Bacharach and The Rhine River

The weekend that my brother, Nate, was here visiting us, we decided to go to Bacharach, a cute little town that we had heard about that is located in wine country along the Rhine River. We had heard that the town was a bit touristy, but worth the trip. When we looked at booking a hotel online we weren't able to find one actually in the town of Bacharach (and the good Bed and Breakfast place we had heard about from a friend was booked), but we were able to find one that didn't look like it was too far down the river from there. So, we got in the car and drove the two hour drive to see the sights.

The whole region is beautiful, with steep slopes going sharply up from the river on each side. You can see why it is such a popular destination for tourists to come and explore. It was breathtaking to see the vineyards on the sides of the mountains, up slopes so steep you wonder how the grapes are harvested to make the wine. The river itself is a beautiful and fairly fast-moving river. Along the way there are many castles dotted along the hills. From the town of Bacharach, while you were standing in the castle above the town, you could look out and see at least four other castles along the river. Many people come and tour this stretch of the river by boat. There are lots of different tour lines where the boats run all day between the little towns and you can get on and off as you like to tour the towns and castles then get on again on a later boat.

We had a good time looking around the town of Bacharach. We had a nice lunch at a restaurant with a river view, although Nate wasn't a fan of either the sweet Riesling wine (the regional specialty) nor the sweet beer that he ordered by accident. After lunch, we hiked up to see the castle above the town, Burg Stahleck, and then along the castle walls, and back down to the river.

The church in Bacharach

A view down the well in the castle

A look at the vineyards surrounding Bacharach

The view down the Rhine River from Burg Stahleck, which is a hostel where you can stay

Burg Stahleck

Nate, Mikayla, Darren, and I with part of Burg Stahleck in the background

The vineyards and the ruins of and old chapel in Bacharach

Downtown Bacharach

Darren and Mikayla and Bacharach city walls

Nate and Mikayla chilling on the steps. She had fun with her Uncle Nate.

After we toured around the town, we decided that it would be good to go check in to our hotel, which was located in the town of Rüdesheim. The site that we booked the hotel through said it was only about 13 km away from Bacharach, but didn't tell us that it was on the opposite side of the river from where we were. There aren't many bridges across the Rhine in this area, so we started thinking that we might have to do some good backtracking before we could get to the side of the river we needed to be on. Luckily, though, there are lots of ferries that shuttle people and cars back and forth across the river and several spots. We didn't have to go far before we found one. We drove up, saw that the ferry was there, drove on to the ferry, and it took off. Perfect timing.

On the ferry

Once we got to Rüdesheim, we checked into our hotel. We had reserved a "Junior Suite" that said that it fit three people. What we pictured from the words "Junior Suite" was quite a bit different than what we got. We were hoping for a couple of rooms so that we could close the door and Mikayla could sleep in one of them. What we got, though, was a long room that had a wall that went part of the way and stopped. No door. It wasn't a bad room, although we were near enough to the busy train tracks that it was pretty loud in there every time a train went by. They did have a great pool, though, which Darren, Mikayla, and I tested out after dinner while Nate went for a walk around the town.

After the pool, I let Darren and Mikayla head to bed while I went out to see if I could find Nate and to do a little exploring of my own. The town was really great, and I discovered that we might have a been a little hasty in finding a place to eat. We enjoyed our meal, but there were lots of fun restaurants along a street called Drosselgasse that looked like a lot of fun. In one, as I walked by I could see someone playing music and pretty much everyone in the restaurant singing along. I saw Irish themed bars, typical German restaurants and bars, Italian restaurants, and even Chinese food. It was fun to just wander around and see a little bit of the night life of the city. I never did run in to Nate, but met up with him back at the hotel.

