Germany 2023 (Part 5 - Side Trips and Frankfurt)

Previous Germany 2023 Posts

Part 1 - Cologne / Koln

Part 2 - Trier

Part 3 - Koblenz

Part 4 - Kehrig History Pilgrimage

The majority of our trip we stayed in bigger cities where once we arrived we would just walk through it sight seeing. However, there were some attractions that we really wanted to see and fit in either on special day trips or along the way between our bigger destinations. Quick hits on each of our favorite side trips.

Bonn

A quick train ride from Cologne is Bonn, the former Capital City of West Germany. From a young age I was always fascinated by "why Bonn" was the Capital and the city has always stuck out to me as a place I wanted to visit. Once Sophia learned that it was the birthplace of Beethoven she was all in. She has a love for Beethoven that Chrissy and myself have never fully understood. She is like a version of Schroeder from Peanuts.

Turns out Beethoven and classical music is everywhere in Bonn. Sophia loved it. 

Beethoven's House

Plenty of street music

Often our city explorations end up at playgrounds

Altenahr Summer Toboggan

We took a quick pit stop between Cologne and Trier to speed down a summer sledding hill. You get on your sled at the bottom of the hill and the sled is then pulled up 200 metres up the hill on a cable system. Once you reach the top, gravity pulls you down with the curves and a brake mechanism keeping you on the track. It was so much fun. I wish these were more common. I could envision this being a great addition to the Edmonton river valley parks. 

A friendly goat came by to see what we were upto

Nürburg Castle

Technically the first castle that the girls toured was the Nürburg Castle ruins that we passed by a few times while witin the Eifel area. Nürburg is most famous today for its race track, the Nürburgring, which Chrissy and myself were mostly familiar with through Top Gear. The sounds of cars racing was always present. From the higher points of the castle ruins you had a great view of the beautiful countryside and parts of the grandstand and track with cars whizzing by. 

 

We knew Sophia shouldn't be climbing walls but it was her first castle and she wanted to be a lion so we just went with it

Cochem

From my only other previous trip to Germany I remembered that Cochem was a gorgeous little town and I knew that it had to be on our to do list for this trip. Situated right along the Moselle river this small town with a castle overlooking quaint buildings and shops did not disappoint. 

First stop - the playground

Hanging out while mom shops

Bauer Weine & Mehr with more flavored liquors than I thought possible

100 steps up - what will we find?

Burg Eltz

Eltz Castle (German: Burg Eltz) is a medieval castle nestled in the hills built strategically along the lower Eltz River, serving as a Moselle River tributary. It is still owned by a branch of House of Eltz who have lived there since the 12th century (35 generations). Eltz Castle is one of the few Rhenish castles never to be destroyed surviving many conflicts and wars, including the Thirty Years’ War in the 17th century and the bombings of the Second World War. It has been preserved through the continuous efforts of the Eltz family and has been open to the public since the mid-19th century.

As we visited during shoulder season the Castle was not open for tours but you could walk up to it from the parking lot either along the tour rode or the forest path. We chose the forest path not knowing that it was slippery from all the rain and followed a circuitous route winding down the valley near steep slopes. 

Although the walk was beautiful it was a bit trying with the kids slipping around. Eventually the whining started to pick up and us parents were at a breaking point. Chrissy and I started discussing alternatives and we came around a corner when Chrissy remarked "Holy Shit It's Right There". It was stunning and the kids immediately were back on good behavior with the site of the fairy-tale castle. 

So beautiful that from 1965 to 1992, an engraving of Eltz Castle was used on the German 500 Deutsche Mark note

Bürresheim Castle

Chrissy loves Indiana Jones. So it became a must do for us to go visit Bürresheim Castle near Mayen. The castle's exteriors stood in for "Schloss Brunwald" in Austria in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), where Indiana Jones' father was being held captive by the Nazis. Our drive to the castle was memorable for two reasons. 1) The beautiful colors and picturesque landscapes 2) Josie got carsick and puked in the back seat of the rental car. Poor girl. 

After a quick cleanup of the car and a wardrobe change (draping herself in her mothers scarf) we were ready for our tour of the castle. Unfortunately no pictures inside but a very cool experience. 

Frankfurt

Our trip to Germany started with an arrival at the Frankfurt airport and then a train ride to Cologne without actually entering into the City. Our return trip to Canada was also out of Frankfurt and we arrived a couple of days early to tour around Germany's most modern city. 

Car dropped off at the central station. Time for a beer!

After checking into our hotel we decided we wanted to head over to the EXPERIMINTA ScienceCenter. We got into the taxi out front our hotel and when we told him where we wanted to go he told us "No". He wasn't being rude though, it was a just a 3 minute walk from our hotel. That saved us a few Euros and we thanked him profusely. After our short walk we arrived and the kids had a great couple of hours. 

We started our last day of our vacation at Frankfurt Zoo. Highlights were definitely the tiger, many African birds, the giant seal lion tank and the penguins who put on a show just for us. 

Photobomb

The Römerberg, one of the main squares in Frankfurt was setting up for the Christmas Markets to start at the end of the week. It was bittersweet to see the setup knowing that we would miss it as we left the next day but still cool to see what it would look like. A highlight was they had a stall setup for mulled wine already so we imbibed and grabbed a couple of mugs to take home. 

A pop-up book fair break in the Romerberg

As the sun started to set we spotted some lights that looked like a market on the other side of the river so we crossed over for some warm cider (Frankfurt is famous for its cider). The views of the city off the bridges was beautiful and a seemingly fitting transition from the more 'traditional' architecture we had seen over the last couple of weeks as we head back to Canada. 

