Hitscherhof Pumpkin festival 2015

On Sunday we went to the Hitscherhof pumpkin festival. The festival was about and hour and half drive from our house but is one of the only pumpkin festivals near us. We got there just after it opened so that the crowd would be light while everyone was still in church. Since everything is usually closed on Sundays if a festival is on a Sunday it tends to be busy.

 When we first arrived we walked around all the stands to see what they had to offer after we did a couple rounds we decided to get lunch. We both had a pumpkin bratwurst. It was pretty good. I couldn't really taste the pumpkin but it did have pumpkin seeds inside it.

 They had a corn maze and a hay bales to play in but we didn't do either of them. I had heard from someone that the corn maze wasn't worth the cost.

The festival had pumpkin everything. You could get pumpkin bratwurst, pumpkin spice latte, pumpkin wine and pumpkin juice which was a cocktail. The one pumpkin item that I was determined to get was pumpkin soup. Inside the building the line for pumpkin soup was so long and neither of us wanted to stand in the line. While looking around the building people were selling crafts and antiques. I got a salt glazed pottery piece that is made and is popular in our region of Germany and Bill got old chemist bottles. We brought our purchases to the car so we wouldn't have to carry them around with us. We then took a look at a garage sale that was around the corner from the festival. When walking through the stands again I saw a tent selling pumpkin soup and they had no line. I was able to walk right up and get my soup and it was delicious. Im so glad I wad able to get my soup. After I had my soup we made one last lap around the festival and then decided to head out. It was a great festival with lots of stands and things to eat and do. This is something we would definitely go back to and we hope to be able to make it next year.

Reichsburg Cochem 2015

Today we went on a day trip to Cochem, Germany to see the castle there. Cochem is about an hour away from our house. We put the directions to the castle into our gps and it brought us to the base of the castle. Only problem was there was no parking available anywhere near the castle. So I messaged a friend and she gave me directions to a parking lot in Cochem. We finally got to the parking lot and then found out it was a 20 minute walk mostly uphill to the castle. After our trek we made it to the castle grounds.

We went into the ticket office and paid our entrance fee which was 6 euro per person. It was a guided tour and we didn't have to wait long for the next tour to start. The castle was originally built in 1000A.D and was totally destroyed in 1689 by French soldiers. After 200 years it was reconstructed according to original plans but was furnished as a nineteenth century chateau. since 1978 the castle has belonged to the town of Cochem.

The first room we visited was the dinning hall the entire tour was in German but we received english translation sheets so we could follow along. 

The Knights' hall is the largest room in the castle. The furniture in this room was custom made for the castle.

From the balcony you had a beautiful view of the Moselle River below.

The tour was about 40 minutes long and even though it was in German and I had no idea what the guide was saying it was still a good time. I usually prefer to not take tours but the only way to see the inside of the castle is to take a tour. The walk back to the car wasn't as bad since it was downhill. It was a great way to spend a Saturday.

                     

Disneyland Paris 2015

Bill and I went on a bus trip to Disneyland Paris on July 25th. Ive been to Disneyworld a few times but Bill has never been to a Disney Park so I was excited for him to experience it. The bus left at 5am and we arrived from Germany to the park around 10:45am. When we first arrived at the park the first thing we did was take the Disneyland railroad from Main Street, U.S.A. to the main section of the park which is Fantasyland.

 When we arrived in Fantasyland we went through Alice's curious labyrinth, which is a hedge maze like from the movie. Inside the maze they had the cards and the queen of hearts that would pop up from around the maze.

 At the very middle of the maze was a tower you could climb up. It had a slide attached to it but it was closed while we were there. After the maze we went and got lunch at Au chalet de la marionnette. I had a hot dog that was on a pretzel bun and toped with currywurst sauce and Bill had a burger that was on bagel. The food was pretty good.

 After lunch we made our way to "It's a small world" we thought the line might be long and you have to go on it. The line wasn't long at all and we waited 15 minutes tops to get on the boat.

 We were trying to find another ride in Fantasyland but went a little to far and ended up in Discoveryland there were a few rides that we wanted to do but they all had pretty long lines so we decided to go back later but on our way out we say that Buzz Lightyear laser blast ride only had a 30 minute wait and since it is a very popular ride we decided that was the time to do it. Well we waited over and hour and Bill wasn't impressed with it.

 We went to check out sleeping beauty castle. Inside the castle they had a few shops one was all crystal and the other was all Christmas decorations. I had to get an Olaf ornament for our Christmas tree next year.

