Monday, July 20, 2009

Bacharach or Bust!

Moving onto Germany! With one night stay in Frankfurt we then boarded 2 trains into Bacharach. We selected this quaint little town on the Rhine river b/c of Rick Steve's recommendation in his book. I was looking forward to a quiet, romantic and picturesque stay and it definitely did not disappoint. This is obviously not the place to go if you are looking for nightlife though. :)


We stayed at Hotel zur Post which was run by a nice woman who kept it spotlessly clean. We asked for a room with a balcony which meant we were on the top floor and I think we were the only ones staying on that floor. It was nice and quiet and we bought a bottle of wine and popped it open on the balcony. By the time we were done with it Wade was drunk and happy and we went for some grub.


We had some schnitzel which was absolutely delicious. Wade said it was the best fried pork tenderloin he's ever had and I may have to agree.


After we ate we decided to tour the little town. I wanted to see the Werner Chapel ruins and we were pleasantly surprised to find that it is on a hiking trail that will take you all the way up to the castle on the hill which has since been turned into a youth hostel. Of course the weather is completely unpredictable and it would go from sunny and 80 degrees to raining and 65 degrees and b/c of my unrelenting luck while we were hiking it was sunny and hot and the second we were done and sat down for a cocktail it started sprinkling. Nice.

The town is surrounded by mountains on 3 sides and the river and on the mountains are vineyards. Wade and I are still wondering how the heck they harvest these grapes b/c it is super steep but it sure makes for some great pictures!



The next day we rented bikes for a ride up the Rheine river. There was a castle in St. Goar that I wanted to tour and St. Goar is approximately 10 miles north with small towns and castles all along the way. The ride was very scenic and beautiful!


Right before we got to the castle (as we are climbing a HUGE hill/mountain) it starts raining on us. We promptly ditch the bikes and try to find a place to hide out and stay relatively dry. Luckily, the weather in Germany seems to change very quickly and the rain only lasted about 5-10 minutes but we still managed to get pretty dang wet. Once it stopped raining we explored the castle which was very cool. It was huge and had little tunnels and pathways everywhere!



You gently cusp the balls...

As we were nearing the end of our castle tour we noticed some storm clouds quickly approaching. We thought we could quickly grab our bikes and get down the hill/mountain into the town and run into a bar until it passed over. But oh were we so wrong. It opened up on us and we got SOAKED for the 2nd time that day.

Once the rain quit we headed back to Bacharah and treated ourselves to some much needed delicious strudel. Oh yeah, it was gooooood.

Since the day was still young we thought we'd buy a bottle of wine and hike up the other side of the path that we didn't get to the day before. We reached what we thought was the top of the path and popped the bottle open and soak up the gorgeous view. We soon realized we were wrong (again) and that the trail continued up farther. Much much farther. So we continued on and enjoyed our wine.

We're classy in that we drink straight from the bottle.
Seriously, just look at that view for a bit. Stunning! We still aren't sure if we ever reached the end of the trail, but it was getting late, we were getting hungry (and drunk) and we still needed to get back down so we turned around and headed back for some dinner and drinks.

Bacharach was a beautiful little town that was a quiet and relaxing stop on our vacation. I'd definitely suggest it to someone looking for a little romance and relaxation, however I'd say 2 days max (at least for me, I like a little action after a bit!)

Friday, July 17, 2009

Weekly Want-It's

I'm going to try to do these posts weekly. We'll see how well I keep up with it b/c me and commitment typically doesn't go well (except w/ my honeybumpkin Wade). :)

So here are my favorite finds!

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Bonjour my lovers!

And we're back. We got back to the good ole USA on Monday afternoon. I took Tuesday off to recuperate and I actually got all of the 450+ photos from our trip loaded onto the computer and even my favorites onto Facebook.

We had such a great trip. It was unreal. I figure for blog post purposes that I'll break our trip summary up into 4 different posts (one for each trip stop). So we'll begin with Paris.