Back to the Romerberg and a pub for our last schnitzel and beer. For our schnitzel we added in the famous Frankfurt Green Sauce made of seven different kinds of herbs: borage, chervil, cress, parsley, salad burnet, sorrel and chives. Chrissy helped me finish my beer. 

The next morning we were off back to Canada. 

There were some challenges but Chrissy and myself were very happy with how the girls handled themselves. Home now for a number of months we have noticed that the girls will bring in their experiences in Germany into their play or drawings. They tell us now how much they enjoyed the trip and how they want to go back to Germany and do more traveling. That to us is a sign of a successful adventure. 

Germany 2023 (Part 4 - Kehrig History Pilgrimage)

Previous Germany 2023 Posts

Part 1 - Cologne / Koln

Part 2 - Trier

Part 3 - Koblenz

A big impetus of joining Chrissy on her work trip was to show Sophia and Josie some of their family history. My grandparents on my Fathers side emigrated to Canada from the Eifel area of Germany in 1926. In 1993 I was fortunate to join my parents and two older brothers to see first hand some of our family history and in many ways I planned to re-trace my previous trip with my kids to Mayen, Luxen, Weiler and the town of Kehrig. 

Mayen

As the largest town within the area Grandpa would often refer to Mayen as a beautiful town that his family would sometime visit. Through my youth we had a commemorative metal plate of Mayen that was displayed in the house showing the Rathaus and I have vivid memories of a postcard of a church with a twisted steeple. Seeing the steeple in 1993 has always stayed with me so I was excited to once again visit the town. 

We arrived around the town square and just started walking eventually finding a cool recreated medieval wall to walk on. 

Herz Jesu Kirche

With no real destination in mind we wandered until one of the girls complained that they needed to pee.  This is a pretty common occurrence for us so our spidey senses instinctively knew where to find facilities. However, we didn't expect the facilities we found to lead us to a museum and mine that could be toured: Genovevaburg & Eifel Museum. Each floor of the museum presented a different aspect of the area 

Sixteen metres below the museum is a 340-metre-long labyrinth of tunnels providing vivid information about the work and everyday life of the slate miners. Super cool!

After the museum and mine tour we were off to find lunch. We wandered into the main square admiring the beautifully reconstructed Altes Rathaus.

You may have noticed I have already used the term recreated and reconstructed. That is because during World War II approximately 90% of Mayen was destroyed. After the war and following a special referendum the people voted to rebuild the town.

Special shout out to Emils Bistro where we stopped for lunch. The staff were wonderful and seemingly smitten with our girls. They brought them both complimentary desserts and even a shot of amaretto for myself and Chrissy. They also didn't bat an eyelid when Josie locked herself in a bathroom and I had to go into the damentoilette to rescue her.

Full from lunch we did some toy shopping and then arrived at St. Clemens Church and its famous twisted steeple. Legend says that the devil himself twisted the steeple like a corkscrew into its current shape. The theory for why it really happened is that the wood used was not properly cured and the carpenters did the installation with it anyways. With the amount of reconstruction in Germany after the war that seems to make sense but I kind of like the legend and am choosing to believe that. 

Luxem 

Grandpa and his brothers served in World War I for the German army. Although Grandpa sustained injuries he and his brothers survived the war. In thanksgiving for surviving the war the family erected a large stone cross at the entry to the town of Luxem where they lived. Affectionately known as the Kehrig Cross our family stopped to visit the shrine. 

Weiler

In 1920 my Grandparents were married, the first wedding celebration in the town after World War I, in St. Kastor Church in Weiler. Considering how small the town is the church is surprisingly large and well maintained. 

While in the church we had our Josephine stand where her Great Grandmother Josephine would have stood over 100 years ago on that fateful wedding day. 

Before leaving we snooped through the guestbook (spotted Cousin Edna's signature) added our own and lit a candle for my Father and Grandparents. 

Town of Kehrig

While the girls were excited to visit a town with their own last name I was probably more excited to once again visit. I mean it has been my own last name for more than 40 years! It was fun following the road signs and counting down the kilometres on the signs as we got closer...and finally we arrived. 

I wouldn't qualify 'our town' as a tourist mecca with many sights to take in but it was cool to see. The town and the houses within are well kept. While posing for pictures with the town sign we even had a big tractor come racing by. Well kept and farm equipment is pretty much how I envision every visit to my uncles and aunts so I feel that the name Kehrig is mutually well suited. 

We walked the streets looking tough to shake down some residents to pay their toll to the returning princesses. Lucky for them we didn't find any other pedestrians. 

After walking by the library and school we found ourselves at the Church of St. Kastor and Katharina. Once again a well maintained and picturesque church. I especially liked seeing the old banners with our name on them. 

Finally it was time to leave and as Chrissy would caption it - The town wasn't big enough to hold all us Kehrigs. 

Cousin Günter

Like many of my aunts, uncles and cousins before me I was welcomed warmly by my cousin Günter when visiting the area. It had been maybe 30 years since I had last seen Gunter and Martina but they amazingly have not seem to have aged. They were so gracious in inviting us to visit their home and treated us to an authentic Eifel area lunch. 

We were so wrapped up in visiting I regretfully forgot to take a picture of our two families together. Thankfully, Chrissy thought to grab a picture of myself and Günter while the kids played at an indoor play area. 

I hope that our families can visit once again soon whether it be back in Germany or here in Canada. 

Next Germany 2023 posts

Part 5 - Side Trips and Frankfurt