Strasbourg, France and Route Du Vin Day 1

Right before our trip I realized we needed new official license plates put on the car and International Driver's Licenses.  So naturally I busted my butt to get this done and long story short, we still made it to France by 4:30 on Thursday!! I have to say I felt pretty accomplished!!

A small tangent, I had to go to the Automotive place on Ramstein with my friend and actually drill holes into the front of the Jeep to attach the front plate mount.  Ryan was not a fan of this idea, but hey it had to be done and I rocked it! Then I had to take the Jeep to get inspected, which took about 5 minutes.  Afterwards, I was free to buy our new plates, and then had to put them on the Jeep! We had to wait to get our official drivers licenses in the mail in order to get our International licenses.  I ran over to the driving office to get a stamped paper and ran it to Kaiserslautern City Hall with 15.00 Euro and passport photos.  It took about 5 minutes for the license too. Super easy! 

Okay, now on to the fun part, France!! We arrived and checked into our hotel.  We stayed at the Cap Europe Hotel in Strasbourg.  This was the cheapest hotel with parking that I could find last minute and it suited us just fine.  It was about a  15 minute walk to downtown, had a small kitchenette, and a bathroom smaller than a cruise ship bathroom.  It was more like an RV bathroom.  The only other negative for this hotel was the wifi could only be used in the lobby.  I had mostly everything laid out, but still sometimes you need to look things up and that was super annoying.  

We walked downtown and saw some of the sites along the way.  We decided to eat dinner in the Petit France neighborhood at a place called Au Pont du St. Martin.  The waiter spoke NO English, which meant Jets had to refer back to her French days!! I actually really enjoyed being in France and being able to understand things and get by! I really want to relearn my French while we live here.  We had a nice meal of salad au chèvre chaud (goat cheese salad) and I had the Alsacian traditional Munster cheese with a cheese sauce and potato pancakes.  Ryan go a small chicken and wasn't impressed.  We shared an apple tarte flambé for dessert and it was pretty good! 

The next morning we woke bright and early to start the day!! We had to see the Strasbourg sites and hit the road to 2 villages on the Route du Vin.  In terms of touristy things, there isn't much to see here.   We stopped at a local market on our way to the Cathedral to marvel at the flowers, meats, cheeses, fruits/veggies, and yummy desserts! I picked up a rose macaroon for the road!

We started at the Notre Dame Cathedral had a Coffee and shared a pastry at a local Pattiserie. 

 The astronomical clock in Notre Dame, Strasbourg

We decided to have lunch in the Petit France neighborhood because we found a few good daily specials.  I got 2 glasses of wine and a tarte flambee for 8.00 Euro, and Ryan got onion soup, the local Baeckoffe, and dessert for 15.00 Euro! It was a delicious meal, but I the dessert was the best.  Seriously, the best dessert both of us has ever had!

After lunch, we headed out to explore the first part of the Route du Vin!! We decided to stop in Barr first and then made our way to Obernai.  The Route du Vin is a long stretch of wine country in the Alsace region of France and lines the Rhein River.  They specialize in mostly white wine but also in Pinot Noir.  Specifically they produce: Sylvaner, Muscat, Pinot Gris, Reisling, Gewurztraminer, and Pinot Blanc.  The countryside along with the wine are breathtaking!! Each village has their own local vinters who produce some pretty cheap and incredible wine!  It’s really fun to walk through the vineyards and also stop in the cellars in each town to taste the local wines.  This is a huge biking region, so if you have a bike bring it so you can ride from village to village!  If you don’t have a bike, most villages have bike rentals for the day! Also, on the other side of these villages are the Vosges Mountains, which lend to amazing scenery and some great hiking!

Barr was a cute small village.  As far as touristy things it is more quiet and off the beaten path.  We walked around, had some ice cream, walked around the town and some vineyards.  We maybe spent an hour or so here and made our way over to Obernai. 

Obernai was bigger than Barr and more touristy and busy.  The best thing to do for these trips is to stop into the local Tourist Information place to pick up a map, hiking trail maps, and info on what’s hot in that area.  In Obernai, we saw the old Medieval wall fortifications around the city, which are pretty cool.  We went through the pretty church and walked around the square and town.  We found a few local wine tasting rooms and tasted some amazing wine.  Wine tasting here in this region is free with the intent to buy a bottle! We bought 5 bottles because Ryan and I don’t have the same tastes.  I am obsessed with the Cremant d’Alsace, their sparkling wine. 

Most of these villages have a touristy train you can ride, so we decided to pay the 7.00 Euro and get a little 45 minute tour of the city and up into the vineyards before dinner.  If you want to hike there is the Schenkenberg wine trail that takes about 1.5 hours, but we didn’t have time. 

 my cheesy man tourist!