I landed in Paris at 9:30am (but it felt like 2:30am to me). I was nervous to find the meeting spot that Wade had told me to meet him at. After finding what I thought was the right spot I paced around waiting for Wade to arrive on his train. When I finally saw him it was so great. I had missed the hell out of him!

I was beat from the plane ride and time difference but there was to be no rest for the weary! We are in Paris!

Our first day consisted of walking around to get acquainted with the neighborhood we were in which was perfect b/c there were restaurants EVERYWHERE and we were directly across the street from the train station that we were scheduled to leave from. We wandered down to Notre Dame, the Isle of St. Louis and walked along the Seine, stopped in an Irish pub for a brew and finally headed back to the hotel for some dinner and wine and passed the hell out.Our 2nd day we slept in, walked down to the Louvre (which was free b/c it was the 1st Sunday of the month = perfect!) and then started heading toward the Eiffel tower. We were thinking we'd find somewhere to eat along the way and grab some grub and drinks but once you head out of the gardens surrounding the Louvre there really isn't anywhere to stop between there and the Eiffel tower. So by the time we got there I was beat (it was a long walk!) and starving and really wanting a drink! We got a Coke that ended up costing us $5 (oops) and then waited in line to go up the tower. The view from the 2nd level was amazing!

After that was over and done with we found a cafe and drank some wine while waiting to meet up with Chris and Crystal for dinner. Chris was Wade's roommate in Lyon during his MBA course and he and his wife were in Paris at the same time as us. We had a great steak and french fries (they serve french fries w/ EVERYTHING and mayo w/ the fries) dinner along w/ some overly expensive (but tasty) wine and then headed to the gardens by the Eiffel Tower to watch the light show. Chris and Crystal had so nicely brought along 2 bottles of wine and we popped those suckers open and plomped down on the grass to drink, chill and watch the lights. I must say the light show was kind of lame although it was pretty. But the whole night was a blast (from what I can remember)!




The only bad thing is that there is nowhere to pee! So I held it in for so long that I eventually had to pee in the bushes. Fun. And then by the time we left it was SO late that we couldn't find a bus and I couldn't find a toilet and we had a very very long walk back to our place so I thought I'd try to pee behind a post on a building. Not a good idea. A guard caught me, Wade shit his pants and then I had to rinse my pee down with a bucket of water the guard gave me. But well, when you gotta go, you gotta go! The French could learn a thing or two about making toilets more accessible! Even when you finally can find one it will cost you money to use! Absurd!
Oh yeah, and quite possibly one of the best parts of Paris... a bird shit on Wade's head while we were waiting for our train. Hahahahaha! Awesome. :)

All in all, Paris was a great city to visit. Until next time... Au reviour.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Wordless Wednesday

Me, Kara & Todd: Garage party time!
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Coming up: Europe pictures!!! I'm back and trying to get back on track! I'll hopefully be catching up soon!

Monday, July 13, 2009

How about I throw ya'll some random shit?

Ya'll in some need of random bullshit? Good, cause that's all I got for you! I'm flying back from Europe today so I'm sure I'll be jetlagged very soon. Anyway, enjoy... or don't... Whatever floats your boat. :)

For those interested, the swim suit I ended up keeping was this one. Sure, my tan lines will be a little wacky, but that is assuming I even get a tan! I'm white as a ghost. Call me Casperetta. Anyway, I loved the color and it fit me great so decision DONE! Thanks for all your responses!* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Next up, this is our friend Steve.

For those of you who watch Family Guy, do you totally see the resemblance to Quagmire?!?!? For those of you who don't watch it, what are you waiting for? It's hilarious! :) We've taken to calling Steve, Quagmire instead b/c it is more fun to say and funny too!

He's Quagmire! Quagmire! Giggity, giggity, giggity, giggity! Let's have sex!






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Also, just b/c it's totally true...


I miss ya'll and will see you soon! I promise I'll catch up w/ you guys just as soon as I can!