Darren and Mikayla enjoying the pool

The next morning, we decided that we wanted to take a ride up the gondola that we could see that went up the mountain from Rüdesheim. They had a package that included tickets up the gondola from Rüdesheim, a couple of miles of walking through the forest at the top, a ride down a chairlift to another town, and a boat ride along the Rhine back to Rüdesheim. For an extra euro we could have included a castle tour in the trip, but we thought we were a little short on time to throw that in. It was a beautiful trip and we had a good time.

Mikayla and I on the gondola

Nate on the gondola

A view back towards Rüdesheim from near the top of the gondola ride

Darren posing

The Niederwalddenkmal, which was built to commemorate the foundation of the German Empire, after the end of the Franco-Prussian War. It was finished in 1883.

Nate on the chair lift back down the mountain

A view of a castle on the Rhine from the chairlift

Another castle, this one viewed from the boat back to Rüdesheim

After we got off the boat, we looked around the town a bit more, did a little souvenir shopping, then got in the car to go back home. We decided to drive the long way down the Rhine River on the side that we were on to see the sights, rather than taking the ferry to the other side and getting on a quicker road back to Embken. It was a beautiful drive.

Uncle Nate

Running in the Country

When my brother, Nate, was here visiting us, he made good use of all the wonderful paths and trails that are located in the area that we live. He is training to run his first marathon in October, so he didn't want to interrupt his training schedule during his trip. He went on several long runs while he was here and managed to explore more area than I've managed to do while here.

On the Friday that he was here, after he got back from his run, we decided to go on a walk so that he could take pictures of some of the places that he had run. Here are a few of the ones we took.

Farmland near Embken

A little chapel up on the hill

Sheep

Nate walking

Nate's daughter, Ally, wanted him to take her doll, Tasha, on his trip and take pictures of her in the different places that we went. So, this one's for you, Ally.

Nate and Luxembourg

A couple of days after Darren's parents left to go back to Oregon, my brother Nate came to visit us. His wonderful wife, Julie, volunteered to have their two kids, Ally and Jackson - the cutest niece and nephew ever- all by herself for a week while he came to visit us here in Germany. Thanks, Julie!

Mikayla and I drove in to Frankfurt to get him, since train tickets are much more expensive if you don't get them as part of a package deal with your airline tickets (like we did) than I thought they would be. Mikayla did great for the two hour drive over there. Nate's phone had died just as he was getting off the plane, so he had to find a pay phone and figure out how to use it before he could get a hold of me and arrange for a place to meet in the airport. We were a little late getting there, so Nate had a bit of time to explore the airport and sit while waiting, but we finally did meet up. We hung around at the airport for a little bit after that to have lunch and to let Mikayla run around for a little bit before the drive back to our apartment.

It was fun to be able to show the little part of Germany where we have been living to Nate. It was fun to be able to show him where we live and show him good places to go running. He is training for a marathon in October, so every time Darren and I had gone on walks or when I went running before Nate came I kept thinking about how much fun Nate was going to have on those trails.

The first day he was here, we just came back to our apartment, let him sleep a little, and went on a walk around the village where we live. On the second day, though, when Darren was at work, we decided to take a day trip to Luxembourg. It is a little over a two hour drive to get to Luxembourg, the city, so we thought it would be a fun trip. Nate drove the whole way there and back, so he got the experience of driving the autobahn. It is too bad that they stopped giving stamps for your passports at the borders now, but it is nice to say that we got to another country. And it is a beautiful country. The two or three hours that we had to explore were definitely not enough.

Nate in downtown Luxembourg

Luxembourg

Nate at the little cafe that we ate at. We both had yummy salads.

More Luxembourg

Mikayla after she enjoyed her strawberry ice cream

This is definitely a country that I would like to explore a little more. On the way back to our apartment in Embken, we decided to drive up through the country of Luxembourg instead of the faster way on the autobahn that we had taken to get there. It was beautiful driving through the winding roads through the little villages and country side.

Dinner out in Heimbach

Here is Darren to talk about the dinner that he had with his parents. I stayed home with Mikayla so that they could have an evening together.