 Upstairs of the castle was a display of sleeping beauty movie scenes and they had beautiful stained glass windows surrounding the entire  castle.

 We were on our way to Frontierland and we ran into someone from our bus trip so we asked them to take a picture of us in front of the castle. We got to Frontierland and the major ride in the area Big Thunder Mountain had an hour wait time so we decided to skip it. We then went and did Phantom Manor which had a 45 minute wait but we only waited about 30 minutes. We had about 40 minutes before our dinner reservation so we went to buy souvenirs. Bill and I each got an Olaf bowl and mug. I prepared for this trip quit well I brought sunblock and an umbrella even bandaids and tylenol. The one thing I didn't pack for us was jackets and it was a very cold 65-70º day with a lot of wind so we eventually both go a hoodie. Bill got an R2D2 one and I got one that said Disneyland Paris with Mickey on it.

We had dinner at Silver Spur Steakhouse. Bill had a buffalo burger and sweet potato fries. Bill has never had buffalo but he thought it was good the only complaint he had was the bun wasn't a normal bun we think it might have been pumpernickel which he wasn't a fan of. I had a three course meal of sweet corn coup which was amazing, skirt steak with fries which was cooked perfectly and a brownie sundae that I shared with Bill. I really enjoyed our dinner and would definitely recommend the restaurant.

 We went back to Discorveryland since it was a bit later and we figured the lines would be shorter. We did Star Tours which is a spaceflight simulator and it really feels like your moving this was Bills favorite ride. After that we went into the Star wars store and Bill got two lightsabers because you can't have just one because then how would you battle.

 This is a picture of Space mountain 2 we didn't make it on this ride since the line was really long and in Disneyland Paris they don't have a place to put your bags while on a ride so we had all of our souvenirs and stuff. We finally made our way to the last area of the park which is Adventureland the only thing we did in this area was Pirates of the Caribbean ride which we had a horrible time finding. We both enjoyed this ride and the wait wasn't very long either. At this point we had about two and a half hour left in the park so we just picked things from each area that we'd like to do and go and see how the line was. We went under the castle and saw the dragon in the cave then we did the Snow White ride and Pinocchio ride which are just cars on a track that bring you through the story, the lines were short and thats why we did them even though we had no idea what was going on since the stories were in french. Most rides had the stuff in both french and english but since these were small rides it was all in french. Our last ride of the night was the Mad Hatters's Tea Cups. We did a walk through of a submarine and then started our way towards the front of the park since the fireworks were suppose to start at 10pm.

On our way we caught the Frozen sing-a-long. All the songs were in french but it was still interesting since Frozen is my favorite Disney movie. We walked to the front and sat on a bench waiting for the fireworks, well 10 came and went and we were suppose to be back to the bus at 11pm so around 10:15 we left. We ended up walking the wrong way and getting kind of lost getting to the bus but we ended up finding our way eventually. It turns out that the fireworks didn't start till 11pm. We could still hear the songs and see the fireworks from the bus so it wasn't a big deal to me. The bus drove through the night and we got back home around 4:30am. It was a long and tiring day but it was a blast and I can't wait to go to other Disney parks. We didn't have enough time to do every thing we wanted to but we did a majority of the things and we had a great time.

Frankenstein Castle 2015

The other day we had to bring some friends to the airport in Frankfurt which is a little bit over two hours from us so we decided to make a day out of it and find somethings to do. About 30 minutes from Frankfurt just outside the city of Darmstadt is Frankenstein castle or Burg Frankenstein. It is alleged that the castle may have been the inspiration for Mary Shelley's Novel Frankenstein.

 After we dropped our friends off at the airport we made our way to the castle. We got there pretty early in the morning around 8am. The castle isn't manned so you can come and go whenever, but when we got there construction workers were working on part of the castle. They didn't seem bothered by us being there so we looked around.

The castle is in mostly ruins except for the two towers that were still intact. One of the towers you could climb to the top of the other didn't have access stairs so you couldn't climb that one.

There are a lot of walking trails around the castle and leading down the mountain that it sits upon. We ended up being there about 45 minutes. I don't think it would have been worth it to drive the two and a half hours from our house just to see but was definitely worth it since we were in the area.

After the castle we went to the skyline plaza in Frankfurt which is a shopping center. Before driving back home we had to get Chipotle for lunch. Its one of the only American based restaurants in Germany that tastes exactly the same as it does in America so when we're in Frankfurt we like to get a taste of home. We got to the plaza early so we walked around and shopped for a bit and I got my first ever lush products. When we went to use the restroom which is in the back hallways of the plaza we saw arrows pointing to the skyline garden. We decided to follow them and it led us to the top of the parking garage where there is a garden and seating. It was beautiful. After that we got our Chipotle and the manager gave us a twofer coupon for our next visit. We ate our chipotle then got on the autobahn to start our journey home.

