Brandon O'Brien

Wednesday, September 7, 2022 @ 10:15 PM in 2022 Germany and France

Day 14

Today was another chill day in Nice. In the morning I ran down to get some fruit and bread, then we hung out in the Airbnb until 11:30 or so. I made some more dipping oil for the baguette and we snacked on that with some grapes as a light lunch.

We met up with Kat and walked down to old town Nice which is a maze of narrow winding streets. All of the shops were fairly touristy but it was still fun to walk around. We stopped at a little restaurant and got a few plates to share (hummus, chicken fingers and fries) since it was about 2:30 and we hadn't really had a real lunch. We originally had ordered some ceviche and a different dish but got the hummus and chicken fingers instead. Oh well, they still tasted fine.

Kat went back to her place to feed Rowan so Sam and I walked around a little more trying to find a souvenir. We ended up in a shop selling nougat and with a language barrier Sam ended up with a giant slice of it. Apparently it lasts for a while and they vacuum sealed it so it should travel just fine, but it was way more nougat than we were expecting.

After that, we walked down to the beach promenade and then made our way back over to Kat's place. The plan for dinner was going to be making a roasted pork dish at Kat's apartment and we still needed to pick up a few ingredients. We met Kat at the grocery and got everything else we needed, including more bread and some cheese to snack on.

Back at Kat's apartment, we let the babies have tummy time together and then hung out while dinner was cooking. Kat's brother, John, is in town visiting as well so he showed up with a big bottle of local white wine. Dinner was really good. The pork was marinaded with a bunch of spices like cocoa powder, red chile powder, cumin, paprika and cinnamon. It then simmered in a sauce for about an hour and a half in the oven before we cut it up into cubes. The bread was great at soaking up the extra sauce from the pork. We also had a cabbage salad with dinner and it complimented it well.

Teaser photos:

Walking toward Old Nice

Narrow streets of Old Nice

Pork with bread and cabbage

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Tags: france, nice, europe

Posted from: France

Tuesday, September 6, 2022 @ 10:00 PM in 2022 Germany and France

Day 13

Today was a nice day spent in Nice. For breakfast we met up with our friend Kat who moved out here about a year and a half ago. We had breakfast at a nice cafe where I had another brioche french toast and Sam had some eggs benedict. We hung out and talked in the cafe for a while before grabbing some groceries and walking back to the Airbnb. On the way back, Kat picked up her son Rowan from a nanny and we got to meet him. He's about 6 weeks older than Dakotah but they actually look pretty similar. Sam and I refer to them as "generic white babies". We were hoping to get diapers at the little grocery shop but they only had size 3 packages which would be way too big for Dakotah.

We walked down to the beach so Sam could dip her toes in the Mediterranean then found another supermarket to buy diapers as well as some snacks. Kat signed us up for a wine tasting at 5:30pm and we wanted to make sure we had some food in our stomachs before doing that. Kat said to come by her place any time after 1:30 so we walked to her place (it's only a few blocks from the Airbnb, basically between us and the ocean). We got to see Juniper again for the first time in a year and a half (she's the dog we fostered for a couple months before Kat adopted her). We hung out at Kat's place chatting and snacking until it was time to head to the wine tasting.

We got on an extremely packed tram and took it two stops which popped us out right in front of the wine tasting shop. We were a couple minutes late but no big deal. In total there were eight different wines we sampled with a small group of eight people total. The wines were all really good but my favorite was a Chateau Labadie Medoc from 2012. It was very full bodied and oaky with a lot of caramel, vanilla and cinnamon flavors.

Feeling pretty tipsy and in desperate need of food, we walked around for a little while before finding a restaurant that had some food that looked appetizing. They had a mussles dish for one of their specials which sounded good but unfortunately they were out of it. I ended up getting pasta with meat sauce while Sam got some pizza with meat, mushrooms and olives.

The food definitely helped with the buzz but I could tell I should have eaten a lot more before we had gone to the wine tasting originally. Back at the Airbnb we got Dakotah fed and then got ready for bed ourselves.

