Living in Germany: A Tour of Zwingenberg

Our little town of Zwingenberg along the Bergstrasse in Hesse, Germany always surprise me. Every time we go exploring, we find new nook and crannies and intriguing pathways to explore. In addition to being the oldest town on the Bergstrasse, Zwingenberg is known for its vineyards and wine making. So, Derek and I went exploring this past weekend, and here's a peek at our little German home:

The photo below shows signs with a green wine glass. This sign is seen many times throughout the Bergstrasse region. The wine glass directs the way to the famous wine trail that connects Zwingenberg to Heppenheim. 

This tower is on the higher level of Zwingenberg, and dates back to the 1500s. This tower provides an historic and beautiful addition to the city.

Here is a view of Zwingenberg from the church on the hill. 

Cobbled stone streets fill many German towns. This one leads into the vineyards.

Below is our favorite Eis Cafe in Zwingenberg. There are two Eis Cafes in Zwingenberg, but we have actually only tried this one. We walk right up to the window on the left side of the building and order ein kugel!

Here is a road very close to our house, but leads away from Zwingenberg and into another small town. I enjoy taking walks and runs in this area.

In Germany, bike paths can take you anywhere. This sign says that the Zwingenberg train station is .2km away and Darmstadt is 19. Bike paths are readily available, and if there is no path, it is common to just ride on the road.

We shop a Netto- similar to Aldi- almost every other day. 

Here is a local pub with a biergarten in the back. We first tried Schnitzel mit Kochkäse here! It is a short walk from our house.

We visit this Kaffeehaus often - it has high-speed Internet! I'm actually sitting in here with a coffee and pastry as I type this sentence.

Zwingenberg has a nice park in the middle of town that hosts small festivals throughout the year. 

This is the main road of Zwingenberg's old town - it's filled with cute cafes and cobbled streets.

This is the marktplatz (main center) in Zwingenberg. It is home to several restaurants, perfectly shaped trees and a lovely fountain!

In Zwingenberg's old town, half-timbered houses are scattered everywhere. I thought this house was particularly charming!

Same with this house! Flower boxes adorn many of the half-timbered homes in Germany.

This cute garden is perched on the side of the hill near the church. What a view!

Derek is standing outside of the Bürgerbüro and town hall. We go here to pick up yellow garbage sacks for recycling. It is across the street from the Eis Cafe.

Here are some other random photos with captions:

A bike path under the train tracks

There is a tiny market in Zwingenberg Marktplatz every Friday morning. 

Beautiful vineyards close to our house.

"Don't poop here."

Water hole and bird sign near entrance to the Odenwald National Park

Two Nights in Munich: The City of Biergartens & Surfers

Munich provided a great side trip for a weekday adventure. Voted as the city that most Germans would love to live in,  it is so modern, with fashionable stores, great transportation, and endless restaurants, but is also very traditional with its bier gartens, thriving Viktualienmarkt and lively Marienplatz. We stayed in Munich for two nights and about 2.5 days. Without going to the museums, we had plenty of time to explore the city, its well-known treasures and the endless green space of the Englischer Garten.

Abby and I took the 8am train from Zwingenberg to Munich on Tuesday morning. We had to change trains one time, in Darmstadt, and arrived in Munich around lunchtime. We stayed at a Rick Steve's recommended pension in the heart of the city- Pension Linder, and although there was much construction right out our window, it was a great stay with a delicious breakfast and a lovely host.

Our room at the pension. We had our own shower but shared a toilet.

On Tuesday we strolled around the city, stopping at the famous and eye-appealing Viktualienmarkt market and its beer garden for a famed Munchen beer. We walked among the fruit, vegetable, honey, meat, cheese and flower stands and marveled at the wide variety of produce sold. I've read that this market, located on prime real estate, has been alive for so long and is such a tradition of Munich that the store owners only pay a small part of their profits to the city. We even walked past the market another day around 10:30am and there were several locals enjoying a beer- I guess it's never too early for beer in Bavaria!

