Germany: The Black Forest to Trier

This blog is a catch-up for May 20th and 21st. 

I woke up in Hotel Diana, looked out the window at the beautiful dark trees and then checked the forecast. SNOW! Ok, I didn't end up seeing any, but Feldberg (where I was) is the highest range in Germany outside the Alps. It makes sense that it'd have some brisk air in mid-may. 

After one of the best breakfasts yet, and a cold water shower (no choice, the hot was NOT coming), I packed up and departed. I had no destination in mind for the Black Forest, so I plugged in "Trier" into the GPS (having booked a hotel that morning - destination!) and was given a route that took me north on the west side of the forest. 

I feel like I missed an opportunity to see something spectacular in the Black Forest, or to have cake, but alas I was on a mission. 

Trier, I had learned from Google, Tripadvisor and Wikipedia, was likely to be the oldest city in Germany. It was founded in the late 1st century BC by the Romans. This is a town with some history. The other thing I learned was that a cathedral claimed to have the actual "Holy Tunic" or "Holy Robe" - the garment Jesus wore as he died on the cross. The garment has a recorded history from the 12th Century. 

You can't read something like that and NOT stop by to see it!

The drive itself was going to take 4 1/2 hours (adding an extra hour to avoid tolls and inadvertently France). This was a big ask after the day I'd had before. Not only that, but the heavy rain I'd been warned about had arrived. It was not a solid 4 hours of rain, but it came and went for most of the day. Around the 3 hour mark, I'd had it. I had stopped a few times for fuel and food but I could not drive one more kilometer. I pulled over at a rest stop, took off my shoes and launched/squirmed my way into the back seat where I went into a coma for 45 minutes. I don't know if I slept, but I powered down and that was enough. When I sat up, the sun was shining and I felt refreshed. As they say in Australia. Stop. Revive. Survive.

Upon arrival in Trier, at the Berghotel Kocklesberg, I found that I'd made a great choice with the reservation. The hotel restaurant and wrap-around deck overlooked the town of Trier from a 300m elevation (Thanks Mom for making me look that one up).

As you may remember. I had "limited" wi-fi in my room. I could get wi-fi on my phone (not my tablet) in the restaurant, but only if my phone was flat on the left side of the table. I found a spot in my room where my tablet could connect, but only long enough to get frustrated. 

Hanging my tablet half out the open window seemed to work

I stacked everything I could find to make it easy to type, but the reception just wouldn't stick around

Oh well, no blogging for me that night. Instead I watched How I Met Your Mother in German and had a fantastic night's sleep. 

The following morning, I drove down the hill to the town of Trier. My GPS didn't recognize "Trier Cathedral" so I looked up "places of worship". There were three. I picked one and parked in an underground lot.

For the next two hours, I was in love with this town. Where I'd parked turned out to be perfect. Not because I'd picked the right church (because I hadn't) but because I was in the tourist path. I saw signs pointing this way and that, so I wondered around.

Electoral Palace

Interesting sculptures outside the palace

Man sized walk-thru holes in the shrubbery, leading to an open field/park

This path lead me to the back of the Imperial Baths 

I have seen A LOT of graffiti in Germany, but this struck me as talent rather than criminal

There were walking tour groups everywhere, with leaders speaking English, German, French, Chinese. I followed one of the English speaking tour groups into the church I had chosen. It was a simple church (no pictures allowed) but I learned (by eavesdropping) that the church organ had 6,000 pipes! Wowzers.

I exited, leaving the group, and looked around. To my left, maybe two blocks away, I saw the spire of a church poking into the sky and decided to make my way towards it.

I passed this archway while walking to the Cathedral

This was the Cathedral I'd been looking for
The one that claimed to have the Holy Robe

Holy Rollers
(caption by Megan)

Abraham bringing Isaac to God as a sacrifice

The figures in doorway arch reminded me of Notre Dame

In the middle of the church grounds was a cemetery. Most graves were from WWI (1910's, 20's)

I know it's not a great picture, but inside this room is the Holy Robe's resting place

The room in which the Holy Robe rests is off limits. You can't get to it or see inside it. They do show the robe every decade or so. It was a little bit of a let down, but still this Cathedral (built in 1270) had interesting designs and sculptures, the likes of which I hadn't seen. And I've been seeing a lot of churches.

This tall, smooth column had these hands at the bottom. 

Camp Jesus. "I don't know. Do you think this makes me look fat?"

This dome blew my mind. The detail. So intricate.

I've never seen a sculpture with it's back to me.
This is clearly Lot's Wife looking back, turning into a pillar of salt

I then went for a 20 minute walk thru the city (in a direction I had not come from). For a moment, I thought I was lost, but at the end of the road, I found that I was back at my parking garage. A miracle. I didn't get lost!

Here are a few more cool things I saw in Trier on that short walk. 

