Rudesheim Kaffee...if you don't know, now you know.

Our first weekend together in Germany we had to take advantage of how easy it is to travel around in Europe. Sebastian, who works with Jim asked if we wanted to join he and his girlfriend Kora (I'm sorry if i'm spelling that wrong!!) to Rudesheim. We walked to the Hauptbahnhof (central train station) and met Sebastian and Kora to take the train about a 30 minute ride. There was a bachelorette party on the train and it was very similar to a tame version of a US bachelerotte party. A group of girls, matching outfits, jamming out to some Whitney Houston. The bachelorette had a basket of random things- from big sunglases (think photobooth style), banana hammocks, fuzzy handcuffs, and a few other things that i'll leave out haha She had to sell everything in her basket because the more things she sells the more money they have for alcohol! haha Watch out Laura Carroll i'm making a basket for your bachelorette party! ;)

As soon as I got off the train I knew I was going to love it. It was like a movie, vineyards that stretch for miles, old buildings and little shops lined the cobble stone streets. It was gorgeous! We took the cable car up to the top of the hill where there are trails that you can walk amongst, all the vineyards as well as visit the Germania statue at the top of the hill. The monument was constructed to commemorate the beginning of the German empire after the end of the Franco-Prussian war. They started building it on September 16, 1871 and stands at 125 feet tall. 

Jim and I taking the cable car to the top of the hill! 

Vineyards that stretch for miles along the Rhine river 

The Germania statue was stunning! 

When we got to the bottom we decided we would get something small to eat to hold us over until dinner we also had to try this Rudesheim Kaffee Sebastian kept talking up! I ordered something I can't remember the name of but it was similar to baked brie but fried served with a side salad (that makes it healthy right??), bread, and marmalade like Lingonberry jam that you get at Ikea. Trust me, it was the exact same thing!  Jim ordered a sausage platter that had three different type of sausages. Blood sausage, liverwurst, and regular sausage. He only ate 1 of the 3 and i'll let you guess which one that was :). 

The Rudesheim Kaffee was amazing, very similar to an Irish Coffee it's made with Asbach Uralt brandy, cubed sugar, black coffee, whipped cream, and dark chocolate shavings. The waitress brought the glasses to the table and made the coffees in front of us flambee' the brandy and sugar in the cup to dissolve the sugar, add the coffee, and top with whipped cream and chocolate shavings. Delicious!

We had so much fun talking with Sebastian and Kora about life in Germany, life in the US, learning from each other. It really was a lot of fun and I definitely look forward to hanging out with them again in a couple of weeks at the Weisbaden Wine festival! 

Delicious bread and cheese with Ikea jam haha 

Rudesheim Kaffee! Yum 

Afterwards, we got to walk around Rudesheim a bit to enjoy the town itself so here's some pictures for you to enjoy! :) 

So many nutcrackers! 

We didn't get one of these but they looked delicious! A hollow bread with different kind of sprinkles or cheese, or other toppings on it. 

Cobblestone streets 

Tasting Wiesbaden

The next few days I was on my own while Jim was at work so I took the chance to walk around and get lost in the city. Of course this meant a chance to try some of the food here!

It's not news that Germany has pretty amazing pretzels or bretzels in German. Trying to teach you the little German I've learned this far! So on Wednesday, after walking around a bit I had to take advantage when I saw the stand "Ditch" with all sorts of breads and pretzels I had to have one and oh man was it good. Warm, soft, sliced right in half and buttered in the middle. YUM!

That night, when Jim got home from work we went out sightseeing some more. There is SO much to see just here in Wiesbaden that I could probably spend all my time here. Don't, worry I won't! I have way too many other things I also want to see. ;)

We ended up at this restaurant called HVL Lounge with outdoor seating under big umbrellas which is very common here and people will sit there for hours. It's very different then in the US where wait staff push you out so they can make more tips. Here since you don't really tip as much as you round up to the next euro the waiter/waitress will let you sit there for hours and you have to reach out and ask them for the check. We explained to our waitress that our German wasn't very good, she said her English wasn't very good and we agreed we would meet in the middle!