Pulvermaar Volcanic lake 2015

It's been very hot here in Germany. Today the high was 93ºf and since we had a Friday off and it wasn't a German holiday we decided to check out the Pulvermaar figuring it wouldn't be to busy. The pulvermaar is a lake that was formed when a volcano sank and then filled with water.

                                                              Arial shot of the lake
                                                            Photo found via google

It took us about 45 minutes to get to the lake. We saw a parking lot so we parked and started walking. Then we found out we had to walk about 1km because we parked in the free parking instead of driving down the hill to pay 1 euro to park. We finally made it down the hill to the entrance. It was 4 euro each for an all day pass to swim in the lake and swimming pool. They had a kiddie pool as well for children.

It's common in European countries to change into your swimwear in a changing room that doesn't have a door. Im not the brave so I changed in the bathroom. We then went into the lake> The water was freezing cold but felt great in the hot weather. There were stairs that led into the lake and as soon as you stepped off of them the water was already over my head. Out a little bit was a deck with two diving boards.

After swimming for a bit we rented a paddle boat and rode out around the lake. The sun was so hot so we would paddle to the shade for a bit and just relax.

We rode on the paddle boat for a bout an hour and then we went into the swimming pool but the water was only waist deep so we decided to go back into the lake. We swam out to the driving boards and sat on the deck for a while watching people dive in.

We got to the lake around 1pm and it started to get packed shortly before we decided to pack up and go home around 3. We spent just over two hours there and we had a blast. We'll definitely be going back again this summer. It was a close and fun day trip.

Barefoot park, Bad Sobernheim 2015

Today we took advantage of the 85º weather here in Germany and went to a barefoot park or Barfußpfad in German. A barefoot park is a walking trail with obstacles that you walk barefoot through. The Barefoot park was about an hour and forty-five minutes from our house. The trail started off with walking on mulch then you walk through muddy water.

          After that you walk on this bridge of sorts that each board moves when you stand on it.

              Then to the balance beam that was very difficult to balance on since it was on springs.

 After a short walk we arrived to a little man made water trail to wash the mud off your feet and cool them down before all the walking.

after a short walk on a grass path you get to wooden bridegroom were flat and some were slanted

                                               
                                                 walking through rocks then through sand

 On such a hot day it was a treat to finally get to the river and be able to cool off a bit. The river went up to our knees and had a pretty strong current good thing we had the ropes to hold onto.

                                                             Walking up on the posts

        Neither of us had enough balance to be able to walk on the ropes so we just walked around it

                                                      Getting toward the end of the trail

The last obstacle was a rope bridge that went over the river or you could take a little boat. It was a lot of fun and it took us about an hour to walk the entire park. There were a lot more obstacles then are pictured here. The only down side was that a lot of the obstacles were way to hot to walk on. We ended up having to get off of them and walk on the grass instead. It probably would have been nicer on a day that it wasn't so hot. It was a nice inexpensive day trip to get us out of the house and doing something on a beautiful day.

Luxembourg American Military Cemetery 2015

For Memorial Day 2015 We went to the American Military Cemetery in Luxembourg. They were having a Memorial Day ceremony on May 23rd. The cemetery contains the remains of 5,076 American service members who died during World War II. This is also where General George S. Patton Jr is buried. We drove to Luxembourg which is not to far from where we live. It took us about 50 minutes to get to the cemetery. When we arrived we were given a poppy flower and a program of the days events. The ceremony began at 2pm and we got there around 1 so we walked around the grounds until the ceremony began.

                                        This is a small chapel where you can go in and pray.

                           The names of those who lost their lives and are in unknown graves

               General Patton heads the cemetery in between the American and Luxembourg flag

It was a very emotion filled ceremony with speakers both from Luxembourg and the United States Military speaking of how the U.S. liberated Luxembourg and the bond that they share. They then had planes fly over the cemetery. They had people dedicate wreaths and then a 21 gun salute to finish the ceremony. After the ceremony was complete we walked around the cemetery one last time. It was eerily calming being there. Even with a bunch of people around you feel alone with your thoughts thinking about how it must have felt to have been there when it was happening. Im glad these men are remembered every year and even if they don't have family to come see them they still get flags and a rose on there grave. It was definitely an emotional and eye opening experience and I hope we are able to visit many of the other American Military Cemeteries here in Europe.