Our Last Week in Heppenheim

Well, the time has come for us to move out of our little Bergstrasse town among the vineyards and cobbled stone streets. We won't be moving far, however; we will be moving into another vineyard lined town with cobbled streets and sidewalk fountains, down the Bergstrasse to Zwingenberg.

On Friday evening we will meet our real estate agent, Gaby, and our landlords for a walk around the apartment and to receive the keys. However, we can't actually move in until Saturday at noon, so I am wondering if our walk-through on Friday evening will be clean, or dirty. I really don't want to see a messy, dirty apartment right before we move in, but here's hoping! Anyways, we are dropping our belongings off on Friday night to be stored at the new apartment, dropping Simba off on Friday night at the cat pension - an apartment for cats to stay at while their owners are away - and then sleeping at our place in Heppenheim until we drive to Mannheim at 5:30am to catch a 6:40am train to Paris on Saturday morning. Whew.

We will be in Paris for three nights - from Saturday until Tuesday. We will arrive back in Mannheim, pick up Simba, then head to our new place just in time for the holiday. Tuesday is Father's Day, and also a reason to celebrate spring and the vineyards. Since wine is ingrained into the German culture, most holidays and festivals have something to do with beer or wine. On next Tuesday, people will be at the vineyards in Zwingenberg (which is out our backdoor) and they walk through the vineyards to Heppenheim, all while tasting wine along the way at different wine huts.

On another note, Derek was very intrigued and really shocked by an email sent to the entire company from his boss. Through Google Translate, it reads:

Colleagues from the given occasion, I would like to reiterate that no one working day of 10 hours maximum may be exceeded.

Unfortunately, there was in the first quarter of this year already exceeded 17!

I am sure that you want to do something good for the company and therefore sometimes lose track of time.

Please take care in the future better for the 10 hours policy, we will pursue every transgression and accept no exception.

Why can't we live like this in America? Action will be taken if you work over 10 hours a day. I am not sure if every company in Germany breathes these same values, but I feel like his company has it figured out.

Last Weekend Recap

We kept it pretty low key last weekend and explored a few towns around us - Schwetzingen, Lindenfels and Michelstadt. Schwetzingen has a palace with acres and acres of manicured lawns, parks, statues, fountains, etc. We could have spent an entire day strolling the grounds, but the weather was moody and rain showers popped up out of the blue. So we spent the rest of Saturday at the mall in Viernheim. On Sunday our goal was to go hiking in the Odenwald (the forested hills around us) but after a 25 minute drive through the winding roads, I was fighting nausea. So we visited the castle at Lindenfels and toured the small town of Michelstadt, then headed home before making a quick stop at the self-cut tulip garden. Here are a few photos:

At the palace gardens

I was hoping this was a fleur de lis

Derek in the dome

A Turkish Garden

Garden walk

Fountain at the Bath House

This goose started honking and waddling towards Derek

Schwetzingen is known as a spargel town - asparagus everywhere!

Castle in Lindenfels

Overlooking the Odenwald

Castle in the Odenwald

Storm's approaching 

We made a stop at Derek's work

Michelstadt Town Hall

Famous Rathaus

Picking tulips in the "Self-Cut" field

Ostern in Deutschland

Oh, what a weekend! A wonderfully long and delicious weekend filled with wine, snowballs and an endless supply of warm German pretzels and bread. Not to mention a house filled with family, a cute little cat and a five minute walk to the largest lake in Germany.

We arrived at Bodensee (Lake Constance) on Friday afternoon, after spending the night in Oberstenfeld at the Muller's house and successfully exchanging our winter tires for BMW labeled summer tires (Thanks Marius!). We were greeted so warmly, as we always are by Derek's German relatives (almost mine), with rocks painted with our names on the table, and of course kaffee and kuchen on the patio. We even got to spend the weekend with Chelsey- Derek's American cousin currently teaching English in Slovakia. The Streufert's house is beautiful - they purposely raised the front yard so that you can not see cars parked in front but can directly look into the park across the street. Hilde explained the family history again, which I enjoy every time and I think I will be able to repeat the history to anyone who asks by the end of our German stay. It really is special how close the Nestel family has remained.