Teaser photos:

The beach in Nice

Dakotah at the beach

Dakotah meeting Rowan (and Juniper)

Dinner after wine tasting

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Tags: france, nice, europe

Posted from: France

Monday, September 5, 2022 @ 8:43 PM in 2022 Germany and France

Day 12

Today was a pretty unexciting day spent almost entirely on trains or in train stations. We left our Airbnb in Strasbourg around 8:30 this morning after eating more yogurt, granola, bananas and leftover sausages from last night's dinner. Getting our giant suitcase down the stairs wasn't as big of an ordeal as we had feared and we were quickly on the tram toward the train station. We got there a little early but had plenty of time to get to our gate and find where the train car we had our seats was going to be.

We had three of the four seats at a table, only one of which was already occupied. Even though Dakotah is free and will be in our lap, they still give him a seat which is nice. We weren't quick enough to throw a bag down in the third seat and someone took it which made our area a little cramped. People can buy first class passes and sit in any open seat and that's what this guy was doing. Oh well, lesson learned.

We had some hummus and cut up red peppers as a snack, then had our leftover ham and cheese baguette for lunch. We passed through a lot of neat scenery and kinda skirted the alps on the way south. We made it to Aix-en-Provence where we were going to switch trains. The train station was pretty small but they had a little sandwich shop so we picked up some more sandwiches to eat as an early dinner. We knew we probably wouldn't be checked into our Airbnb in Nice until around 7 and didn't want to have to hunt down more food.

The trip from Aix to Nice was beautiful. It started out going through a lot of wine country and then made its way to the coast where we passed by several towns with really neat seaside cliff hugging homes. We made it to Nice on time and walked the short distance to the Airbnb. The key was in a lockbox around the corner but it was easy enough to find.

We took an extremely small elevator up to the 4th floor (not complaining about it at all... an elevator was very welcome after having to walk 3 flights of stairs with all our luggage in Strasbourg). So far the Airbnb seems really nice. There's a very tiny balcony but it'll be nice to sit out there with a glass of wine later in the week.

Our plan for tomorrow is to meet up with our friend Kat, who moved here earlier in the pandemic, after breakfast and then do a wine tasting with her later in the evening.

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Tags: france, nice, strasbourg, europe, trains

Posted from: France

Sunday, September 4, 2022 @ 7:52 PM in 2022 Germany and France

Day 11

The only thing on the agenda for today was visiting the Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg and then doing a little walk in the woods around there. We left the Airbnb and grabbed some baguette sandwiches for lunch (one with tuna and lettuce and another with ham and cheese). We were cutting it really close timewise to make our 9:51 train and unfortunately didn't make it. With an extra hour to kill, we strolled to the train station and I figured I'd buy our bus ticket to get us from Sélestat to the Chateau. I was a little hesitant to buy the ticket since I couldn't find the exact one I wanted but I went ahead and bought the closest thing I could find.

We got on a busy train that took us the quick 21 minute trip down to Sélestat. We had ten minutes or so to get the bus and fortunately everything was on time and the station was extremely small. The bus was waiting outside the station and when we tried boarding, the guy said what I bought thinking was the bus ticket was actually a train ticket. I ended up having to buy the real tickets on the bus. They were only 10 euros round trip for both of us combined, but it still sucked to spend money when I didn't need to.

If anyone finds this and wants to take the Ligne 500 from Sélestat to the Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg, just have 5 euros on hand per person round trip and buy your ticket on the bus itself. The Ligne 500 is a tourist bus that hits a Stork amusement park, a monkey sanctuary, an eagle reserve and finally the Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg. It only takes about 30 minutes to get to the Chateau and the bus runs every hour, timed to hit the Strasbourg / Colmar train line.

On the ride up, we passed through a little town called Kintzheim (really cool little town by the way) and there were a ton of people there for a bunch of ultra trail races. The race actually went all the way up (at least in part) to the Chateau, ran through it and then back down to town. While on the bus, Dakotah had another big accident so the first thing we did when we got to the Chateau was to find somewhere to change him. It was kinda tough finding somewhere since there were a ton of people everywhere. We finally found a shaded area with a stone wall that we could change him.

