrated our 5^th wedding anniversary by spending a long weekend on the Rhine.  When looking for a place to spend our anniversary, I focused on the idea of staying at a castle hotel.  My search turned up the Burghotel Auf Schönburg in Oberwesel, and I fell in love with the photos online.  Sadly when I tried to book us a room there for the long weekend, I was given the message that it was fully booked.  Being the overly dramatic person I am, I was devastated and sure that nothing could be done.  Luckily my husband is more pragmatic in these situations, and simply emailed the hotel to see what could be worked out.  Turned out only the Saturday was booked, and we could stay there Sunday and Monday nights no problem.  Whoo hoo!  So that meant I needed to find a different option for Saturday night only. 

Hence on Saturday we made the drive to St. Goar to stay at the Romantik Hotel Schloss Rheinfels – also booked as a castle hotel.  Well we ended up in the Villa next to the castle, and not IN the castle proper, but we had a beautiful view of the Rhine from our balcony. 

The view from our balcony

As the castle hotel is connected to the ruins of Rheinfels Castle, built in the 13^th century.  It stood as a central figure in the area until the French Revolution, when the castle was blown up at the end of the 18^th century.  What is left are the ruins of tunnels and walls that you can extensively explore on your own.  Noah and I were both incredibly impressed with this castle – for only 5EUR each, we were given a map and suggested route, and are set free.  You can crawl inside these narrow tunnels, climb the stone staircases, and wander through the entire grounds.  Luckily I read that a flashlight was suggested, as some of these areas do get very, very dark. 

After we were done exploring the ruins, we went into town for a super romantic anniversary dinner at Asia Kim.  Ok, so this wasn’t supposed to be our big celebratory dinner as our next hotel came with fancy 5 course dinners included.  And knowing that the next two nights would give us such fancy dinners, we decided to keep Saturday night’s dinner low key.  And as we get plenty of Germany food already, we settled on Asia Kim where we had the place to ourselves (based on the phone calls we heard, I think most people just get their food to go). 

Back at our hotel after dinner, we decided to use the spa and go for a swim.  Actually I tend to just float around while Noah does all the swimming.  Then we spent our anniversary night watching the Eurovision finale, where Germany came in DEAD LAST.  Our favorite was Latvia, but she only came in 6^th. 

Noah splashing around

Night on the Rhine

Sunday we decided to check out the Sesselbahn in the nearby town of Boppard (I had read about it in our Germany guidebook we brought over with us – who needs the internet??).  I wasn’t sure what kind of ‘bahn’ this was going to be, and the guidebook mentioned a 20 minute ride up the mountain.  This led me to assume it was some kind of slow cog train that left only every hour or so.  This is why when we parked, I rushed Noah to buy the tickets, assuming that the approaching time of 10:30 could be meaningful.  Nope.  Turns out it is a continuous chairlift, so my rush was not needed.

At the top of Gedeonseck, we walked to the advertised ‘Vierseenblick’, or ‘Four Lakes View’.  So the thing is, the river forms an oxbow right around here.  You first come up to a café with a beautiful (or at least when the weather is nicer) view of the entire oxbow.  But you see these signs for this ‘Vierseenblick’ view, so you keep going.  Then you get to a second café with this alternative view…. What I think really happened is the café owner bought this land, and then later realized, ‘Oh crap, we have an obstructed view of the river that the other café doesn’t have.  I know – let’s market it that the river looks like 4 lakes from here since you can only see bits and pieces of it.  Then people will come even though our view sucks!’.  <End scene>. 

After backtracking to the first café with the better views, we shared a piece of strawberry cake (where I had to scrape off the gelatin that surrounds the fresh strawberries - I just don’t get why Germans do this and ruin a perfectly good cake with gelatin). 

The full oxbow view

As it was getting close to check-in time at the super amazing castle hotel, we hopped in the car and drove south to the town of Oberwesel. As my mom has a better photo of this castle/hotel from her Rhine trip last year, I will use that one (we never had clear blue skies this last weekend). 

