We took a few road trips over this past extended holiday weekend. I decided to blow Thursday and Friday off from work since us Americans have such few holidays when compared to our European colleagues. Since I had Mom and Nolan in town, I decided to give the family an opportunity to see whatever they wanted to see in Europe. Becki and my Mother both wanted to visit a good old fashioned mid evil castle, akin to what they see in classic Disney films. My brother, however, had a different agenda. At the tender age of 15 years old, he had ‘Amsterdam’ on his mind.
Leaving Becki, Maggie and my mother at the apartment, Nolan and I gassed up the rental car (which has never been driven on the Nürburgring) and headed west for the Netherlands. It was actually a pretty quick drive. The total distance was only ~320 kilometers (200 miles).
Before we got to the city of Amsterdam, I decided to make a side trip to the coastal town of Zandvoort. I randomly picked this town because of its proximity to the North Sea. However, I soon learned that there is a famous formula one track of the same name right next to the beach. I tried to stop and get pictures, but all of the access gates were closed. It’s too bad because it looked like a really cool track being totally surrounded by many sand dunes.
On the way into Amsterdam, we saw all sorts of goofy cars. Some woman was starting her own fruit smoothy business and covered her entire minivan type vehicle in artificial grass. Next, we saw some old man driving a golf cart sized car on the bike path. Apparently, these tiny little vehicles are allowed to share the bike lanes along with all these little three wheel local delivery vehicles. All that was missing from the bike lanes were a pack of Free Masons. Oh wait, it was Thanksgiving Day… that would explain the lack men with funny hats.
The city of Amsterdam was nice. We actually had decent weather. The first time I visited this city in 2005, it rained the whole day I was there. This time, we were actually a little lucky as the sun came out for a better half of the day. Most of the day was spent wondering around music stores and just people watching. We ate lunch at a little Pizza place right next to the city center. We paid €30 (~$44) for two crummy personal pizzas, a coke and a beer. When it came time to pay the bill, the bad waiter looked as if he was expecting a tip... since we were American and all.
I don’t think so pal! If he could have seen my bitchin’ Mercedes, he would have noticed the German license plate… and that’s just how I roll: NO TIP FOR YOU!
After lunch, I took my brother through the red light district and showed him what a “real” prostitute looked like. He commented on how they looked nothing like the ones in the movies. We also walked through some museum of hemp. I showed him that marijuana usage does not turn you into a violent criminal like the mass media has led you believe. However, I also showed him how usage can easily turn a normal productive citizen into one of the many smelly homeless hippies walking in and out of the coffee shops. I think my plan worked when a hippy walked by and Nolan said: “Wow, that guy REALLY smelled like Ozzfest.”
That about did it for our trip to Amsterdam. Next stop, the Rhine!
Using some jankety web site, I was able to get two rooms in the city of Bacharach Germany, which earned a one star rating from a single previous review. The hotel earned this one star status based on its supposed lack of cleanliness, wood paneling, and proximity to train tracks (approximately 10 feet). Needless to say, we weren’t expecting much for €58 a night.
However, after arriving at the Hotel on Friday evening, we were delightfully surprised. Becki and I were upgraded to the larger triple room at no cost, both rooms were surprisingly clean, and the train tracks were probably more like 12 feet away rather than 10. It was quite the score.
The town of Bacharach is a neat little town. Everything is built on the old city layout from a thousand years ago. The Hotel itself is situated in one of the nine original guard towers. The four foot thick stone walls made the trains (which passed by every 3 minutes or so) virtually unnoticeable. Inside the city walls, all of the streets were old cobblestone and just a little bit wider than the width of one rental car. The town had one old church and one new one. The “new” church was built in the 1600’s some time. Finally, the town is over looked by the Castle Stahleck or ‘Burg Stahleck’ as the Germans say.
After checking into our rooms and parking the rental car, we quickly walked through the little village and grabbed dinner at a local restaurant. Mom sampled some of the famous Rhine area whines while I stuck with my favorite Alte (old style) Bier (beer). Becki tried a Dunkelweizen (dark wheat) and decided that would be her new favorite German style of beer.
After a brief walk down to the river the next morning, we headed off on our castle hunting expedition. Our main goal was to tour the famous Rhine castle “Marksburg”. All of the Rhine castles had originally been destroyed (typically by the French) and rebuilt from the rubble at one time in their thousand year(s) existence. The only exception to this is the Castle Marksburg. Not only has it been mostly restored, but all of the structure and foundations are as true today as they were when originally build back in 1100 AD.
The drive down to Marksburg was nothing short of spectacular. The scenery along the Rhine River is straight out of a fairy tale. All the little villages look like something in children book or model. Each little village seemed to have some sort of Castle or remains perched above on a hill side. Half way to Marksburg, we had to take a ferry boat across the river since there are no bridges across the Rhine between the cities of Koblenz (50 km away) and Mainz (75 km away). Besides, what trip to the Rhine would be complete without a river cruise of some sort?
Abandoning the navigation systems crappy advice and instead going by instinct (i.e. following the damn signs) we eventually found the visitors parking lot for Castle Marksburg. We each pony’d up the five Euros for the guided tour since this is the only way you are allowed to walk inside the castle. On the (German spoken) tour, we able to see the batteries, kitchen, guard towers, ye’ old TOILET, stables, and chapel with its original paintings from year 1100AD. The castle was pretty incredible and well worth the money. The tour guide even stopped and repeated some of the REALLY cool stuff in English, even though we already had an English written handout that explained each room.
On the way back to Bacharach, we made a pit stop and explored the “Loreley Rock”. The Loreley Rock is a famous section of the Rhine River. Since this is the narrowest portion of the (navigatable) Rhine River, the current at Loreley is pretty fierce. The legend is that the devil himself tried to slam shut the river valley, but the power of the Rhine was too strong and eventually prevailed. However, the Loreley Rock was the devil’s final strong hold and some say he is still trying to close off the valley to this day. Because of this, many sailing ships have crashed on the shoals surrounding the Loreley. Whatever the legend is, this was a really great vantage point to take many pictures of the Rhine River below.
Returning back to our hotel in the town of Bacharach, we ventured out in the evening to take a closer look at one of the other old city gates on the far end of town. This one particular gate is still being used as the main entrance into town from the west. It is only one car width wide and serves as a reminder that this village is much older than anything which passes through this gate. The light from the full moon above helped add to a certain ominous that was already in the air. Nolan tried hiding in the old city gate pretending to be a gargoyle, but the sub freezing temperatures quickly moved him back inside.
On Sunday afternoon, we dropped off my mother and Nolan for their (hopefully) quick and peaceful return flight back to the states. It sure was nice having them around to help with the baby and everything else. After getting back to our apartment on Sunday evening, both Becki and I commented on how quiet things suddenly were and how much larger the apartment felt. At this rate, we should be returning to our “palace” in Westland next month!
Looking forward to seeing everyone again, hope you all had a great holiday as well!
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