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The NTG Travel Diaries!!! #5
DAY 5: BONN, GERMANY
"Are we going to the Biergarten yet?"
***************
This morning was an early one...
The plan was to spend the day seeing the Rhein, and the many castles that populated its banks. We started with a stroll across the university campus near Anna's apartment.
Our transportation for the day was to be Anna's tiny Fiat. We didn't try, but I bet Fischer and I could have lifted this car off the ground if we stood at either bumper.
For much of the trip, Fischer and I had pretty defined roles in terms of documenting what we saw. He handled the video, I was the still guy. Anna hated the video camera, so Fischer took every opportunity he could to try and film her.
Even before we hit any castles, there was stuff I deemed worth snapping. This fountain, for instance.
And talk about stuff worth snapping... While we were on the highway, I caught something out of the corner of my eye on the back window of a passing car. I asked Anna to speed up and get behind the car as best she could. Here's what I saw:
Even in Germany, there are Eagles fans! That made me feel great and I knew it would be an excellent day. It felt like a little piece of home was somehow watching over me across an ocean.
Our first stop was the town of Linz, a small cobblestone grid of streets devoted mostly to small shops.
On the outside, we saw the high water marks where the Rhein had flooded before. A good many of them were several feet above our heads where we were standing, which was a scary thought.
Linz also had a great little pastry shop, which I couldn't leave without getting a chunk of Nüssecke (which literally means "nut corner").
We passed our first castle of the day, at Bad Höningen.
We didn't go inside, but we stood on the shady hill overlooking the castle grounds and sloping vineyards for awhile. A short drive from there, we found ourselves on the coast of the Mosel River, which intersects the Rhein, and it seemed like as good a place as any to abandon the car and set off walking.
We wandered through the open garden of a large church...
...before making our way to the Liebfrauenkirche, parts of which were constructed in the fifth century.
This time, we ventured briefly inside.
After more wandering, we made our way to the junction of the two rivers. Overlooking the connection point is a castle-like structure adorned with a rather badass statue of a horse and rider. The Germans... they just know how to do stuff like this and make it cool.
After Fischer's contemplative little sit there, we made our way back to the car and drove in the direction of more castles, only to get hopelessly lost. We had directions from a passerby to get us in the direction of Schloss Katz and Schloss Maus (literally "Castle Cat and Castle Maus"). Instead we wound up in this enormous open field. In the distance, we saw a tiny outhouse, but aside from that it was nothing but grass...
...and apparently to Fischer, the sound of music.
We gave up trying to find the castles and just made our way back where we came, to the coast of the Rhein near the famed Lorelei.
All throughout the day, Fischer was asking at what point we'd get to the true German Biergarten. His constant mentioning of it made our eventual arrival at one like the resolution to some epic quest. It was very low-key, much unlike the stereotypical American perception of the Biergarten. No men were dancing in Lederhosen, and sadly, no buxom German blondes with braided hair paraded enormous mugs past our table. Instead, it was almost empty and very relaxed. We sat right along the wall overlooking the Rhein and its valley. A sparse few other people sat, laughed, and drank beer. A dog ran periodically through the garden playing fetch with the people behind us.
After our beer, we made the long drive back to Anna's place and gathered our things. We were preparing to leave Germany and make what would be a ludicrously circuitous journey across Swizterland and into Italy... The final leg of our adventure...
The train was an overnighter from Bonn to Milan. It wound up leaving about 90 minutes late, which put us even later into the night. The plan was to take a double-train connection out of Milan that would put us in Florence, where we would meet Ben at the airport and travel with him to the villa where everyone else was waiting...
Things didn't exactly go according to plan...
***************
NEXT POST: The train ride and the day that followed, which was one of the longest and strangest of my life...
*****N*T*G*****
Never hesitate to comment!
"Are we going to the Biergarten yet?"
***************
This morning was an early one...
The plan was to spend the day seeing the Rhein, and the many castles that populated its banks. We started with a stroll across the university campus near Anna's apartment.
Our transportation for the day was to be Anna's tiny Fiat. We didn't try, but I bet Fischer and I could have lifted this car off the ground if we stood at either bumper.
For much of the trip, Fischer and I had pretty defined roles in terms of documenting what we saw. He handled the video, I was the still guy. Anna hated the video camera, so Fischer took every opportunity he could to try and film her.
Even before we hit any castles, there was stuff I deemed worth snapping. This fountain, for instance.
And talk about stuff worth snapping... While we were on the highway, I caught something out of the corner of my eye on the back window of a passing car. I asked Anna to speed up and get behind the car as best she could. Here's what I saw:
Even in Germany, there are Eagles fans! That made me feel great and I knew it would be an excellent day. It felt like a little piece of home was somehow watching over me across an ocean.
Our first stop was the town of Linz, a small cobblestone grid of streets devoted mostly to small shops.
On the outside, we saw the high water marks where the Rhein had flooded before. A good many of them were several feet above our heads where we were standing, which was a scary thought.
Linz also had a great little pastry shop, which I couldn't leave without getting a chunk of Nüssecke (which literally means "nut corner").
We passed our first castle of the day, at Bad Höningen.
We didn't go inside, but we stood on the shady hill overlooking the castle grounds and sloping vineyards for awhile. A short drive from there, we found ourselves on the coast of the Mosel River, which intersects the Rhein, and it seemed like as good a place as any to abandon the car and set off walking.
We wandered through the open garden of a large church...
...before making our way to the Liebfrauenkirche, parts of which were constructed in the fifth century.
This time, we ventured briefly inside.
After more wandering, we made our way to the junction of the two rivers. Overlooking the connection point is a castle-like structure adorned with a rather badass statue of a horse and rider. The Germans... they just know how to do stuff like this and make it cool.
After Fischer's contemplative little sit there, we made our way back to the car and drove in the direction of more castles, only to get hopelessly lost. We had directions from a passerby to get us in the direction of Schloss Katz and Schloss Maus (literally "Castle Cat and Castle Maus"). Instead we wound up in this enormous open field. In the distance, we saw a tiny outhouse, but aside from that it was nothing but grass...
...and apparently to Fischer, the sound of music.
We gave up trying to find the castles and just made our way back where we came, to the coast of the Rhein near the famed Lorelei.
All throughout the day, Fischer was asking at what point we'd get to the true German Biergarten. His constant mentioning of it made our eventual arrival at one like the resolution to some epic quest. It was very low-key, much unlike the stereotypical American perception of the Biergarten. No men were dancing in Lederhosen, and sadly, no buxom German blondes with braided hair paraded enormous mugs past our table. Instead, it was almost empty and very relaxed. We sat right along the wall overlooking the Rhein and its valley. A sparse few other people sat, laughed, and drank beer. A dog ran periodically through the garden playing fetch with the people behind us.
After our beer, we made the long drive back to Anna's place and gathered our things. We were preparing to leave Germany and make what would be a ludicrously circuitous journey across Swizterland and into Italy... The final leg of our adventure...
The train was an overnighter from Bonn to Milan. It wound up leaving about 90 minutes late, which put us even later into the night. The plan was to take a double-train connection out of Milan that would put us in Florence, where we would meet Ben at the airport and travel with him to the villa where everyone else was waiting...
Things didn't exactly go according to plan...
***************
NEXT POST: The train ride and the day that followed, which was one of the longest and strangest of my life...
*****N*T*G*****
Never hesitate to comment!
posted by JMP at 12:50 AM
2 comments