I asked my parents, "What would you rather see, a castle on a cliff or a castle by the river?" There were mixed results so I was the tie-breaker and I chose to go to Heimbach on the Rur River. It is a beautiful little town in the Eifel wilderness (I believe Tracey wrote about it some time before) and is not very far from our village.



We tried to go to a good little restaurant that Tracey, Mikayla, and I had been to before but it was closed. We knew that when we saw a little old lady trying to get in through the front door but not having any luck. There was another restaurant nearby that was open so we went there instead.


Afterwards we headed to see the castle, it was cool to see in the dark and not too spooky (See the earlier post of Heimbach to see a full picture of the castle). We took off down a path that led to the river and a sweet playground. The best part of it was the zip-line that my Dad and I took full advantage of. By then we were finally tired and headed off for home. It was a nice evening with my parents.

7 Years and Counting

I am a little behind on getting this posted, but I was waiting to see if we could recover some pictures of the day. Sadly, the dinner date that Darren and I went out on for our seventh anniversary on August 10 was one of the few times on this trip that we didn't have our camera. Darren's parents were here and volunteered to watch Mikayla while we had a nice dinner out to celebrate. I think that we were just so excited to get out of the apartment here and on a real date that we left in a hurry and forgot the camera. We did take some with our cell phone, but they have since disappeared. That is the danger of using a borrowed phone that was programmed in a different language.

It is amazing to think that seven years have passed already. So much about our lives has changed in the past year or so with having a baby, me being home and not working, and now moving to Germany for the summer, but it is good to know that we still have the foundation of our marriage still in place. It hasn't been with out its ups and downs, but God is good and has definitely blessed our life together.

To celebrate the occasion, we went to dinner in the nearby town of Nigedden. This town is situated at the top of a mountain, over looking the Rur river valley below and the Eifel Wilderness area. It has some stunning views. We were going to go eat at the restaurant in the castle there in the middle of the old part of town, but it turns out that it is closed on Mondays. So, we ate instead at a little restaurant not far from there that was situated right on the edge of mountain top and shared the amazing view that the castle had. Our food was yummy, the decor of the restaurant very nice, our waitress spoke English well enough to understand us, the view was outstanding, and best of all we didn't have to hurry through the meal. It was a wonderful way to celebrate.

Berlin

When Darren's parents were here visiting, they gave Darren and I the opportunity to get away by ourselves for a couple of days. It was the first time that both of us had been away from Mikayla at the same time for the night since she was born, so it was a little hard to get away at first, but it was good to be able to spend the time together. We took the opportunity to spend a couple of days in Berlin, since that was a city I really wanted to go. We flew out of Cologne early on Friday morning, stayed Friday night, and then came home late afternoon on Saturday. We had thought about staying one more night, but wanted to get back and have a day with Darren's parents before they had to go back home.

The Cologne regional airport

We had a great time on our little trip. It would have been nice wherever we went because it was good to have time with just the two of us, but we really enjoyed the city of Berlin. We took the opportunity to do a lot of sight-seeing and do things at a pace that we couldn't have with a toddler with us. There was so much to see that we couldn't possibly fit it in the two days that we were there. We have a long list of things that we would like to do or see next time we go back... whenever that might be.

Berlin is a large city with 3.5 million people living there, but with a footprint of a much larger city so there is a lot of space for everything. With the fall of the Berlin wall only 20 years past, there is still a lot of construction and rebuilding happening. It was interesting to see the city and what they are doing for memorials of both the war and the wall, and interesting to see how the new city is taking shape as the capitol of the reunified Germany. Much of the art and sculptures that we saw around the city centered around the theme of the four different parts of the city (the parts that were divided between France, Russia, Great Britain, and the USA after the war) trying to come together.

We took quite a few pictures on our trip (although be didn't quite match Darren's dad's feat of 1000 pictures on the weekend before). I am including a few here to highlight some of what we saw.