The very popular  Viktualienmarkt 

We spent the rest of Tuesday exploring the streets of Munich by climbing the tower at St.Peter's church (only 2 Euro), visiting the famed Marienplatz, home to the Glockenspiel, and walking to the Englischer Garten, the largest urban park in Europe. We passed the large meadow, called the Schönfeldwiese, filled with students throwing Frisbee, dogs playing fetch and nude sun bathers flaunting their stuff. Yes, it's legal. We stopped for dinner at the Chineseischer Turm, a famous bier garten next to the large Chinese Pagoda resembling the original built in the late 1700's but burnt down during the war. Here we tried curry wurst, potato salad and a gigantic pretzel. One thing I love about the bier gartens in Munich is the way that you order your food. You go to the beer counter and pick up the beer you would like to drink, usually served in .5L or 1L mugs, and then you choose any food you want to eat. You take your entire selection to the Kasse (cash register) and pay for your meal. Now I'm not the world's biggest beer lover and neither is Abby (at all!), but when you are visiting a city of beer, you must join in. After our dinner and meeting some people from Indianapolis, we made our way to the city center for some ice cream of course. This became a daily event while in Munich.

Abby overlooking Munich from the tower at St. Peter's church

Picking up our beer at the  Viktualienmarkt bier garten

Green space in the Englischer Garten

Beer, potato salad, pretzel and curry wurst (Note: We split this meal)

Sunset in the park

Maypole in the  Viktualienmarkt - it displays all the local brews being served

Beautiful church at sunset in Odeonplatz

Standing in Odeonplatz

With our bikes at Nymphenburg Palace

 On Wednesday, we awoke early and went to Mike's Bike Shop where we rented matching pink bike cruisers. To me, biking is usually the best way to see a large city. You can cover so much more ground than walking, and for 15 Euro, we rented bikes for the entire day. Out first destination was 30 minutes away: The Nymphenburg palace. This was a pretty palace and was the summer home of a royal family. We didn't explore it too much, but just walked the grounds a bit. Then we headed to Olympia Park, featuring all of the sport arenas and tower from the 1972 Olympic games. The park seemed nice, but it wasn't overly interesting. We then biked about one hour to the Englischer Gartens to a resting point at the Hirshau bier garten. Then I led us in a giant circle detour before finding the lake within the gardens. We snacked on some pommes frites and biked to the Eichbach stream where a wave in the river allows surfers to actually surf in the city. It was so neat to see! The surfers would take turns surfing; when one would fall into the river, another would take their place surfing the wave. There were about 8-10 guys in wet suits waiting their turn to get in. I'd say that this aspect of the city helps define it's laid back, enjoy-life type of feeling. After watching the surfers, we biked back to the bike shop and returned our bikes. It was definitely a great day and a wonderful way of exploring the outer regions of Munich. That night we visited the world-famous Hofbrau Haus, a famous beer hall filled with many tourists. It was definitely not my favorite atmosphere, especially since two different people approached us trying to sell us something. But, it was a good experience. We ended up sitting next to a retired couple from South America who live in New Jersey. We had great conversation with them and it was nice to meet friendly people!

Nymphenburg Palace

Abby at the palace lake

The beautiful Hofgarten

Olympia Park

Famous beer hall

Lake in the Englischer Gartens

Abby biking in the Hofgarten

Surfer at the Eisbach

Surfers catching the wave at the Eisbach river

For dinner, we found a cute restaurant showing the Euro Cup game of Spain & Portugal. We both ordered pasta, but Abby's contained spicy sausage, so of course, I had to switch our dinners. After getting ice cream, we returned to our hotel and finished watching the game. Before heading home on Thursday, we wondered the streets a bit more and made it the Marienplatz at 11am to watch the Glockenspiel dance. It lasted about 8 minutes and we enjoyed watching it come to life with the other hundreds of people in the plaza. During summer, the Glockenspiel performs at 11am, 12am and 5pm. It showcases almost life-size characters dancing in a wedding and wine celebration from long ago.

The Glockenspiel Performing

Overall, it was a great 2.5 days and definitely enough time to explore the city, taste several types of beer and take in the beauty of Munich. I look forward to taking my parents back to the city for a night in September- it contains many beautiful must-sees and must-dos.

Festivals, Friends and Food: Abby's in Town!