With a clean baby, we went up toward the ticket counter and saw that they actually had nice changing rooms in the restrooms. Oh well, you live and learn. We bought our tickets, ate our tuna baguette in a courtyard in the castle and then walked through the Chateau. It was restored to look as close to the original as they could and was really neat to walk through. The original castle was started around the year 1100. We walked through some "obstacle course" style defenses with draw bridges, heavy metal gates, turrets where archers would be and other ways to keep invaders out.

From there we went by the well and through the cellar and kitchens. After that was up to the living quarters of some of the wealthier residents and then around to some more defenses with cannons and other guns. There were some really cool views of the valley below, which makes sense because the Chateau was built to monitor and tax the salt trade.

When we finished the tour, we did a walk on some of the trails around the Chateau (and saw a ton more of the ultra runners). The trail took us by another ruined castle just a little farther west of the main Chateau we toured. It was really lush and green with a lot of moss everywhere but it was fortunately not humid today. The trails around there seemed like a huge network and you could actually cover a lot of ground on them. It would have been a cool place to spend some real time hiking if we had the proper gear and didn't have a baby to carry around.

We caught the bus back to the train station, then took the train back to Strasbourg. Back at the Airbnb we started to organize our stuff to pack for our trip to Nice tomorrow, finished up the local wine, started laundry and ate dinner (more of the couscous mix from the other day plus the rest of our mushrooms and some sausages). Our train to Nice leaves tomorrow around 9am so we'll make sure to leave here with plenty of time to get our giant checked bag down the three flights of stairs and over to the train station. We have about 6 hours on trains tomorrow so we'll eat our second baguette from today for lunch tomorrow.

Teaser photos:

80HL foeder

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Tags: france, chateau, europe

Posted from: France

Saturday, September 3, 2022 @ 7:53 PM in 2022 Germany and France

Day 10

We didn't have any real kind of plan today since it was set to rain all day. We still ended up waking up some time around 7 and just kinda sipped coffee until around 9pm. For breakfast we went to a restaurant called Comme à la maison. They had a pretty big variety of choices but we settled on some brioche french toast, a croque madame and an order of rotis (round hash browns) along with a cafe au lait and a cappuccino. All of the food was really good and I'd definitely recommend the rotis.

After breakfast we set out to find some local cheese to have with our wine tonight and some artwork to bring home with us. First we went to the Alsace museum thinking they might have some small prints or postcards that we could take home, but nothing really stood out to us. After that we went to the Strasbourg museum and struck out there as well. When we left the Strasbourg museum we saw a cheese and meat shop and popped in. The area is known for their Munster cheese so we picked up a little wheel. It was a lot stinkier than I had expected and it was smelling up our bag as we were walking around, lol.

We figured we'd go to the tourist office and see if they had a recommendation on somewhere to find artwork but along the way we found a big "Strasculture" festival taking place at the Cathedral. We walked around some of the booths and found one that was using several hundred year old printing blocks to make pressed artwork for people. Perfect! Sam picked out one of the blocks and she got to add the ink, roll the press and stamp the print afterwards. We talked to the guy who was the president of the organization and he said they go around to all the various print shops going out of business and buy their old gear. He hopes they can have a storefront some day but for now they just travel around to various festivals. They also had a walking tour of Strasbourg that showed all of the old printing press locations where you could load an app and see what used to be printed there. If we had another free day here it would have been fun to do.

We still went to the tourist office and asked about any hiking in the area we could do tomorrow. They pointed us on a castle southwest of here that could be accessed by train then bus. We looked it up and that's going to be our plan for tomorrow since the weather should be nicer. While we were in the tourist office it had started raining again so we quickly got back to the Airbnb so we wouldn't ruin our print.

We lounged for a little bit while it rained and then headed out for lunch. We knew we wanted to get some crepes so we went by one place that had them on the menu but the restaurant was full. Not wanting to deal with that (and the really high prices), we went around the corner and found a takeaway crepe place and got some to go. I got a ham and cheese crepe and Sam got one with Nutella and bananas. Both were tasty and we ate them in a park near Palais Rohan.