I have to say – this place did not disappoint.  In fact it blew us away.  Minus the four flights of stairs to get to our room (good exercise) – there is nothing negative I can say.  Our room was decorated how you would want a castle hotel room to look, and it had a balcony with a gorgeous Rhine view.  I only wish I could have checked out each and every room because they are all different (based on what I saw online).  For our records, we had room 35. 

After picking up our jaw from the floor, and Noah lugging in our luggage (he didn’t want to use the advertised luggage service since he is big and strong), we set off to check out the gardens.  Because hotel guests have exclusive access to the castle gardens.  Even more wows.  I mean there are so many nooks and crannies in the multi-level garden that you can sit and read a book.  And they have things like a tree-house, a bocce ball court, a dart board, and a pool table – all hidden around the gardens.  They did a FABULOUS job for sure! 

A small hut on the left with reading chairs inside, the tree-house on the right with two levels of seating

Not the garden, but the pretty courtyard of the castle hotel

Because the gardens were so pretty, and we were dressing up for dinner, Noah had the idea to take the tripod back down there and have a photo shoot of us.  Like I am going to pass that up!!  I only wish I had something other than green dresses with me to keep me from blending in.  We ended the photo shoot at the dartboard, so naturally we had to play.  For whatever reason, these darts just wouldn’t work for me.  I ended up dropping one on my leg (thank goodness I have my tetanus shot) and only made a few hit the board.  It was a dumb dartboard.  

Soon it was time for our 5 course dinner (included when you stay at the hotel).  It was all very fancy as expected, but also very delicious.  We ate things like snails and truffle pasta and homemade peppermint ice cream.  Yum!  And they even had our name on the table – it made me feel important.

Based on another tip from our German guidebook (I think this is only the second trip we even looked at the book), we drove down on Monday to the little town of Bacharach.  This town is super adorable – it is full of timber-framed houses and is surrounded by pieces of the old stone town wall. 

As the guidebook only suggested going here, and didn’t tell us what to do beyond parking and walking in, Noah and I began to wander.  We took a side street and found a sign with a picture of a donkey and an arrow leading up some steps.  Naturally we followed the sign, and soon found ourselves gaining elevation above the town and eventually made it to the Postenturm – an old tower along the town wall.  We were able to walk up most of it for some amazing views, and to help plan our next move. 

We followed a path that led us through a magical part of town where people’s entrance ways to their front gardens took you over a bridge over a creek (I don’t have photos because I just don’t), and eventually up to the Wernerkapelle.  Photos of these ruins don’t do it justice – it is so beautiful to see these windows without the glass. 

After a picnic of PBJ’s by the river, we drove back to our hotel for some Piratenbilliards (my gift to Noah for our ‘wooden’ anniversary) and maybe we watched Dumb and Dumber… isn’t that what you do on a romantic anniversary trip? 

After our last (fancy) dinner, we made it back to our balcony to see that the clouds actually parted to give us a sunset!!!  It was the best ending to an amazing getaway! 

We came back home Tuesday to some tiny dogs (we had them shaved last week) who were happy to have us home.  I was glad, seeing as Sadie gave us some major shade on Saturday when we left them.  She was sitting in the living room, so I went to pet her head goodbye.  She ducked from my hand and moved over 2 feet.  So Noah goes to her and tries to pet her goodbye, and she ducks him and goes under the coffee table to avoid us both.  Good to know all is forgiven!

Catching up with the Apapapate's

We recently caught up with our good friend Rakesh and his wife Emily, who we met for the first time.  They were both travelling for work and had to make a short stop in Switzerland.  So we spontaneously arranged a weekend meet-up with them along the Austrian/German/Swiss border at Lake Constance (also known as Bodensee).