At the European Cup viewing

It's been quite the busy two weeks since Abby, my twin sister, arrived back on June 18. For only two weeks, I'd say we have been able to explore, taste and see quite a bit. It's wonderful having my sister in town, but I know it's for only a limited time, so we have to live it up! Here's a recap of our last two weeks:

When Abby arrived at the Frankfurt airport, I was waiting for her at the gate and we began the short journey by bus and train back to our little town of Zwingenberg. We enjoyed our first dinner of grilled bratwursts, sautéed vegetables and kartoffelsalat (potato salad). This was also Derek's first day back to work after the two week hiatus of getting married and traveling to Sicily. When he arrived home, we had a special gift to open from his colleagues at Freudenberg. It was a money cake built by a colleague that Derek works closely with and the entire office had pitched in for the gift. It was so, so sweet of them!

Opening the money cake

Such a sweet gift from Derek's company

Abby and Derek enjoying a lovely German meal

The rest of the week, Abby and I explored the Odenwald Nature Park by hiking to a nearby castle - the Alsbacher Schloss, had a picnic lunch in the park, walked the vineyards, tried some delicious pastries from the local bakery and cooked up some more feasts of schnitzel, mashed potatoes, etc. On Wednesday evening, we hopped in the car after Derek arrived home from work and headed to the Hockenheimring, a Formula One race track about 45 minutes from our house. We picked up our friends Philip and Eva on the way and proceeded into a crowd of about 16,000 people for a "company race". Derek was running a 3k race with his Freudenberg team. He did not know much about the race until we got there, so we were very surprised to see SO many people! There was a live band, beer stands and lots of food choices for the festival after the race. It was great to meet some of his colleagues and a good first night out with Abby!

Philip, Eva, Courtney, Abby and Derek at the race

Derek is out there somewhere

Abby at the Alsbacher Schloss

 On Thursday, we boarded the train and headed to the nearby university town of Heidelberg. We idled through the cobbled streets, explored the small side roads and enjoyed some green time before heading back home. On Friday, the Euro Cup quarter finals took place. We joined up with some friends again and headed to the small Odenwald town of Morlenbach. Not sure what to expect for a "public viewing" of the game (Germany vs. Greece), I packed some chips, wine and a blanket. Since it was standing room only, we didn't need the picnic. There were so many people crammed into the quaint town marketplatz, all trying to get a view of the big screen that showcased the game. Germans love, love soccer, so it was incredible to be with the entire town when they won! This was much better than watching the game from our small TV in the flat. We celebrated in the streets after the win and made it back to a friend's house for some late night Irish dancing. 

In beautiful Heidelberg

Dinner on the porch

Heidelberg

The Morlenbach marketplatz filled with fans

With friends at the game

German ears on our car

On Saturday, we drove the 1.3 hours to Oberstenfeld to meet up with our German family for a Fleckenfest (small town festival). We enjoyed some kaffee und kuchen (coffee and cake) before heading to the fest where we tried some rostbraten mit zwiebels, a delicious and popular meal of steak with onions and spätzle noodles. On Sunday, we walked to a nearby castle but it was closed to visitors that day. We showed the family some of our wedding photos and even opened a gift of our very own  spätzle maker and German cookbook! I was more than excited to try out the gift. I have made spätzle  with the Müllers a few times now and now I get to make it anytime I want!  And I did test it... on Monday we cooked Käse-Spätzle, a German version of macaroni and cheese. It turned out alright. I'll use a different cheese next time. I'll put the recipe in the soon-to-be recipe section on this blog.

Derek and Günter in Oberstenfeld

Marius and Derek at the Oberstenfeld fest

Our first German beer mugs!

Visiting a castle in Oberstenfeld

Opening the Spätzle maker

Making Spätzle noodles (it's made from flour, eggs and salt)

Spätzle mit Käse with fried onions on top!

On Tuesday we took off for a new adventure and headed to Munich for two nights. I'll tell that story in a following post. After Munich, we watched the semi-finals of the Euro Cup at a restaurant in Heppenheim, and sadly, Germany lost. On Friday night, we had a cookout at our house- one of my favorite things to do! We made hamburgers, taco dip (a German variation, but it was good), pasta salad, rice krispie treats and Abby's specialty, peanut butter pie. We had a wonderful time on our back porch eating, talking and drinking great wine. This weekend we visited another castle, the Auerbacher Schloss, the small town of Lorsch, went to a extremely large and fall festival-resembling carnival in Darmstadt, and today we are going to the Heppenheim wine fest.  To say the least, it has been a great two weeks back in Germany and a wonderful time with Abby! Next up this week: The Berner Oberland in the Swiss Alps.

Cookout on the porch

Abby and I at the Auerbach Schloss 

Derek's inner child