We walked around a little more and ended up ducking into a grocery store to get some more yogurt for breakfast and something to make for dinner tomorrow night. We also picked up some grapes, red currants, hummas and red peppers to snack on. After that we swung by a boulangerie and bought a baguette to have with our stinky cheese and wine later. After all those errands we came back to the Airbnb where Sam took a nap and I got some work done.

Around 4pm we opened the wine and busted out the stinky cheese and baguette. The cheese, while a little smelly, tasted really good and went well with the wine and bread. The wine is a local Riesling but actually tasted a little more like a cider. It wasn't really like any Riesling I remember having in the past.

After our little cheese, bread and wine session we went out to find a light dinner at a local brasserie. We had walked by Le Troquet des Kneckes last night and it looked pretty packed so we figured it would be a good place to go. We stopped in and grabbed a seat inside and ordered a beer and some fish and chips (not really local, but we didn't want more bread and cheese so a lot of the local fare was out of the running). Our waitress was actually from Wisconsin but it sounded like she'd been in France for a long time since she was apologizing for not remembering some English words, haha. Once we finished that up we did some more aimless walking around and got some ice cream before heading back to the Airbnb.

Teaser photos:

Using old printing blocks for some artwork

Crepes for lunch

Some tight alleys

Sam chasing a pigeon

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Tags: france, strasbourg, europe

Posted from: France

Friday, September 2, 2022 @ 7:24 PM in 2022 Germany and France

Day 9

There was a lot of activity on the streets outside our Airbnb last night. It seemed like drunk people were walking by screaming and shouting until almost 5 in the morning. Tonight we're going to try shutting the windows to help keep the noise down. We were both up by about 7am, had some coffee and ate breakfast over the next hour and a half. I was looking at the train schedule to Freiburg and saw that the train we wanted (departing Strasbourg at 9:58am) had some issues so we tried to get to the station for the 9:20 train. Unfortunately we missed the tram and wouldn't get to the station in time so we meandered through town to the station and hung out for a little while until the 10:20 train.

Because of the different train we took, we had about an hour to kill at our connection in Offenburg, Germany. We walked into town and got some food to hold us over so we wouldn't be starving when we got into Freiburg. I got essentially a sauceless pizza and Sam got the same toppings on a pretzel. Both were good and did their job of filling us up. While we were eating, Dakotah had a poop explosion and got his onesie covered. We ended up having to change him and wipe him down in a park behind a big church. We also realized we were almost completely out of wipes so we'd need to pick up some more in Freiburg.

We got back to the train station and hopped on our 11:26am high speed train to Freiburg. The trip only took a half hour and was pretty uneventful. Our regional train pass was working well since we could hop on an off whichever trains we wanted to in the area without having to buy new tickets. When we arrived in Freiburg we ran into a DM store and picked up a new packet of diaper wipes.

Walking into town we saw an archeological museum that had a bunch of grape vines in front of them. Some of the grapes were ripe and we tried a few which were really good. We're assuming the grapes they had out there were the ones that grow really well in the area. From there, we made our way over to the Schlossburg area where we were going to hike up to the Schlossburgturn (the big tower). The walk through town brought us through a bunch of markets and really cool cobbled streets that still have some old sewage and water canals in them (no sewage now, haha). We also passed by the Martinstor which was a 13th century gate in the wall around town. Now there's a McDonalds underneath it, lol.

The hike up to the tower was pretty steep but it was mostly paved and pretty well marked. There were a bunch of various trails that all weaved through each other but most ultimately made it to the tower. The tower is 153 steps up to a big lookout with some amazing views of the area. I went up there while Sam stayed on the ground. It was probably a good choice on her part since the tower was slightly swaying in the wind at the top.

After hiking back into town, we went to the Feierling biergarten and had some of their Inselhopf (an unfiltered wheat beer that was very easy to drink) and some sausages with kraut, mustard and some slices of bread. It was nice hanging out in the beer garden, even if there were a decent amount of flies and our waitress wasn't very attentive. It took quite a while to flag her down and get the bill.