We picked them up at the town of Bregenz, Austria in the Honda Jazz.  We made the 2 hour drive from Munich and they took the train in from Zurich (you know, the Washington DC to Zurich to Bregenz connection).  We didn’t waste any time on chitchat and headed straight for the nearest mountain gondola (Pfanderbahn) to get up into the mountains, enjoy some views, and drink a beer.  We made a few attempts to stroll around the animal park but the rain kept us mostly inside.  

Eventually we set out for an early arrival to our hotel in the nearby town of Mellau, which happened to be offering cheaper rates than along Lake Constance.  We were in for an amazing surprise as we made the 30 minute drive to our hotel.  The mountains and scenery were so incredibly beautiful… I will let the pictures do the explaining on this one.   But the surprises did not end there because we were completely blown away by the amazing guest house we ended up at.  Apparently it is brand new and we may have been one of the first guests to stay there (at least judging by Booking.com).  Our little apartment was equipped with a kitchen and an enclosed balcony with the most spectacular waterfall and mountain views.  This felt like a 5 star kind of place for a 2 star price. 

After an evening of catching up we spent the next day back along Lake Constance in the town of Lindau.  This is the same place we came to for Julie’s birthday last year so we were able to navigate our way around the adorable little town with ease.  Number one on our destination for the day was this restaurant/café which offers the most delicious wraps and healthier oriented fresh food (exactly the kind of food missing from the scene in Munich).  This was one of the highlights from our previous trip to Lindau and we were not about to pass it up.  And just like we remembered, the fresh wraps were incredible.  Oh and of course spending the day with our fabulous friends from America was also wonderful. 

It was, however, just a short visit, which meant we were back on the road to Munich by the afternoon.  So the last time I saw Rakesh was of course in Brazil for the World Cup last year.  The time before that we were in Hawaii.  I sense a trend here, looking forward to seeing you in Asia somewhere and sometime in the near-future old buddy old pal!

Scotland - Home of the Highland Cow

Ever since we moved to Munich, I had Scotland on my list of ‘must-see’ locations.  When my brother, Logan, and his wife, Ashley, decided to come for another visit in April, we all decided that Scotland would be the perfect place for three gingers (and Noah) to visit.  I can say that after spending 9 days in the north of Britain, I found I enjoyed it even more than I expected. 

We arrived in Edinburgh Saturday afternoon and picked up our rental car.  Noah mastered driving on the left (again) quickly, and even navigated the city with only a few wrong turns.  After locating our hotel and dropping off our bags, we decided to walk around the town a bit.  Logan’s destination was a Barclays bank to avoid ATM fees, and on the way there we passed some beautiful architecture and views. 

After the Barclays stop (which ended up being the location where someone swiped Logan’s ATM information and stole a few thousand pounds…. watch out Americans without a chip on your debit card), we stopped for a pre-dinner dinner of 5£ fish and chips.  It sure wasn’t the best fish and chips we had on the trip, but it was enough to hold us over through our next stop – sunset at Calton Hill.  

While we didn’t capture the dramatic sunset I was hoping for (lack of clouds), we still had a great time and were able to get a few group shots and some nice photos of the city. 

Once it was dark enough, we wandered back down Princes St and found a pub near our hotel.  Here is where I remembered that the UK has cider!!  Cider wouldn’t be ‘pure’ enough for the Bavarians, though I guess a Radler is as close as I will get.

We woke up Sunday and officially began our weeklong road trip.  First stop – St Andrews.  I clearly needed to brush up on my UK trivia as I had no idea that this was the place Will and Kate met, nor that there is a famous golf tournament held there.  I just knew that there were some pretty ruins I wanted to see – the St Andrews Cathedral.  It was built back in the 12^th century as a Catholic cathedral (the largest ever built in Scotland), but after Catholic mass was outlawed in the 16^th century, it fell into disuse. 

After exploring the ruins, we wandered through the little town and saw the St Andrews Castle ruins from afar (it cost £ to go in). We then had delicious ice cream at Jannettas Gelateria – only afterwards learning that this is THE place to get ice cream in the area.  Definitely worth the long line. 