Trier was a winner for me. If I make it back this way, I would stay at that same hotel and spend my days overlooking the town or parking and going on walking adventures, exploring. I'm sure Trier has much more than what I was able to discover. 

It maks sense, really.

My European adventure is coming to a close. Only 6 more days in Germany and then it's back to the "real world". 

I'm going to give you a glimpse into how (or why) I've been able to do this crazy trip and at the end I'm going to ask something of you. It's completely optional, but it would mean a lot to me.

Back in 2008, I made the decision to move to Australia. I hadn't thought out every detail. I didn't know how I would afford it or what I would do for work when I got there, but the decision was made and I put all my faith into it. And it worked out. Something that I had only dreamt of as a child, moving to another country, was acheivable.

The same principle took place with this trip (and many other things in my life). At some point along the way, I made a decision. I was going to quit my job and travel until I didn't want to anymore. Once the decision was made, there was no un-making it. There was no backing out. 

Again, I didn't know how I would afford it. I didn't know where I would go exactly or what I'd do when I got there, but none of that mattered. And here I am. In two months, I've been to Scotland, France, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Ireland and Germany. I've seen and done so much more than I planned, dreamed or thought possible. And I'm stopping, not because I've run out of money, but because I'm tired. I've pushed myself really hard and enjoyed every minute. 

I feel very blessed to have accomplished so many things in my life, but the secret is and has always been belief and sacrifice. I believe without doubt that it will happen and I am willing to give something in return.

To save up for this trip, I stopped living alone and rented a room from a friend. I sold my car and took public transportation. I sold everything I owned. I negotiated over money (which can be uncomfortable, briefly sacrificing comfort). I always kept my focus on the goal without hesitation or doubt. It was the same when I moved to Australia. 

Other decisions in my life came with different sacrifices. When I decided to get a Master's degree, I worked during the day, giving up my evenings to attend class. I gave up money for tuition and books. I gave up my weekends to study and do homework. But every sacrifice paid off. 

The other thing is, there are innumerable ways to get the same result. I could have applied for scholarships or grants and quit my job, taken day courses and still had my evenings. I could have put all my belongings in storage and traveled for half as long. I could've volunteered to work on someone's farm in Europe and had free room and board and traveled twice as long (it's called woofing. look it up if you're interested).

For me, the recipe is a simple one. Decide. Believe. Sacrifice. Achieve. It is with that recipe that this trip was possible and now that the trip is wrapping up, I'm looking forward to the next great achievement...whatever it may be.


Thank you for letting me write something other than another "what I did today" blog post. Tomorrow, I'll get back to recapping my time here in Germany. 

Now, I mentioned that I'd be asking something of you. All I ask is this. If you can, send me an email. Say anything you'd like. I'd love to hear from you. My email address is: sportik@gmail.com

Germany: Neuschwanstein Castle to the Black Forest

Today was another day with A LOT of driving. I am tired. Also, I know I didn't post about yesterday but I sort of got depressed when trying to write about it (concentration camp and all). So, it might take me a few days to put that one together.

As for today, I will try to load pictures with captions, but the internet connection at my hotel is weak. 

I drove from 9am - 7pm with an hour break to climb 600m uphill to see a castle...well, THE castle, in my opinion. But anyway, I'm wiped out. I'm going to have dinner and sleep and maybe spend tomorrow morning catching up on my blogging.

UPDATED: May 21st - From Cologne

Hi! I am finally in a hotel with reliable internet. Let the blogging begin!'

This blog post is about May 19th. I woke up in Munich and didn't really know where I wanted to go. See, I have been doing two things to determine my next move. 1) I download a map of the country that I'm in and circle cities that I'd like to see. Then I do internet research on each place I circled and maybe change my mind a few times, deleting and recircling on the map until I have a decent idea of which places I want to go. 2) I get out an old fashioned piece of paper and make three columns. Where I want to go, what I want to see there and when I'd like to be there. Finally, between the place names, I do a Google Maps search to see how long it would take to drive between them and I write it down. I'd been following these two maps/plans, but May 19th had Neuschwanstein Castle and May 20th was blank. The castle was only an hour and a half from Munich, near the town of Füssen. I figured I could stay there, or I could drive down in the morning and make my way west, towards the Black Forest (everybody was telling me I needed to see it). So, without pre-booking a hotel anywhere, since I didn't know how far I would get, I left in the morning for Neuschwanstein Castle.

Now, if you don't now, the Neuschwanstein Castle is THE castle that Disney himself used as the inspiration for the Disney Park castles. If you know me at all, you know I love me some Disneyland (California!). So, I HAD to see this. 

I was warned by the hotel reception in Munich that it was supposed to be bad weather. "If you have rain boots, put zem on." She said it was supposed to be a hard rain. I drove an hour and a half with a 10 minute drizzle, at most. Parked. And the rain stopped entirely. Brilliant!