After finishing our coffee, we walked the five minute trail to the lake, passing apple orchards and vineyards on the way. The Bodensee area is known for its pears and apples, and the orchards dot every free green space. The Bodensee is a massive lake surrounded by Germany, Switzerland and Austria. When standing in Kressbronn, our home base for the weekend, you can see Switzerland straight ahead, and to the left, you get a glimpse of the Austrian Alps. Depending on the weather each day, the view is different. Unfortunately, it was pretty cloudy every day we were there, but I still enjoyed the view! After our first look at the lake, we went back for a second round of kaffee und kuchen in celebration of the Muller's arrival - Uschi, Gunter and Sophia. Marius and Theresa came on Sunday. After a stroll around the island of Lindau, a quaint old town with a beautiful harbour overlooking Austria, we enjoyed maultaschen - a German "raviloli" that is filled with meats, veges, etc. It's also delicious cooked with an egg.

On Saturday part of the crew headed to Fredickshafen to climb a shaky tower overlooking the lake and city. We shopped around a bit then headed home for steaks, potatoes, and delicious orange cocktails that I can never remember the name of. Our evening activity involved searching for clues in the town next to Kressbronn in order to find the "treasure". I had always heard of geo-caching and thought it sounded interesting; and I sure was surprised to see how popular it is in Germany! You can read more about Geo-caching here, but basically, people set up stories and clues throughout a certain area, and you follow the clues until you find a box with odd little "treasures." I'm sure we looked quite funny searching for "double blinker" stickers on trees, benches, light posts, etc.

On Sunday we went on another geocahing adventure when Marius and Theresa arrived and then hung around the family-filled house until Easter present hunting time. Instead of hiding eggs, they hide gifts around the yard that you must find - it was pretty entertaining. After the present hunt, it was time for Easter dinner.  I think I took about twenty photos of fish - but they just kept smiling and looking at me. (OK, a little cheesy I know). But dinner was delicious with fish-on-the-bone, potatoes and warm raspberries with vanilla ice cream.

Monday was one of my favorite days as we hiked up the Pfander mountain in Austria. It was much more of an up-hill "hike" than I had anticipated, but it felt good to move after eating so much in the previous days. We climbed the mountain, had numerous snowball fights and even stopped for some delicious apple saft at the top-of-the-mountain beer haus. We made our way back down the mountain in a fast-moving gondala and enjoyed a drive back to Kressbronn through the border-free streets of Austria.

All-in-all, it was a wonderful weekend. In many ways it felt like home, when all my sisters and I are in town and our house is full of people. At the lake, we managed to sleep seven people in one room - quite comfortably! I am so thankful to have family in Germany, as it makes this experience even more special and meaningful. Here's our weekend in photos:

Nothing like some Kaffee und Kuchen

Hilde explaining the family tree

A warm Easter welcome

The Lindau Harbor overlooking the Austrian Alps

Our waxed and summer-ready car

Maultaschen

Wolfgang and Hilde BBQing

Endless supply of bread

All of the cousins

Geo-caching in the park

Gunter and Wolfgang with Easter Dinner

Easter dinner

Christine, Me, Chelsey, Derek and Marius

Easter Dinner

American cousins

Snowball fight on Pfander!

Overlooking the Austrian countryside

Bodensee

At the top of Pfander

Oh to be a Roman - A Visit to Germany's Oldest City

This weekend we visited the oldest city in Germany - dating back to the Roman empire. I've learned throughout the last month on our history adventures that the Romans not only occupied Italy and "Rome", but their empire spread throughout much of present-day Europe. I'm sure this sounds dumb to any history buff reading this, but I have definitely gained a new interest in the Roman history and methodology. Anyway, we went to Trier, Germany on Saturday morning. Only a two hour drive through the scenic hills, we arrived around noon and checked into our B&B. We stayed at Hotel Astoria, a quaint, welcoming and warm place that I found on Booking.com but is also recommended in Rick Steve's Germany Book. When we arrived, the owner gave us detailed directions to the parking garage and a map to guide us around Trier. We then received three keys and were able to visit three different rooms and decided which suited us the best. It was quite nice - I'm not sure many places care enough to actually let you pick out which room you'd like to stay in. That's what I love about B&B's - the owners work the front desk, serve the breakfast, and take a moment to get to know their guests. We had a very pleasant stay and I will certainly write a great review on TripAdvisor.