Funny little car that we saw when we first got in to the main part of the city

We weren't really sure where to start our sight seeing once we got in to the main part of the city from the airport, but finally settled on seeing "Check Point Charlie" first. It was one of the checkpoints to get between the east and west parts of the city when the wall was in place, and the one where they have set up a museum dedicated to the wall, its history, and some of the escape attempts that happened. They have set up a replica of the U. S. Army post that was there while the wall was in place, although the replica is much smaller than the original.

Part of the Berlin Wall Memorial at Bernauer Strasse, which shows in pictures and in words the history of both the wall and its fall. We learned a lot that I hadn't known about this period in history.

Checkpoint Charlie, with a replica of the sign that was posted at the original check point. You can see the replica of the guard house in the background, complete with fake "American" soldiers who you could pay to have a picture taken with. The whole area was really touristy, but it was worth seeing.

Darren "escaping" from the east to the west

The cobblestones mark the location that the wall used to be in Potsdamer Platz. The entire square is now a bustling intersection and new modern buildings are bringing the place back to life. It is hard to believe that not so long ago the entire area had nothing on it but the wall and 150 feet of "no man's land."

Darren straddling east and west

Darren and I with one of the remaining pieces of the wall still standing. There are only 13 places in the city that you can see small parts of this wall that once divided an entire city.

The Memorial to the Murdered Jews in Europe near the Brandenburg Gate

Close up of the memorial

After seeing a few sights by walking around, we decided that there wasn't any way that we would be able to see everything on our own by walking or even taking the subway between sights. So, we bought tickets on one of the many double-decker city tour buses that we saw and hopped on board. It was a nice was to see the main sights of the city and get a better understanding of what we were seeing through the tour guide's words. It was also a good way for us to decide what we wanted to go back and see in more detail.

Darren and I on the bus

The tour guide

The Deutscher Dom in Gendarmenmarkt

Berliner Dom - a Protestant cathedral

The massive TV tower that the East Germans built to display their superiority over the West

One of the museums on Museumsinsel

The Reichstag, the country's parliament building and the symbolic heart of German democracy

Darren and I in front of the Reichstag

The new Parliament buildings. They straddle the river, which once divided East Germany from West Germany, with bridges in between to symbolize the two parts coming together.

A sculpture

The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. It was built originally as a memorial to Germany's first emperor. Bombed during World War II, its ruins have been left standing with a new bell tower and chapel built in either side of it. It is still a memorial, but now to the horror of war.

Brandenburg Gate

St. Hedwig's Cathedral

A window looking down on rows of empty bookshelves below Bebelplatz, a memorial of the day in 1933 when the Nazi minister for propaganda and public enlightenment organized a book burning, when more than 20,000 books by Jews, Communists, and Pacifists burned on a pyre in the middle of the square.

Figure on the railing of a bridge over the river Spree

The front facade of the Berliner Dom

The back of the Berliner Dom, with the sunset over the river Spree

Darren in a Trabi car in the museum about how life was in East Germany. The car was built of a plastic hybrid and maxed out at 60 mph.

One of the many construction sites in the city. The engineer in me couldn't resist posting this.

Random Spider Man sighting... I am not even sure what the building was, but I thought it was funny to see when we walked by.

When we got into Berlin, we found out that the World Championships for Track and Field were being held here in the city and that the opening day was on Saturday. While we were walking around on Friday we saw athletes from all over the world walking around. It was pretty amazing to see. We saw some of the opening ceremonies that were being held near the Brandenburg Gate on Friday evening and we took part of some of the things they had available for those of us not competing.

Picture of an opening ceremonies concert

Darren posing on the track at the opening ceremonies

Darren testing out the javelin booth. He threw the farthest of anyone we saw while we were standing there, so he was pretty happy about that.

Me on the subway on our way back to the airport. We had a great visit and hope to get back to see more someday.