From the beer garden we walked over to the Freiburger Munster (the main cathedral in town) where we snapped some pics and then started walking back to the train station. Along the way we saw a bunch of people with boba tea so we hunted the shop down and got some too. We got one with taro and coconut and it was a good thirst quencher. We both realized how little water we'd had to drink today so having something to drink other than beer was extremely welcomed.

The train rides back to Strasbourg were uneventful. We just retraced our route here by getting the high speed train to Offenburg and then a regional train to Strasbourg. We got back into Strasbourg around 5pm and were pretty hungry already. We walked around a little while hoping to see somewhere that jumped out to us but ultimately decided on more Asian by going to a place called East Canteen. I got a Japanese pancake and Sam got some Pad Thai. The pancake was really filling and Sam's pad thai was really flavorful.

On the walk back to the hotel we saw one restaurant that I bookmarked as a potential location to eat tomorrow. It was also next to a cheese and meat shop so we'll probably get some meat, cheese and a baguette and snack on that with our wine that we still need to try. Tomorrow is calling for thunderstorms all day so we're going to take it easy and play it by ear. We're hoping to find some souvenirs in town so tomorrow might be a great day to do that.

Teaser photos:

Martinstor

Near the Gewerbekanal

Schlossbergturm

View from Schlossbergturm

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Tags: france, germany, freiburg, strasbourg, europe

Posted from: France

Thursday, September 1, 2022 @ 9:30 PM in 2022 Germany and France

Day 8

We took this morning easy since we weren't in a rush to get to Colmar. Yesterday I had bought some yogurt, granola and bananas to have for breakfast so we wouldn't need to eat out. It made a pretty good alternative (at least for a day or two), to pastries and sweets. Around 9:30 we started to get ready to catch the 10:21 train. Sam wanted another coffee so we went around the corner and got a coffee from Dreher, a small bakery and coffee shop.

I tried buying our tickets to Colmar but every time I used the kiosk, it kept rejecting my card. I tried another card and got the same problem. We didn't want to just hop on the train without a ticket and risk getting in trouble, so I pulled up the SNCF website (the train system here in France) and bought our tickets there. Fortunately I was able to do it with about one minute to spare before the train left.

The train only took about 30 minutes to get between Strasbourg and Colmar and passed by some really cool mountains with castles on the tops of them. There were also a ton of corn fields and farms stretching between the towns. The Colmar train station wasn't too far from the town center and was an easy walk. We stopped at the Parc du Champ de Mars where they had a couple big water fountains before making our way into the old town.

Colmar is full of half-timbered buildings similar to Strasbourg but I'd say Colmar is a lot more compact of a city. The St. Martin's Church was our main destination and we found a big area of it fenced off. They were doing a huge archeological dig on an old cemetery dating back to the 1300s (more info here). The crazy thing is they were excavating the skeletons a few feet away from the crowds. Lots of people were watching and it was interesting to see how they were working.

We walked from there over to the Little Venice area via an artist market and the Schwendi Fountain . The fountain was surrounded by a lot of the half timbered buildings and was a neat little spot. Little Venice was beautiful with the half timbered houses lining the canals that ran through town. It wasn't a huge area but was still neat.

Not really sure what to do for lunch, we ended up getting Poke bowls which we convinced ourselves were probably healthier than Alsace cuisine. We'll have plenty of time left to eat more of it before we head off to Nice. After lunch we walked through the Little Venice area again and then got a raspberry and creme eclair for a post-lunch dessert. The eclair was really light and tasted great.

We passed by St. Martin's Church again and watched some more of the excavating. The guy driving the little earth mover seemed to be recklessly driving over stuff we thought might be important and then digging holes without any sort of caution that there might be bodies underneath. I guess they know what they're doing but it still seemed odd.

Our last stop in town was to a wine shop to pick up a local bottle of Riesling produced in the area. We've got it chilling down now and will drink it later in the week. We got back to the train station and bought another ticket for a train departing a few minutes later and headed back to Strasbourg. Back at the station we figured we'd walk back to the Airbnb instead of taking the tram. It was a pretty nice walk through a part of the city we hadn't been to before.

