Germany

It was around 20 years ago that my in laws lived in Germany, and unlike England they have been back since then. Somehow in their other trips back they had never been to see their old house.  We drove through several cities on this trip, and I am honestly not sure I remember what they were all called, but I have some pretty pictures from the trip.

We started out driving along the Mosel river.  The river is in a deep, winding valley, with grape vines growing all up and down the hillsides.  Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of the hillsides.  As a person with motion sickness, I was keeping my focus elsewhere.

Our first stop was at my in laws old favorite Wine House, or weinhaus.  Right along the river, in a small town whose name eludes me at the moment, it was a beautiful place.  We tasted a few wines, but not too many.

I have a complicated relationship with wine.  Technically I love wine.  It is one of the few alcoholic beverages that I can both enjoy the taste of and not get sick while drinking.  I used to think it was the gluten, but research has told me that some of these drinks are actually gluten free.  Wine has never been a problem for me.  The problem comes because I don’t generally like good wine.  You know the bottles of cheap fruit wines that range from 3-5 dollars a bottle?  That is where I find my happy place.  Sweet, fruity, and no taste of alcohol, but still with a happy buzz.  The bottles that are considered ‘good’ wine are completely wasted on me.  And it isn’t because no one has tried.  I have a brother who is a certified wine expert and sommelier.  I don’t have the heart to tell him the wine he brings for me to try is gross.  Everyone says you have to develop a taste for the dry wines, but I just don’t drink often enough to do that, or care enough to try.  I wasn’t sure I would care too much about the wine tasting, but I still brought home a case of a sweet white wine.  I might not drink often, but I am smart enough to know I should buy what I like when I can find it.

From there we traveled on, looking for a small shopping town my in-laws remembered.  The first city we stopped in was called Traben-Trarbach.

This is actually two cities, each on one side of the river with several roads and walking paths connecting the two.

It was hard for me to distinguish between the two cities.  Both seemed to have the same type of old world charm.

One side.

The other side.  I think if I wanted to spend a long time, living there are researching the city histories I would be able to tell you all of the differences, but I didn’t do that.  In a 30 minute stop, only spending time on one side of the river, it was hard to tell.  Because this turned out not to be the city they thought it was, we moved on.

We found this fountain statue in a city called Bernkastel-Kues.  It’s a little up (or down, not sure) the river from Traben-Trarbach and was completely filled with German charm.

We did a little shopping, wandered the streets, and found the place we had been looking for, and ice cream shop.  Now when my in laws told me about Spaghetti Ice, I was on born instantly.  I mean, seriously, anything with ice cream and I am there.  I was definitely curious however, exactly how ice cream made to look like spaghetti would work.

Spaghetti Ice is an interesting thing.  First they place a mound of whipped cream on the plate, and I mean actual whipped cream not the stuff that comes from a spray can.  Don’t get me wrong, I love some spray whipped cream in a pinch, but it is nothing compared to the real stuff.  Next they cover the whipped cream in vanilla ice cream.  I’m not sure what kind of machine they use, but it looks like they pressed the ice cream through one of those play dough noodle attachments.  The ice cream is then topped with fruit, I went with mixed berry but they had plenty of options.  Topping off this bowl of delicious is grated nuts and a waffle cone cookie.  This was crazy amounts of delicious.  I mean seriously.  I was slightly regretful for picking mixed berry towards the end, only because the blueberries and blackberries were almost too sweet, but the rest of it was delicious.

After our ice cream and shopping we stopped at a restaurant on the water where my in laws were happy to order schnitzel.  The view from the restaurant was pretty good, but sadly I didn’t take pictures.  I’m really regretting that now, since as we left we saw a sign declaring it a biker’s schnitzel bar.  I did’t know those existed, but I am so happy to know they do.