Germany (aka - "Fairytale land")

Well, time is flying by and I'd better get the information up here from our trip to Germany before I forget. Mandi and I had an exciting adventure (really, all of our trips are an "adventure" but I digress) getting there and back! We went to visit some friends who were there and had a few unknowns, like where we would sleep and what we would do all weekend....."details" as my Grandpa would say!

Alas, we quick researched some things online the night before we left and didn't find anything. It may have been a more successful search if we actually knew where we were going in Germany but we had about four different names. And, some of the names were at least 20 letters long and in German...... makes it a little harder to decipher, ya know? However, while online I noticed that the area (region, really) that we were going to was thought to be the landscape for many of the fairy tales that that Grimm Brothers' collected. So, I immediately dubbed the place we were heading as "fairytale land." Happy ending or nightmare......that was yet to be seen!
Train station in Frankfurt, Germany. Boarding!
We took the train and had a 6 hour ride ahead of us with 3 train changes along the way. Not so bad, except that we only had 5-11 minutes to get off, find the next train, get on and hope we were on the correct train. I left that part up to Mandi since she is much better with details and can figure all that out - I just followed and tried to pay attention to where we were heading.

No worries, we made it on all the correct trains and had a fun surprise when we got on the "super-speedy" train going into Germany. The seats are all assigned and we couldn't exactly decipher where we were supposed to sit from the random letters and numbers on our ticket. So, we got on in a car and basically walked the length of the train to find our seats.....didn't want to walk outside on the platform in case it left before we got to the right car. Our seats were in one of the last cars (mind you we entered the train at car #2 and they are really long trains) and finally found a train-guy to ask. He pointed us to a glassed in section of seats and we had our own little room on the train! Amazing. Granted there were 3-4 other ladies in there at times (in the other seats) but it was great! If you've ever seen the Harry Potter movies, it was like those compartments in their train to Hogwarts.....I was impressed.
Our plush train into Germany.

The "other" German train....a bit iffy!
We changed trains again in Frankfurt and this train wasn't so nice......a bit scary actually. We couldn't find a seat and kept walking and walking until we found the fold-down seat section. I much prefer Swiss trains to German ones. One thing Mandi and I noticed right away was how much bigger the people were in Germany. Compared to Switzerland they (men and women) seemed like giants! It reminded me of being home in the Midwest, all that Dutch & German blood floating around there.
Train station in Herborn, Germany
We arrived at the stop we was last on our ticket and got off wondering what to do next. Remember, we weren't exactly sure where we were going and had no idea how far the place was from the train station......yep, the "adventure" begins! We decided to go into a nearby shop and ask the lady there.....good plan except she couldn't decipher the name we was written on the paper we had, and she didn't speak a lot of English. She told us where to go stand to wait for a taxi. There were 3 huge "coach-type" buses parked in front of the train station and really no people around, so I wasn't thinking I'd see a tour group coming through. :) I decided that "it never hurts to ask" and I'd see if the bus drivers had any idea where we were going or if we could take the bus there. (Since Mandi and I are such public transportation pros now and found that you really can walk to most places in Switzerland......just depends on how far you want to walk!)

My first question to them - "Do you speak English?"
"Yes."

Awesome, I was off to a good start! I gave her the paper I had and she said we needed to go "up in the mountains" and that the bus could take us a good portion but then we would need to take a taxi. I figured it was cheaper to take the bus as far as we could and then a taxi the rest of the way......yep, much cheaper. And, get this, the bus driver said she would call a taxi that would be waiting at the last stop for us! How amazing was that - God is so good! Even if we had no idea where we were going.

We went up, up, up into the mountains and the landscape was beautiful - rolling hills, open fields, forests, small lakes, rivers here and there, stone walls at times, hedgerows, small "German looking" houses at times. It definitely was "fairytale land" to me! However, it did seem like we were heading to a pretty remote area. The cab was waiting for us at the last stop and the two drivers talked to figure out where the "2 lost American girls" had to go. That's where Mandi and I learned the first of our few German words - "thank you & good-bye." (Sorry, can't spell them in German.)