 My love bug!

After the train ride, it was time for dinner!! We ate at a cute little place that the wine tasting gal recommended to us called Winstub- La Dime.  We tried Fois Gras for the first time (swollen Duck Liver).  It actually was pretty good.  This place got really busy and our meal took 2.5 hours.  It was great, but took quite a while.  That’s France for ya!  This was really yummy food though and definitely recommended if you happen to stop in Obernai along the Route du Vin. 

 Fois Gras 

 Chicken stew and Ryan's steak

 Alsacian Coffee... horrible! I had to seriously choke this down! I thought it was like an irish coffee, but the Brady in it was terrible! 

Well that sums up our first few days in France!! Strasbourg is cute, but doable in a half day to a day only.  The Route du Vin is really cute, but most of the villages are similar, so there is no need to go to a billion of them! We went to 7 and that was more than enough! 

Cheers!

Germany's Oldest City: Trier

Trier is one of those cities that is really close to where we live and also highly talked about.  We decided to head up there for a few hours after church and check it all out!! We followed the self guided walking tour outlined in Rick Steve's book, which are always super helpful!

We drove into Trier and parked in a garage semi-across the street from the Porta Nigra.  Parking was pretty reasonable at about 3.00 Euro for the day.  You can hit most of the historical sites in a few hours very easily.  We also sat down and had a nice meal, which always takes at least an hour in Europe! 

We started at the Porta Nigra, which is the only remaining Roman gate to the city.  It's referred to as the black gate and is one of the best Roman ruins here in Germany.  It was funny when we were there there was a Roman reenacting tour going on.  We didn't go into the Porta Nigra, but you can pay 3.00 Euro if you want to go into the old Roman ruin and explore.  

From the Porta Nigra we walked a little ways and found Karl Marx house where he lived until he was 17. 

Next, we found the House of the Three Magi, which according to Rick Steves was significant because rich men did not put their money in banks, but rather in their homes.  Since they were trying to protect their valuables, they had homes like this one and a floating door had a wooden staircase that could be pulled up as needed. 

 Street Performers 

 Eventually, you arrive to the main square.  It was really pretty, but more modern day Germany than we were expecting for being the “Oldest City” in Germany.  I think it was the oldest city due to it being under the Holy Roman Empire way back in 16 B.C.  Right off the main square you can see the cathedral, which to us was the best party of Trier. 

When you travel through Europe, most people want to see all of the churches in each town they visit. They are beautiful and elaborate and some are similar, while some are very different.  I will admit, sometimes it gets old looking at the churches and they do tend to blend together after a while.  But, when you are standing in one and imagining all the hard work that went into building such amazing places with crazy detail so long ago, it is pretty incredible.  Ryan and I always wonder how they did it without all the technology we have today.  It gives meaning to the word “labor” and these churches took years and probably decades to build, which makes them worth a look.  So far, this Cathedral is one of our favorites.  It was so different from many we’ve seen.  

 This is the oldest Christian church in Germany.  Constantine’s mother lived here and allowed part of her palace to used for the Cathedral.  It’s free to get in and very pretty!  If you pay and extra you can get into the Treasury, which is said to house the Holy Robe of Christ and a nail that he was crucified with.  We took pictures of the pictures, but did not pay to go into the treasury. 

Next on our Roman Trier adventure was the Basilica, which is the largest Roman structure that exists outside of Rome! They say that the Porta Nigra can actually fit inside!!

One of Trier’s top museums according to Rick Steves is the Archaeological Museum, which costs about 6.00 Euro to enter.  You will find lots of Roman art and the store of Trier.  We did not have a lot of time or interest in a museum that day, so I can’t really comment on that!

Last on our city walk, we landed at the Imperial Baths built by Constantine.  We didn’t pay the 3.00 Euro to enter, but saw it from the outside and it was pretty neat. 

 If you want to walk a tad bit further you can also hit up the Amphitheater ruins and pay the 3.00 Euro to enter there as well.  We didn’t have time and we were hungry, so we skipped this as well! 

We found a restaurant recommended by Rick Steves called Krim.  He said it was Mediterranean, but we felt it was more German.  Ryan a horse steak and I had an amazing meal as well.  We shared a local Trier dish with applesauce, bacon, and dumplings, which was amazing!!

Overall, it was a nice little half day adventure and cool to see such old ruins left by the Romans.  From Kaiserslautern it took us about an hour to get there and a little hydroplaning scare.  Definitely a nice little place to check out while living here and an easy trip to take our families too when they visit!!

Prost!