Cute stone buildings

The Castle

Our drive continued through a nice rain/hail/snow storm, and we made it to Dunnottar Castle (more ruins!!).  Luckily the hail/snow and most of the rain wore off by the time we parked, so we pushed on to make it to the ruins before they stop selling tickets.  After the small hike out towards the cliff edge entrance, we purchased our tickets and made our way inside… just as the rain returned.  We ran around the grounds in our raincoats and umbrellas… oh wait, it was only me with both.  I ran around with my raincoat and umbrella while the others got a wee bit wet with just raincoats, and tried to see everything in the hour we had before closing.  Just as we left the gate and began walking the path back up the mainland, the rain stopped and gave us a few clear shots of the castle. 

On the drive

5 minutes after getting back on the road, the snow came.  Of course – it is late April, why wouldn’t it be snowing??  We arrive at our B&B for the night, and the owner let us know that this weather is NOT normal, so I decided to consider it lucky to experience this strange spring snow.  But the poor little babies that were recently born (the lambs and calves we saw everywhere) probably didn't agree. 

We ended the night at the Lairhillock Inn pub where us gals had the best fish and chips ever, and the guys had equally delicious Scottish roast beef.  YUM. 

Noah and I decided to wake up early Monday to try to catch sunrise back at Dunnottar Castle.  Again the clouds could have done more for us, but I never regret getting up after-the-fact (while the alarm is going off though… that is another story). 

Noah and I returned to the B&B to collect the Steffens’, and we decided to check out the town of Stonehaven before starting the day’s drive.   It was a cute town with a pretty beach, but not much in the way of shopping or food that we could see. 

Based on the recommendation of the B&B owner and the route Garmin naturally gave us, we decided to make our way to Loch Ness via the Cairngorms National Park.  Our timing was good because just the day before, the pass over the top of the mountains was closed from that hail/snow/rainstorm.  But while we were in Stonehaven that morning, they had plowed the roads just for us!  The drive was gorgeous – I had no idea how ‘high’ the highlands would go.  Plus I had my first close up sighting of a highland cow, my new obsession.  These guys are so adorable with their fluffy fur and rocker hairstyles. 

Eventually we made it to Loch Ness, and visited… you guessed it!... another set of castle ruins!!  This one is called Urquhart – and it dates from the 13^th century.  I am usually not a fan of informational movies at sites like these, but they do a really good job with it.  And they have a very nice gift shop – I found my red wool tartan blanket I had been searching for. 

For dinner we ventured into Fort Augustus based on a recommendation from the hotel.  Our destination was the Boathouse Restaurant – and not only was the food delicious, but the lighting in Fort Augustus was fabulous.    

Ashley and I waiting on the food

Tuesday morning we woke up to light drizzle, but that didn’t stop us from going back into Fort Augustus to sign up for a Loch Ness boat ride.  What did stop us was the fact that only 2 other people had the same idea, and 12 are needed for the boat to run.  Since Logan didn’t want to shell out the money to buy up the other 6 seats, we instead entertained ourselves by watching two boats make their way down the series of locks towards Loch Ness. 

Our next stop on the Scotland Road Trip 2015 – Eilean Donan Castle.  Nope, they are NOT ruins!  Well, they were left to ruins in the 18^th century, but Lt. Col. John MacRae-Gilstrap restored them in the beginning of the 20^th century.  So we finally had a castle to visit that had a roof! 

Now it was time to begin heading to the Isle of Skye – the main reason for the giant road trip.  I mean why can’t Edinburgh be a bit closer to this island??  We took our time enjoying the drive, stopping along the way at the Sligachan Stone Bridge, for me to stalk my next highland cow, and then for us to see Mealt Falls.  I won’t include the photos of Mealt Falls here because we went two more times and those are better photos. 

