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Vacation pt. 2: Yes, I also did stuff other than eat

Part 1 here. It’s just about food. The castle hotel we stayed at had GREAT food.

For the first leg of our trip, the Norwegian husband-type-boyfriend hauled us to the Rhine Valley, inspired by memories of his childhood vacations. Trains, he told us. Trains everywhere! And barges! But so many trains. Oh and also there are a couple of castles.

Did you know Germany has like 25,000 castles? As an American, I sure didn’t.

I also didn’t know that the Rhine Valley has wine, cuz I don’t drink. Wine from grapes grown on dramatic, near-vertical terraces on mountainsides. Here’s a picture of a vineyard and a castle, contriving to look beautiful despite being taken from a moving car. (The boyfriend was driving us around while he looked for trains.)

The boyfriend’s pictures are much better, but 90% of them are of trains.

I did not experience culture shock in Germany. Mostly my reaction was, “Oh! That’s neat. I wish we did that.” Vis-à-vis fresh produce everywhere; bus stops, even in the countryside; protected bike paths; houses in dense towns sharing walls; public bathrooms, for 0.50 € or less; trains(!); no passing allowed on the right; cars that display the current speed limit on the dashboard; cafes attached to tourist attractions–including castles–that have actually good food; coffee machines you’re allowed to operate yourself; bakeries absolutely everywhere; circular electrical outlets sunk into the wall, so it’s easier to plug things in; floating toilets, lacking that awkwardly shaped base that always gets dusty; water pitchers brought for the table (though I could do without carbonated water, cuz it’s awful); you can get a cheap gas station meal plus vegetables and sans food poisoning.

It was fun. I had a good time. We saw the Rhine Valley, then Cologne and Hamburg. I liked Cologne because of the awesome touristy area around the Kölner Dom. Hamburg was also pretty neat, because a local friend took me on an elaborate walking tour, so I got to see the non-touristy areas of the city. My friend’s barometer for sketchiness is about 10x more sensitive than mine. Sketchy in Hamburg is just what all of Chicago looks like, and therefore considerably nicer than what I grew up with in Texas.

Here are some pictures from the Rhine Valley, in chronological order starting from June 25, 2023:

Schoenburg in Oberwesel. We stayed at this hotel! It’s excellent.
Pride flag. Made us feel very welcome. <3
Oh hey, the BF actually did take a photo of the Rhine Valley without a train in it! Here that is.
More castle.
More castle.
The GF up high on the tower.
The BF up high on the tower.
View of Oberwesel.
A tunnel descending from the castle wall. There’s a door at the bottom.
The door! I tried to open it. No dice.
This is why they won’t let you open that door.
Castle hotel room one. #bathroom inspo
#bathroom inspo. That ladder thing on the left is a heated towel rack. There was also a sauna!!
The GF did a bunch of college coursework from that desk.
Castle at dusk.
Blurry cryptid GF who would kill me if they knew I posted this photo. Good thing they don’t read my blog.
Train at dusk. But imagine going to a school where the track and field is on the Rhine.
The Rhine Valley again!
Oooh aaah that town has good ice cream.
Another boyfriend train picture. There are 8 million of these.
Castle! The fancy restaurant from the last post is through that big arch.
A castle other than the one we stayed at. This picture is from the hiking trip. The BF and I left the GF in the car so he could crash around in the woods and eat wild raspberries. After a long nap, the GF called us to ask if we were dead or what, and the BF almost didn’t pick up cuz he didn’t have their number saved. Shameful. He walked all the way back down the mountain with a fistful of raspberries to offer as penance. The GF thought they were okay.

I guess the Marksburg and Kölner Dom photos should go in a separate post. We took a lot of photos. Alright, more later. I have writing to do.

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