Dates: September 10th to 17th
Places visited: Strasbourg (France), Baden-Baden, Heidelberg, Rhine Valley, Frankfurt, Rothenburg, Munich, Fussen, Stuttgart
Ever since we moved to Paris, I've been wanting to get over to Germany. Since it was so close by, and less exotic (compared to Italy, Spain or Greece), we put it off for a while. Well, with Ashish visiting us for three weeks, I finally got an excuse to plan a long road trip to southern Germany. We had already gone to Berlin in August, and absolutely loved it, so it was with great enthusiasm that we departed on our road-trip.
We took the train from Paris to Strasbourg on Saturday morning (after a late night out at Chez Bebert - a Moroccan restaurant - for Julie's birthday). It was a four hour train ride that went very quickly thanks to my new Playstation Portable (on which I played games and watched Frasier). The ride would have been quicker if the line was a TGV line, but that won't be coming to Strasbourg until 2007. We arrived in Strasbourg around lunch time and had to wait a couple of hours before the Hertz rental place opened up, so we had Gyros in the city and wandered around the shopping areas for a while.
Once we picked up the car from Hertz, we headed out of town towards Baden-Baden. First and foremost, I must discuss what an experience it was driving on the Autobahn. I'd be going 160 in the slow lane while cars in the fast lane passed us by as though we were standing still. They must have been going well over 200 km/h. Baden-Baden is a very nice little town with an old center and many shops. It is a vacation resort because of its spas. We spend some time walking around the city and picking up some snacks for the road.
After spending a couple of hours in Baden-Baden, we headed off to Heidelberg, which would be our resting place for the night. We found a cute little hotel and had a great dinner in a pub. The next day we saw the beautiful old city bridge and Heidelberg castle which overlooks the city. Around mid-morning, we then drove out to the Rhine Valley. On our way up to Bacharach, where we would spend our second night, we came across a small town called Bingen which, as luck would have it, was holding a wine festival at the time. This was a really neat thing to witness; all of the town's locals were out drinking wine served from carts and vehicles taking part in a parade. For a quick snack, we had currywurst, a pretzel and some wine. We reached Bacharach in the early evening, so we only had time for dinner and an evening walk up to a tower overlooking the town.
The next morning (Monday), we headed along the Rhine Valley to St. Goar. Here, we saw the town's castle from outside and then visited the world's largest stein shop and Teddy bear shop. St. Goar also has the world's largest free hanging cookoo clock. On our way to Rothenburg, we drove through Frankfurt (had lunch and saw the old town center), Wurzburg, and the Romantic Road. The late night driving from Wurzburg to Rothenburg was a little scary because we weren't quite 100% sure that we were going in the right direction. In any case, we managed to make our way to Rothenburg, find a great little hotel and had dinner in a wonderfully German restaurant. Rothenburg was great; we really loved the little hotel (and breakfast) and the walled town is truly unique.
The highlight of our trip was definitely Munich; it is a wonderful town with a big and small time feeling, markets, beer gardens and all of the modern amenities. On the way into town, we went to the Dacau concentration camp. I certainly feel as though I've now seen my share of Nazi sights. In Berlin, we saw the old SS site, a Nazi train, and a plane. After seeing Dacau, one of the main centers of the terror, I think I don't need to see any further evidence of the dark days of WWII. After we found a hotel right in the center of the city (about a 2 minute walk from Hofbrauhaus), we had dinner at Augustiner. I ate pork knee and a wonderful beer. To continue with Munich tradition, we then went for a beer at Hofbrauhaus (a great old beer house that can hold over 2000 patrons. The next day, we walked around the city, visited an old church and tower, old town hall, had some fresh pickles at the market and had some more beer at an outdoor beer garden. For dinner we ate at a very expensive Thai restaurant (Thaifoon) and then went to the original Augustiner beer house to end the night.
On Thursday, we went over to Fussen to see King Ludwig's Neuschwanstein castle (an absolutely amazing castle in a story-book setting). This castle, situated at the foot of the Alps, is without a doubt the greatest of the castles or palaces I've seen in all of Europe. Just gorgeous. After seeing the castle, we then went luging, which was a first for all of us. Fussentreat to see.
On Friday, it was time to start heading back towards Strasbourg to end our trip. On the way from Fussen to Strasbourg, we stopped in Stuttgart to see the Mercedes Benz museum. The museum was free and so was the audioguide talking about all of the different exhibits in the museum (including the very first cars ever built).
The last day of our trip was just as good as the rest of it. We got to see the wonderful city of Strasbourg, with its grand old cathedral and numerous shops and windy streets. Before catching the train back to Paris, we truly ended the trip in the same manner as we started it - with dinner at the same Gyros place that we had lunch at a week earlier :)
was a beautiful little town located in an absolutely beautiful countryside. The high Alps against the rolling bright-green hills is a combination that is a real
Highlights:
- Bavarian dinner in Heidelburg
- Best beer stein shop in St. Goar
- Wine festival in Bingen
- Quaint little Bacharach on the Rhine
- Beautiful little B in Rothenburg and the Romantic road
- Hofbrauhaus beer hall (with capacity for over 2000 people) in Munich
- Crazy King Ludwigs castles near Fussen
- Very beautiful Strasbourg 