By the time we arrive at the gorgeous Flodigarry hotel, the lighting outside was incredible.  And as Logan and Ashley had asked me to take some maternity photos during this trip, I demanded that we spend the next hour outside while I photographed the expanding Steffens family. 

It isn't easy getting Logan to be serious

We had planned to do a hike out on the Isle of Skye, specifically hike the Quiraing.  But the bad weather we had faced on the mainland the days before had also hit the Isle of Skye, turning the paths into mud and puddles.  As the Quiraing hike was on the edge of mountains, we decided to change tactics and hike the Rubha Hunish.  Unfortunately for Ashley, the mud was too much for her tennis shoes, so us non-pregnant folks made the trek to the point instead.  It was a beautiful hike – with views of the coast all around and the Quiraing in the distance. 

Ok, they were only on the drive to the hike - but they were too cute to leave out of the blog

The Quiraing on the left covered in clouds... good choice to stick to the coast!

Lunch on Wednesday will go down in my books as the best meal I had in Scotland – savory and sweet pies at Skye Pie Café at the Glenview hotel.  Oh My Goodness, I would consider moving here just to eat at this place every day.  Noah and I shared two pies – a tomato sauce based seafood pie and a crab, cheese, and spinach pie.  Noah and Ashley who aren’t really into pies (I think they need to be tested for a psychological disorder) thought they were good, for pies… The sane siblings however knew how to enjoy this lunch/dessert combo (dessert was an apple crumble pie that I ate too quickly to get a photo). 

As we had no real plans for the rest of the day, we decided to drive around the north part of the island.  We of course went back to Mealt Falls/Kilt Rock (named because the rock formation looks like a kilt), and drove across the Quiraing to Uig, then along the coast back to the hotel.  Naturally we stumbled upon some ruins (Duntulm Castle) and saw lots and lots of sheep. 

The sun was shining Thursday, and we decided to begin the day with a dinosaur hunt… or more specifically for fossilized dinosaur footprints at Staffin Beach.  There was a plaque with an incredibly unhelpful map of where to locate the footprints, and we all set out searching for them in the mossy rocks.  After about 10 minutes I gave up and went to take photos of the water instead.  20 minutes later the other three are still searching, and I decided to move from my spot over to the sandy beach.  As I am making my way across the rocks further down from the amateur fossil hunters, I happened to look down and see the footprints – MUCH further down the beach than the map suggested.  All’s well that ends well though, and we got to check out the footprints and I got to play with the camera. 

It's like a Where's Waldo/Wally/Walter of dino-track searchers!  Noah is up at the map trying to guide them, but that map sucks too much.

Meanwhile, I am enjoying the beach

Ta-da!

As we were moving to a different part of the island today, we did the same drive across the Quiraing, only this time with blue skies and gorgeous views.  Oh – and of course a third and last trip to Mealt Falls/Kilt Rock to say goodbye. 

Now they have blue skies behind them!

Our next stop was yet another castle – Dunvegan Castle.  This is Scotland’s oldest continuously inhabited castle – home of the chiefs of the Macleod clan for over 800 years.  This castle had gorgeous gardens all around – I think I enjoyed the tulips more than the castle itself.  We also got to tour around inside, but no photos were allowed in the castle itself. 

I was in love with the tulips

We had yet another fabulous dinner at The Old School Restaurant in Dunvegan.  I have forgotten how much I love seafood as Bavaria isn’t really known for good seafood (apart from steckerlfisch).  Scotland continued to impress me with the delicious restaurants.  

We had to wrap up dinner early as I had another sunset location on my itinerary – this one out on Neist Point, about 30 minutes from our hotel in Dunvegan.  Well it would normally be about 30 minutes except we encountered a nice Scottish traffic jam… of a sheep herding.  No worries – it was more fun to sit and watch the dog do its thing and move the sheep down the road.  Except at the end, when it was time for the sheep to turn into the gate and they panicked and made a 180 towards our car.  Luckily the woman in charge managed to stop them from escaping, and they all successfully made it to their final destination. 