Back at the Airbnb we relaxed for a little while before breaking out the baguette, cheese and beer. I opened the bottle of Cantillon first. It's a really well known beer as being one of the best examples of the lambic style. The bottle I found for 10 euros would easily go for $40-60 in the states. The beer was very nice with a huge amount of cherry flavor and not much tartness. While a very delicious beer, I would have been disappointed had I paid $60 for it. After that, we finished off the last of our wine from last night and then heated up some leftovers for dinner (the veggie/couscous mix from last night and some salad and tart flambee from yesterday's lunch).

With a couple hours to kill before bed, we set out and did another aimless wander around Strasbourg. This time we found some really packed areas full of packed restaurants. We then crossed over the river and walked around some of the newer part of town. This seemed a lot more geared towards locals with a lot more packed restaurants and bars.

Back at the Airbnb we're kinda planning what to do tomorrow. I think the plan will be to buy the Deutsche Bahn regional pass for Baden-Wuertemberg for 31 euros. This will give Sam and I unlimited travel for the day in the state (which covers everything near Strasbourg) and we'll head to Freiburg. There's a little bit of hiking, some beer gardens and some sights to see there which should be neat. It's going to take a little longer to get there so we might need to start earlier in the day.

Teaser photos:

Colmar sculpture in Parc du Champ de Mars

Excavating bones at St. Martin's Church

Little Venice in Colmar

Raspberry and creme eclair

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Tags: france, colmar, europe

Posted from: France

Wednesday, August 31, 2022 @ 8:39 PM in 2022 Germany and France

Day 7

The rain last night really helped cool the Airbnb down at night. We woke up a few times to feed Dakotah but otherwise had a pretty decent night sleep. Once we had some coffee at our room, we set off to find some breakfast. I found a patisserie around the corner so we headed over there. I had an eclair with a coffee cream filling and Sam had a quiche. Both were good but I think the quiche was the better choice (more fill and not just straight sugar). We ate under a tree on some benches and then set off to see some of the sights around town.

First on the list was La Petite France. This is the area with the most old half-timbered buildings, small canals and winding narrow roads. The buildings were really interesting and the way all of them are crooked and the streets are really winding make the area fun to get lost in. We aimlessly walked around and then made it to one of the bridges at the end of the island where they had some ramparts and a big covered bridge. We walked along the river around the city until we made it to the north side of the old town and then cut down to Place Kléber where there was a clothing market going on.

From there, we cut over to the east side of the old town, up toward the opera and through a big farmers market at Place Broglie. By now it was around 11:30 and we were getting tired of walking around so we went down to Au Brasseur, a local brewery and restaurant, to eat. They opened at 11 and we were almost the first ones there (people don't eat early here). Sam and I shared a brown ale, salad and tarte flambee (the Alsace version of pizza).

We came back to the Airbnb so Sam could take a nap and we could get off our feet for a little while. I took the opportunity to go run and get groceries for dinner. I got a bunch of veggies and a premade couscous salad to mix together, then went to a boulangerie to pick up a baguette, then a wine shop to get a bottle of local wine, a beer store we saw earlier to get some Cantillon (extremely rare to find in the states but was super cheap, relatively, here) and a Trappist beer.

The last stop on the journey was to a cheese shop to get some cheese to go with the bread. I didn't know what any of the cheeses were and the woman working there didn't speak English so I just picked a random cheese. Turns out it was a pretty mild goat cheese (not bad, but still has the goat milk flavor). The cheese shop was tucked away in a really cool alley with a bunch of other wine shops and bakeries. There were a couple restaurants that might be fun to go back to and sit and eat outside.

Back at the Airbnb I did a little work while Sam napped and then got a little nap myself. Unfortunately the windows in our Airbnb face south and it was getting really hot in here so napping wasn't the easiest. After a while the sun shifted and we could open the blackout curtains which helped get it to cool down more. I opened the wine and we had our cheese and bread with a little olive oil mix I made with salt, pepper and herbs d' provance.

I chopped the veggies I bought (mushrooms, carrot, zucchini, and red bell pepper) and sauteed those with the same spices as the dipping oil. When they were done I added the premade couscous salad and mixed it all together. It was a pretty good dinner and one filled with veggies (which we've been sorely lacking the last few days).