This castle is on a hill. 

As seen from the road

As seen half way up the hill

You can't just park at it and walk around like I did with Glamis Castle in Scotland. You park in this cute little "town" (cough shops cough) and pay to take a bus or a horse drawn carriage to the top. 600m (meters) up a fairly steep hill. 

Cute town

Note: if you go here, be sure to buy tickets to the castle in the little town. If you get to the castle itself, they don't sell tickets and you can't go in. I didn't want to go in, but I did want to see the outside of it for myself. So, I got to hiking! I put on my rain boots (shoes) and regretted my decision at about 300m. I tore off my rain jacket and cardigan, coughed a good portion of my lung out and watched a bunch of 80-year-olds pass me up the hill. "Ok, dummy, you can do this." 

At the 580m mark, I stopped at the café to have a pretzel and a coffee (but secretly, I just wanted to stop and catch my breath without anyone wondering why). It was a GIANT and delicious pretzel and the coffee wasn't bad either. 

20 more meters and I'd reached the top and it was worth it! All sorts of Japanese tourists were speaking to each other excitedly, but all I could make out between the streams of Japanese words were, "Disney! Disney!" I loved that so much. =)

Even the view from up there was spectacular

Once I was done at THE castle, I walked down the hill.

One comment here. There were two paths. The way I came up and a way with stairs. My friend Amanda in Copenhagen had an impact on me, which I realised at this fork in the road, and I hope it sticks with me forever. She, on more than one occasion, took a different path back than she'd taken to a place. Her philosophy was, "I've already seen that. Let's see something new". So, I took the path with the stairs and I loved every step.

Back at the car, after shopping in the cute town, I looked at my map of Germany. The one with all the circles and I picked a town near the Black Forest. A town that wasn't circled. A town I knew nothing about. I plugged it into my GPS and drove 4 hours to get there. I planned on stopping along the way, or stopping to find wi-fi and book a hotel, but that didn't happen. I drove and drove and drove...

Driving

Driving

The GPS didn't see this coming! Road very much closed.

Even when tired of driving, I appreciated the gorgeous homes/castles along the way.

With all that driving I wasn't having fun anymore, but the GPS said I was close so I kept going. I reached this town, whose name I won't mention because I HATED IT! Sure, it was big enough to be on the map. And yeah, my GPS said there were hotels in the town, but they were all B&B's and I swear to God they looked like they'd been closed for 10 years. The streets were narrow. There were a lot of people who didn't look friendly. I wanted out of there. 

PROBLEM. I didn't have a clue where to go. And this is where my mood really took a turn for the worse. I KNEW this was going to happen. I put myself in this situation and that made me more upset. At one point, I even saw this sign!

I pulled over and typed into my GPS that I'd like to find hotels. It gave me 20 or more choices that were the German equivalent of "Bob's hotel". I tried more than one. Closed. It was at this point that I started looking up "Ibis" or "Travelodge" or "Hilton". The closest of these to me was Zurich! Then I had the bright idea to look up places that I knew would have free wi-fi. "Starbucks". None. "McDonald's" Yes! And only 15 minutes away. I was seriously in the sticks, folks. I got to McDonald's and asked, "Do you have wi-fi?", "Yes, but you need a Germany phone number to confirm." If I had a Germany phone number, I wouldn't need the F&*#&^* wi-fi. Ok. Calm down. 

I had a cheeseburger in silence. 

I got back in the car and tried the random hotel search again. 20 more minutes in a random direction, hoping hoping hoping. I got there and saw that they were open, but I also saw the only German word I ever learned in college. Besetzt. Occupied. I went in and the woman only spoke German. She ushered me out, speaking the whole time, and pointed at the sign. I assume, "Idiot. We're full up. Go away." I started driving out of that little town and saw another hotel. I pulled over and asked the woman if she had any vacancies. No, but she spoke English and was nice. I asked if I could use her wi-fi to find a hotel and she said YES. Oh, happy day! I got my tablet, plugged in the wi-fi code and within 10 minutes had a place booked in the Black Forest. A DESTINATION! No more wandering. No more anger! I thanked the woman profusely and plugged the address of my hotel into the GPS. 1 Hour away, but WHO CARES! Yes, it was 6pm and I had been driving since 9am. Yes, I was tired and cranky, but I knew where I was going and that made all the difference. The hour flew by and I arrived in my super cute Hotel Diana (in Feldberg). My room overlooked the Black Forest. I had a fantastic dinner in the hotel restaurant and then passed out in my bed. 

Lesson (re)learned. NEVER start driving without a destination in mind.

The view from my hotel room.

This stuffed bear greeted everyone at the front door

Germany loves to put Gummy Bears on your pillow at night