That dog sure knew what to do!

We stopped to thank the woman for the nice show, and she ended up thanking us for not being jerks on the road.  Apparently earlier, she was moving a different flock and a tour bus came up the road.  These roads are small backcountry roads not designed for a bunch of traffic, but the tour bus kept creeping forward and had its tires at the back feet of the little lambs.  What a jerk!  I mean clearly the tour bus was full of tourists – I feel like tourists should always have to politely defer to locals in these situations…. not try to run over these people’s sheep!  End rant.

We made it to Neist Point and its lighthouse with right as the sun began its final descent.  As is true with the other attempts at capturing an amazing sunset/rise, the clouds just didn’t want to cooperate.  Oh well – it was still a beautiful sunset and an enjoyable end to a great day. 

I woke up Friday morning and looked out the window to see that there were AMAZING reflections on Loch Dunvegan.  Naturally I threw some clothes on and ran out towards the lake to snap some pictures. 

Next up on the itinerary was the Fairy Pools at Glen Brittle – definitely the highlight of the trip for me.  I am sure the gorgeous weather didn’t hurt.  It was a short hike from the parking lot to the various pools along the tributary.  The water is perfectly clear, the blue sky reflecting on it made it look turquoise, and if it wasn’t so cold I think we all would have jumped in with our clothes on.  I do have to say that the photo you find online when you google the pools is this set of waterfalls – we did make it there, but these falls are only about 1-2 feet tall…. It is all about the angle of the camera! 

After we had our fill of the fairy pools, it was time to head to Talisker for a whisky distillery tour and an amazing fresh seafood lunch at the Oyster Shed.   We have no photos of the tour, but I do have a photo of Noah’s and my lunch of fresh lobster, mussels, shrimp, fish, and scallops. 

Now that we were done with our time on the Isle of Skye, we had a long road ahead of us to get back to Edinburgh.  To help break up the drive across Scotland, we stopped for the night in Loch Lomond.  I am sure the place deserved more time than we gave it, but the next morning we were back in the car towards Edinburgh. 

We arrived back in our starting city in the early afternoon, and made our way to Rose Street for lunch.  On the walk through the city, we saw a wild fox roaming the street.  I ended up googling this to see what was going on, and apparently Edinburgh has been having an issue the past few years with feral foxes entering the city.  Hope people have their small dogs and cats locked up safe! 

After lunch we made our way up to Edinburgh Castle – it sits atop a hill with beautiful views of the city.  The castle is a definite tourist hotspot – there were a lot of us there that Saturday, even though the weather was overcast and had spots of drizzle.  There are plenty of buildings that you can explore, including the old prison and a military museum. 

On the right - a member of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guard

As luck would have it we timed our visit so that as we were ready to leave, the castle was closing.  We wandered down the Royal Mile and back to the hotel.  That night we enjoyed our last meal of fish and chips and then hit up a pub for dessert/drinks. 

We awoke to our first full day of rain on Sunday.  No worries – we had plans to hit up Camera Obscura, a cool attraction Noah had discovered.  The actual Camera Obscura is in the top floor of the building.  It is an old exhibition observatory built in the 1800s.  Basically it is like sitting inside a camera where the lens can be moved all around the top of the tower.  You sit in a dark room with a round table while the guide moves the camera around.  You can see all around Edinburgh, the people visiting the castle, the cars driving past the Royal Mile, etc. 

Then the rest of the floors are their ‘World of Illusions’ – filled with holograms, tricks of the eye, a mirror maze, and a rotating vortex tunnel.  We did rush through it a bit on the fast side since a huge group of (very loud) school kids were on our heels. 

Now I am officially out of pictures for the rest of the day – so the delicious Mexican food lunch with FRESH CHURROS as dessert will not have photo accompaniment.  Neither will the drive back to the airport and the journey to the apartment, but you can believe that there were two little pups that were very happy that our trip had come to an end.