After our food settled and it cooled down some more we went out and got some gelato from the shop just outside our Airbnb. Sam got a scoop with caramel gelato and I got a scoop of chocolate chip. We ate them and walked back near the Cathedral then looped back over to La Petite France via the paths along the river surrounding the city. It was a great temperature outside and we enjoyed the walk.

Back at the Airbnb we've just been trying to wind Dakotah down for bed and I started some laundry. We're planning on going to Colmar tomorrow to see a different city with similar old half-timbered buildings. Trains run down there every 30 minutes and it only takes about 30 minutes, so we're not really in a rush to get moving. I bought some yogurt, granola and bananas so we can have breakfast here without needing to eat something out.

Teaser photos:

La Petite France in the morning

Dakotah by a fountain

Gelato for dessert

La Petite France in the evening

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Tags: france, strasbourg, half timber

Posted from: France

Tuesday, August 30, 2022 @ 8:25 PM in 2022 Germany and France

Day 6

Today started out reasonably well. We both got some sleep and Sam ran downstairs to the coffee shop and picked us up some Chai. We made some croissant sandwiches for breakfast, finished packing and then went down to the train station to catch our first train of the day. We thought it might take a while to find our gate but it was actually pretty easy. With some time to kill, Sam set off to find another coffee and a snack.

We boarded our train and got settled in for the 3 hour ride to Mannheim. It was pretty uneventful, although we were losing time at each stop and we weren't sure if we'd make our 11 minute layover from Mannheim to Strasbourg. Lunch was leftover pizza from last night, which was actually pretty decent on the train. Some of the towns and countryside we passed through were really neat. Many of the towns had cathedrals or towers in the middle of them. Near Stuttgart, there were some vineyards on what looked like sheer cliffs too. When we left Stuttgart, the train said it was running 8 minutes late but we made up a little bit of time. Before arriving in Mannheim, they showed a list of updated connections and showed that our train to Strasbourg was also running a little late. With a sigh of relief, we didn't need to rush to get to the other gate.

Once we got to Mannheim, we got off and went to gate 5 where it said our train would be. We were supposed to be on the TGV9580 which went direct to Strasbourg. This is where the day went from chill to stress-fest. Our train was supposed to depart at 2:48 (after delays) and at 2:47 a train pulled up to gate 5. Not thinking anything about it, we got right on the train, found car 11 and sat down. One of the seats we were supposed to be in was taken, but that didn't seem too weird since some people kinda sit wherever they want and then move if the person with the reservation comes. Right as the doors shut and the screens updated to show the next stop, I realized we were on the wrong train. This one was going right back to Stuttgart (about 40 minutes away), and not Strasbourg.

With no other options, we were stuck on the train and had to figure out another way to get to Strasbourg from Stuttgart. The train we were supposed to be on was the only direct from Mannheim, so backtracking to Mannheim again wasn't going to help us out. We found some regional trains that would require two different transfers but would ultimately get us to Strasbourg (albeit, 2.5 hours after we were supposed to get in).

Back in Stuttgart, we jumped on our first train which was an extremely overcrowded commuter to Karlsruhe with a 50 minute ride time. Once in Karlsruhe, we got on another packed train to Appenweier. This one was doubly annoying because our huge roller bag took up like 3/4 of the aisle so every time someone wanted to walk by, they had to shimmy around the bag. There weren't any restrooms on this train either and Dakotah was in serious need of changing. With several delays and stops, we finally made it to Appenweier after about 45 minutes.

Due to the train being late, we missed our connection in Appenweier but fortunately there were trains running every 30 minutes to Strasbourg. This at least gave us time to change Dakotah at the train station (on the top of our suitcase in the parking lot, lol). At 6:11 we jumped on our last train of the day and made the 11 mile journey across the Rhine river into France.

After finally arriving in Strasbourg, we had to jump on the tram to take us into town. The tram station we got off at was just a couple hundred feet from the Airbnb which was convenient. What wasn't so convenient was having to carry a 50 pound roller bag up 3 flights of several hundred year old stairs to get to our apartment. After a lot of sweating (I was carrying Dakotah, my backpack and the roller bag), we made it and were able to get to our room.