The people here are very friendly and if you at least try they will usually meet you more than halfway. Since we are in wine country of Germany I had to try some wine tonight and am I so glad I did. It was hands down the best wine I've ever tasted. Jim got a wheat beer which attracted bees and one ended up in his drink. The bees here are OUT of control!! I've never been anywhere that bees are literally everywhere and so annoying. After dinner, we walked some more and stopped at a place called Patavium for gelato. Gelato shops are probably on every street corner and so there is no shortage of places to try.

The most amazing half sweet Riesling ever

Honey wheat beer? ha. 

The next day Jim was very excited for me to try the Currywurst Manufacturer for dinner. You pick regular or spicy sausage and then what type of sauce you want. It's served with fries and is amazingly delicious. I would equate it to eating a hot dog and fries at home but so much tastier.

Currywurst mild with BBQ sauce. DELISH! 

You can't see it but that machine in front of the guy is what the sausage goes into and gets cut up into all the little pieces. Two people are usually working and the line is usually out the door but it's most definitely worth the wait! 

Thursday night I joined Jim and a bunch of the people he works with for happy hour on "happy day". Basically, different bars have a happy day where their happy hour prices last All. Day. Long. Someone please tell me why we don't have this at home?!

When I was assured there would be other women there turned out to be  Jim, myself and a large group of German men haha it was still a great time and I was impressed by how much English they had. Until I learned that they have to learn English in school which makes sense. It's sad to think they take years of English and in America we take two semesters of a language and that's it. Don't worry, I could say more but I'll leave my politics out of it! ;) Speaking of the drinks I tried a Caipirinha pronounced Cap-A-rain-ah (Thanks Columbia for all that phonetics practice!) it tastes like a mix between a Mojito and a Margarita and is liquor, lemon and lime juice and brown sugar. I'm hopeful that there is a bartender somewhere in Saddle Brook, NJ that can make this bad boy.

My new go-to! 

Lastly since Rebecca said it would make a good blog post I have to mention the doughnut I had for breakfast on Friday. It was like a gourmet cupcake shop that we  know all too well in NYC but delicious doughnuts with filling. Looking forward to signing up for the gym down the street so I can work off all this amazingly delicious food!

This one is for you Rebecca! Cookies and Cream doughnut from Tasty Doughnut & Coffee 

Day 1 in Deautschland: 88 steps

It's Tuesday, July 22nd and I landed in Frankfurt with my bags! Huge win. So my loving husband gave me very distinct directions on how to get from the airport to the hotel....or so I thought. As I pull my very large suitcase, a medium suitcase, and a carry on equivalent to a body bag (totally not my words its how the lovely lady at Macys referred to it as I was buying it) through the airport in Frankfurt Jim tells me look for the S-Bahn and take the S-8/9 and so I begin my hunt for the train.

Turns out since Jim went direct from Philadelphia to Frankfurt he came in through a different terminal then where I came through. And of course the S-Bahn doesn't come to the terminal I'm at :) So I bust out my Germam pocket guide and find an info desk asking for how to get to the S Bahn. I eventually find my way and get to the machine to buy my ticket. Now it gives you two options- 1) pay with a credit card or 2) pay with exact change. Of course my American credit card didn't work and all my euro money was in bills with no change. And all along I thought the  MTA vending machines were a pain. For once, in an admitted low point I wished it was an MTA vending machine. I know, I'm not proud of that either.  Thankfully, I find a very helpful woman who helps me get my ticket and I'm running to catch the next train that leaves in 4 minutes!

 I know, I make transatlantic'3 hours of sleep, and 88 steps look good! 

