Wrap Up of a Wonderful Trip!

Here is the long over due wrap up of my trip over to Europe! I'm feeling a bit nostalgic as we celebrate Oktoberfest here in Cincinnati this weekend. Did you know Cincinnati has the largest Oktoberfest in the United States??

 France!

 Alsace Lorraine, France (one time was Germany) where some of ancestors are from.

 France definitely had a different feel than Germany! Hard to explain what it was but once we entered the country, I could just tell. I do like their greetings a lot better than German ones. Bonjour! 

 I could spend all day shopping in a foreign grocery store. Picked up a few things for a picnic from a french grocery store before heading back to Germany!

 Real authentic German food. It looks disgusting but was actually very good. 

They pour gravy on everything which is right up my alley.

 Castle chasing at night. Breaking rules and driving up the hillside.

 Rothenburg, Germany

 Rain or Shine, this town was still beautiful!

 No stopping us!

 Famous "yellow corner". I also bought a piece of artwork of this corner

 and have it hanging in my apartment now.

 Puppet things popped out of those windows when it turned 12. 

It reminded me so much of Shrek, I was a minute too late to picture it.

 Super cute cafe we stopped at to warm up & have wine of course.

I also had the best piece of strawberry cake and didn't share any of it.

 Creepy sheep staring at us as we came back from dinner in Alex's hometown.

 The real Oktoberfest! In the rain unfortunately...

They were super strict about letting me in the tent to see what it was like.

I played the "I'm an American" tourist and the guard let me take a picture.

Crazy drunkness!!!

My trip to Germany was a trip of a lifetime. It forced me out of my comfort zone and really taught me how important it is to experience other cultures. It put things into perspective and I learned a lot about my self from this trip. One of the main lessons I learned is to embrace the "european" lifestyle of making the most of everything and being more laid back. I was more open to trying things, didn't worry as much and really just enjoyed every experience on my vacation. Europeans enjoy life more and do not revolve everything around work like we do as Americans. They live, but not live to work. On the other hand, I also learned to appreciate the small talk and overly niceness of Americans in restaurants, grocery stores and shopping centers. It is so funny how people come into your life and how you never how what the outcome will be. I'm so thankful Alex came into my life and was able to share this wonderful experience with me. I definitely have the travel bug now. Where to next??!

The Wine Country: Rhodt

If you're like me and enjoy wine a bit too much, this is your happy place! Alex's family has a vacation home in Rhodt, Germany. We spent 2 nights here and that was not long enough. It was beautiful!

 The house is in the middle of a vineyard.

 Breakfast with a view. I gave up coffee before this trip...well, that went out the window.

 If Alex didn't crouch down, this would be all of our pictures...

Some sort of memorial, even he couldn't explain to me what it was. 

We are such bad tourists.

 Driving through the mountains.

 Modeling the wonderful Mini Cooper...

One of my favorite pictures of the whole trip.

 

The vacation house. Check out the huge doors! The key was just as big.

The backyard of the house...casually just a vineyard.

"Stephanie we are going to this castle for an overlook" 

Didn't stress the fact that we are HIKING the mountain to get to the overlook.

 The incline that we took up the mountain...thank god.

Actually was pretty scary.

 Well worth the view.

 Enjoyed a bit too much wine at the overlook.

So much that we missed the last incline down the mountain for the evening...

Time to begin the hike down.

Not only do I not hike on a regular basis (or ever), put some wine in me and this was interesting.

As we reached the bottom of the mountain there are benches all throughout the vineyard, so we decided to drink the bottle of wine we packed as we made our way back to his house.

Teaching me how to roll cigarettes.

Second bench stop. Casually drunk in the vineyard.

Rhodt was one of the prettiest places I have ever been to. I'd go back in a heartbeat.