The cab driver took us to the place our friends were staying and we figured some things out. Like, where we were actually staying (aka sleeping) for the next 2 nights and when we would get together the next day. We got a ride to our hotel and help checking in. It wasn't exactly a "hotel." More of a big restaurant that had some rooms on the 2nd floor where people could stay. We figured that out when we had to check in at the bar and go through a door behind it to get upstairs......not exactly a Marriott, but a lot more character. It was a nice room and breakfast was included.
Our hotel/restaurant. Don't even ask me to pronounce it!

So, the next day we went down for breakfast, usually they have a buffet-style, or so it seemed from the table layout we saw the night before. Well, today they had a party coming so they picked it up early. Guess what that meant??? We were treated like royalty! We got to sit at a table in another section (all to ourselves) and the waitress brought us a huge breakfast fit for a king. Right then, I just knew we truly were in "fairytale land" and this was going to be quite the weekend!
Breakfast fit for a queen.
After breakfast we got directions of how to walk back to where we were meeting people and it was about 4km through the forest, fields, and a couple small towns. There were these helpful green snake markers that marked the trails. It was an easy hike and only took us a it less than an hour....including multiple stops for pictures and to figure out directions.


Well, Mandi and I had the whole afternoon free until dinner and we decided to do what most people come to that area (it's called "Westerwald by the way, forgot to mention that earlier) to do - WALK. Piece of cake, we walk all the time in Switzerland! Well, we walked alright. About 25 km that day! All through the countryside down paths, dirt roads, through fields, forests, past a lake, etc. I saw a lot of horses and ponies along our journey and it was a beautiful sunny, but slightly cold, day. The forests and fields did look like you would imagine them in a story, just cementing my thoughts that we were truly in "fairytale land."
He did let me pet him, before this photo...
We had dinner at our hotel that night and they only serve buffets.....it was sooooo good. I had 6 different types of potatoes on my plate at once! (They are my favorite food.) I tried some "schnitzel" and later found out from my folks that it is made from veal - ick. I thought it was pork.....actually had no idea what kind of meat it was, which just proves again why I don't eat a much meat! When you think German buffet, what comes to mind??? Lots of food? Exactly. Imagine an entire room lined with tables along every wall and in the middle, filled with those metal food/heater/tray things. Ta da! No wonder people grow so much bigger in Germany, eh?

We had a a great meal and good conversation and then it was time for bed. The next day, Sunday, Mandi and I had breakfast (set-up for guests this time) and then had the hotel call our same taxi driver so he could take us to the town with the bus stop. We figured out the day before that it was about a 2 hour walk to get there, do-able, but not exactly with a rolling suitcase on some of the dirt & stone paths. I noticed from his card that he really wasn't a "taxi driver" but someone who gives rides for chemo & dialysis patients......that made sense why it was so cheap......he was great, didn't know much English, but really nice. Our private coach on the way home.

So, the bus only comes every 2 hours on Sunday and we had about 45 minutes to wait so we walked around (with me hauling the rolling suitcase) town. It was a foggy day and not a soul was stirring at 11am in the morning, weird! We caught the bus and then had 3 hours to kill before the train came. Just a little note if you travel to Germany - all of the shops are closed on Sundays. We walked all around the town (we just couldn't get enough walking) and it was very "German" looking. There was a cake shop that said it was opening at 1pm so we walked around for a couple hours and then went back there. We had the whole place to ourselves. Kind of like the bus.....I'm
telling you, we felt like royalty!

Then back on the scary train that we didn't know how to open the doors. Thankfully, others knew how to actually open the doors so we could get off when we needed to. Back to the fast train in our own "room" again, and then onto the Swiss train back to Neuchatel. Then wait for the bus and finally get home. It was a lot of travel but a great trip and Germany exceeded my expectations.

We did decide that if we go there again, we will try to learn a few more words in German though....it was really nice to get back to Switzerland and actually hear a language (French) that we understood!

auf Wiedersehen! (that's good-bye)