So I'm finally en route to Weisbaden now what my loving husband failed to tell me is that there would  be TWO Wiesbaden stops on the train. A Wiesbaden Ost (East) and Wiesbaden HBF. In my infinite wisdom I get off at the first Wiesbaden station which happened to be Ost when I needed to get off atWiesbaden  HBF. After 88 stairs, (yes I counted) I realize I'm in the wrong place. Now let me tell you how I've come to this realization: Jim said he would meet me at McDonalds at the train station as an easy to find landmark in a busy terminal. I pull my luggage down 22 steps, across the tunnel, up 22 steps to a Harley Davidson dealer. No Mcdonalds. Just Germans and leather-- Like a bad Rammstein video.  I walk down to the T-mobile  payphone and find that it has been ripped out- no phone. Awesome sauce.  My cell phone doesn't work and of course Jim convinced me to not get an international phone until we got there. Super helpful at this point in time.  I have a moment of panic in that I have no idea how to get a hold of Jim or how to get to the apartment from where I am. The poor guy in the Harley shop spoke no English at all and so I decide to go back to the train platform and get on the next train. So I walk back down 22 stairs across the tunnel and back up 22 stairs up to the platform (for a grand total of 88 steps in case you lost count)

The next stop is Wiesbaden HBF and so I get off and make my way to the golden arch. I find Jim there waiting for me and I tell him all about my 88 step adventure we head back to the hotel here I am beyond excited to get clean and out of my Old Navy yoga gear.


We head to a restaurant called the Ratskeller. I had the Wiener schnitzel which is veal pounded really thin and then usually breaded. This one was breaded with pretzel batter and then covered with a mustardy sauce. It was seriously amazing.  Jim being his usual self goes ridiculous and gets the pork knuckle. It literally looked like a knuckle off a cow not a pig. (Vegetarians beware!) we finished off dinner with some apple strudel and ice cream and then walked around to explore our beautiful new city!

Pretzel covered schnitzel yum!

Leaving On A Jetplane

I actually loved flying Icelandair-- I didn't realize that with the ticket I bought (Economy Comfort) that it let me take the quick line through security which anyone who has flown in/out of Newark knows that is a God send! It also gave me access to Luthansa sky club before boarding my flight. Here I was rocking my Old Navy yoga pants and hoodie with sneakers in this swanky all you can eat and drink lounge. I took full advantage..... 3 beers some dried fruit an apple and some gummy bears.

11 hours on a flight--wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I guess I mentally prepared myself for the worst so that when it didn't end up so bad I would be pleasantly surprised. (Bad habit, I know)

 The first leg of the trip was from Newark to Rekyajick Iceland I also didn't know that my plane ticket included whatever food or drink I wanted on the plane as well! I could seriously get used to this! So I ordered a glass of wine and a ham and cheese hot sandwich because I had read on the reviews of Icelandair before leaving that was the best thing to order. I turned on my music to Dierks Bentley Drunk on a plane and I dozed off to sleep... :)

We landed in Iceland at 6:45 in the morning local time or 1:45 am eastern time. So I  got an amazing picture of the sunrise coming up about 5/5:30 am.

We were an hour delayed getting off the ground in Newark, again no surprise haha and I only originally had an hour 15 minute layover before my flight to Frankfurt. By the time we landed it was 10 minutes before my flight was boarding and 35 minutes before takeoff. I accepted the fact that my luggage probably wouldn't make it with such a quick turn around time. I hurry off the plane and try to find my way to the gate for Frankfurt. At this point i'm totally cursing those 3 beers I had! I find the gate but to get to the other side where I need to be you have to go through customs first. Which in hindsight makes sense but I thought I wasn't going to be going through customs until Germany. With now 5 minutes until boarding I was stressed. Luckily I made it through and was en route to Deutschland!

The flight from Iceland to Frankfurt was fairly easy--3 hours and change. I had the most delicious breakfast on board. Icelandic yogurt, a doughnut called a Kleina it was more like sweet bread then a doughnut but still equally as delicious! I also asked the flight attendant what this orange drink was and she explained its like Fanta but Icelandic and more delicious. So I gave that a try as well. Who knew Fanta was a benchmark to compare things to? haha She also brought me one of their popular candy bars called a Ris bar. Think of little balls similar to what is in Reese's cereal in a chocolate bar. It was an interesting combination but delicious!

About an hour later we land in Frankfurt and as I mentioned I was fairly certain my luggage wasn't going to make it but the travel gods  were on my side and my luggage made it! On to Weisbaden....