After checking into the B&B and drinking a nice welcome glass of champagne provided by the owners, we headed out to explore the city. We walked through the Hauptmarkt - a lovely market area with flower stands and pastries. Of course, pastries were the first thing on our list that had to be checked off. So we scurried around until Derek found the perfect pastry for his lunch-snack. Then we headed to the Porta Nigra, a large Roman gate (the only one left in Trier) dating from 186 to 200 Ad. It is the largest Roman gate North of the Alps and lasted through the Middle Ages. Today it is a World Heritage Site. This gate is definitely Trier's trademark and is a site that you can't miss. It's a wonderfully drastic mix of very old architecture in a new age.

After the Porta we wondered the streets, only to buy another pastry and stumble upon the Kaiserthermen - a large Roman structure that was supposed to be a thermal bathe, but was never completed. Romans sure knew how to live the good life - baths and chariot races and wine. It was pretty interesting to stand among the ruins and try to imagine what the bathes would have looked like or could have been. I think we decided that we'll definitely make a trip to Baden-Baden and experience the thermal bathes for ourselves.  After the Kaiserthermen we visited the Trier Dom - the oldest church in Germany. It was another beautiful church and is said to house the robe that Jesus wore.

Trier is surrounded by vineyards of the Mosel Valley - like many, many towns in Germany- and so of course we wanted to go wine tasting! We walked around and couldn't decide where to go. We finally decided to go back to the first Weinstube that we had found - Oechsle Wein & Fischhaus - and see what their tasting would be like. We were pleasantly surprised. For 15 euros, we were able to taste 120 wines - yes, 120 WINES. We were given a glass and a short tour of the stube. Each wine had its own description and photo of its maker. The wine that we could sample was in a cooler nearby. It was all self-serve for as long as you wanted. I liked most wines - but the Mosel region is definitely a white wine specialty (Rieslings for sure). I'm a fan of most reds, but some were pretty painful. Needless to say, it was an evening well spent. Including the Pizza Hut supreme pizza that we ate for dinner later on.

After a wonderfully German and fresh breakfast on Sunday, the owner of the hotel ( I think her name is Paula) suggested we visit Saarburg for the afternoon. We had one more stop until we left Trier- we visited the Roman Ampitheater - dated to the first century- it was used for gladiator and animal fights. We then headed to Saarburg - a cute little town in the Mosel Valley. There was even a waterfall and stream going through the town. It's quaint little towns like Saarburg that make me want to visit every small town in Germany. The Altstadt was alive with accordion players, Easter decorations and plentiful Eiscafes- so we of course indulged.  All in all, in was a great weekend. But Simba was excited to see us on Sunday evening and he had, of course, managed to eat all of his food and spill all of his water on the floor for us to clean when we got home.

Here's some photos of our trip:

A pastry tent - I think it was a fundraiser

Look what he found!

Standing in front of the Porta Nigra

The flowers in the marketplaces will never get old!

I can't wait for our new apartment so I can grow flowers outside so Simba won't eat them.

Derek in front of the old Roman gate - Porta Nigra

A portion of the Weinstube

Which wine to choose next?

                   It was wonderful - we were practically the only ones tasting with a private piano player.

Our great find: The Weinstube

I'm not ashamed of this dinner - it was amazing!

Standing in front of the Kaisertherman Roman Bathes

The architecture is still so amazing - notice the brick patterns.

Trier's Dom - the oldest Christian Church

The Roman Amphitheater of Trier

Derek in the amphitheater

Gelateria stop in Saarburg

Lovely town of Saarburg

The Saarburg Castle

The Saarburg waterfall

View of the valley from the Saarburg Castle