By now it was well after 7pm and we were tired, hungry and thirsty. We gave Dakotah a quick clothes swap and then went back downstairs to eat at a microbrewery and restaurant called La Lanterne, directly across from our Airbnb. Sam and I each got a beer (I had an amber and she had a weissebier). For food, I got a chicken cordon bleu with spatzel and mushroom sauce while Sam got a burger and fries. All the food and beer was good but we were super stuffed and tired.

Since it was already dark out, we decided to take a walk to Strasbourg's Notre Dame Cathedral which wasn't too far away. The cathedral took a couple hundred years to build (starting in the 1100's) and looks really neat, especially at night. We walked around the entire cathedral then made our way back to the Airbnb. Unfortunately due to historical regulations, they couldn't put A/C in the unit so have a couple of fans blowing to try and cool it down. It was still really hot in the room but not too long after getting home it started raining which helped cool things down considerably (it also helped get people off the streets, which was pretty loud from our open windows).

Teaser photos:

Before boarding train #1

On the train before the SNAFU`

Beers at La Lanterne

Notre Dame in Strasbourg

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Tags: germany, munich, trains, france

Posted from: France

Monday, August 29, 2022 @ 7:22 PM in 2022 Germany and France

Day 5

Today was a much needed rest day after several late nights and very little sleep. We got up around 8:30am, made some coffee in the room and then I set out to track down some laundry detergent so we could do a load of laundry in the basement of the hotel. There was a DM store around the corner and I found some laundry sheets there (basically sheets of soap you use). I went down to the laundry room to see if any of the machines were being used and saw a sign that said no detergent was needed... the machines automatically added it. Whoops. At least the detergent was cheap and doesn't take up much space.

I brought all the laundry down, put it in the machine and then started looking for a coin slot or start button. Turns out you had to use an app to reserve and start the machines. Not a big deal, but the wifi wasn't working in the basement and it was below ground so I didn't have any cell service. I went up to the lobby to download the app and get it started. For some reason it wouldn't let me immediately start it but I had to wait 10 minutes before it would let me start the machine.

Once we finally got the laundry going, Sam and I headed out to find some coffee and grab a quick snack for breakfast. By now it was getting close to 11 and we didn't want too much food since it was getting close to lunch. We found a Coffee Fellows near the train station and got a cappuccino and blueberry muffin. After that, the laundry was ready so we came back to switch it over to the dryer.

Not really sure what to do, we headed down to the Oktoberfest grounds to see all of the beer halls under construction. Back in 2008 we were able to walk through the grounds but now they have the whole thing gated off. We walked around it a little while and got to the Bavaria statue where we sat down for a little while and fed Dakotah. Allie video called us so Emmie and Sofie could see Dakotah again too.

I got a notification that the clothes were done so we went back to the hotel to grab our clothes and then find some food. Along the way, Sam found a couple Thai restaurants pretty close to the hotel so we picked one to try. The food hit the spot and it wasn't as heavy as sausage, potatoes and cabbage would have been.

We came back to the hotel for a quick break before heading out for an aimless wander around town. We started going through the botanical garden / park near our hotel, making our way back down to the Marienplatz and over to the Hofbrauhaus. After snapping a quick pick there (didn't need to go in since I had been there before and wasn't really feeling the need for more beer), we walked through Old Town and the Promenadplatz. On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a Rewe to grab something for breakfast in the morning. We landed on some croissants with cheese and meat.

Not really sure what to do for dinner, we went back to the same Doner place we had for lunch yesterday and got a couple pizzas. One was mushroom and prosciutto and the other was spinach, onion and feta. We brought them back to the hotel, ate and have been getting ready for our train ride to France tomorrow. Fortunately the train doesn't leave until 11:30am so we have plenty of time to get packed up in the morning. We also have some leftover pizza we can eat for lunch.

Teaser photos:

Oktoberfest grounds under construction

Bavaria Statue

Thai for lunch

Neptunbrunnen at the biopark near Karlsplatz

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Tags: germany, munich

Posted from: Germany