Happy Birthday Karen!

Happy birthday to one of my favorite travel junkies, Academy Awards lover, gchatter and former room mate! I hope your day is nothing but special!

RothenbUrg not RothenbErg

We decided to spend Karen's last day in Europe in Rothenburg, Germany.  Everything I had read described it as the quintessential German town and people raved about it.  I knew I wanted to get there at some point, so it was the best fit for Karen's last day!  We got in the car around 9:00 and put it in the GPS, which said we would get there around noon.  Sounded about right, so we hit the road!  Around 11:30, the GPS had us get off the highway and we soon entered the German countryside.  This sounded about right since everything I had read said that Rothenburg was surrounded by farms and countryside.  I started to get a bad feeling about it though because I didn't see any decent sized city.  We soon saw a sign that said "Rothenberg" but all that was there was a little bed and breakfast and some houses.  Not what I had been reading about.  We quickly realized that the town we were looking for was spelled with a 'U' not an 'E' and that we were about an hour away from where we wanted to be.  I was hungry and Karen needed to use the bathroom, so have a quick pit stop, we hit the road and headed for RothenbUrg.

When we finally made it there, we were ecstatic.  Guys, Rothenburg is the cutest little German town!  It's old town (where all of the good stuff is) is surrounded by ancient walls, so you have to park outside and walk in.

We were so hungry that we stopped at one of the first restaurants we saw, which was fine because we ended up with this as our lunch view.

After refueling, we finally hit the town.

The cathedral at the heart of the town is beautiful on the outside and on the inside.

An older man came and told us that the stained glass windows are from the 1500s, which "is older than America"

After admiring the church, we set out on a walk along the walls.

We found an old monastery...

and explored the convent gardens...

We walked along the park some more and then found the entrance to the park

Stefanski.  Karen Stefanski

The park was beautiful and springtime had definitely arrived in Rothenburg.

We couldn't go to Rothenburg without going to the original German Christmas shop! It was huge and had every type of Christmas decoration imaginable.  If I had an endless bank account and a huge suitcase, I would have gone crazy in there!

They have a museum as well, but we didn't have time to get there before it closed.  The store itself was like a museum though!

Our last stop of the day was to get a Rothenburg original, the schneeballe (snowball). They have all kinds of schneeballes, but the original is one with powdered sugar.  We split one and it was the perfect way to end the day, light and sweet.

We ended the night (and Karen's trip) with dinner at Chili's because why not?  I'm so thankful that Karen got to come and travel with us for a month.  Not only was it eye opening for her, it was so nice to have a friend and someone to keep me company in Germany.  I honestly don't know what I would have done without her.  We had so much fun traveling together, as well as just hanging out and being room mates again.  I know not everyone can come for a month, but having Karen come was the perfect distraction during this whole evacuation mess.

A Castle in the Hills of Germany

Karen took off the last two days of her month in Europe, which meant we had a little more time to do some exploring! With Melissa visiting, it was the perfect day to venture off base and check out Heidelburg.  It was also nice because it meant that I got to spend some time with both of them together. 

Heidelburg has a huge castle on the outskirts of town, so we headed there first.  We arrived around 10:00, which was perfect because it wasn't quite as crowded.  We spent about 45 minutes exploring the grounds and the garden, which are beautiful.  

The Olmsted Coin made it to Heidelburg!

Dreaming of that castle life.

 There are also some incredible views of Heidelburg outside of the castle.

We love the Olmsted Foundation!

To go inside the castle, you have to take the guided tour (12 euros), but it's totally worth it.   You can't take pictures, but it's incredible. Plus, you may get a snarky German tour guide like us, which will add a little spice to the tour.  Her dry humor and remarks such as "Do you have a question?" to anyone who even whispered while she was talking kept us on our toes!

We're going in a castle!

 The courtyard of the castle is pretty remarkable and I definitely recommend going in there, even if you don't go on the tour.

Our tour guide told us the world's largest wine barrel was located on the premises, so we made a bee line to check that out once the tour was over.   When we stumbled upon this wine barrel, we though we had found it. 

It wasn't until we rounded the corner and found THIS guy that we knew we were initially wrong.  This barrel is huge!!

Little me and a large barrel of wine!

So much wine!

After admiring the largest barrel of wine, we headed into town for lunch.

We stopped for lunch at one of the biergartens outside and it was perfect.  I feel like all it does in Ramstein is rain, so it was nice to get out and enjoy the sun!

And some good German food!

Sadly, we had to go after lunch because we had to take Melissa to the airport. It was definitely sad to say goodbye, but I'll be seeing her Thursday in Croatia for the Olmsted Ladies Trip!! Hooray!

Two random side notes:

1. Happy 29th wedding anniversary to these two love bugs!  Have a great day celebrating!  They bought a new mattress not even knowing that the 29th wedding anniversary gift is new furniture! It's fate!  xoxoxo

2. If you haven't watched the Netflix show Grace and Frankie, stop reading this blog and turn on Netflix.  I watched the second season which came out last week in a scarily amount of time (#evacuationproblems) and did not stop laughing. So freaking funny.

And, that's a wrap!