Feed on
Posts
Comments

Day #4: Trier and Reims

May 27th, 2018 by

Today was our last day in Germany, as we’re headed to France to primarily spend a few days in Paris (with a quick stopover in Reims).

Heidelberg to Reims is about a 4 hour drive; so, we scouted some not-so-out-of-the-way options to break up the trip and settled on Trier, Germany en route. It’s the oldest city in Germany and boasts its best Roman ruins. Highlights of which include…

Its gigantic city gate (Porta Nigra):

A huge throne room/ basilica (now a Lutheran church):

Roman baths:

The town also a marvelous Cathedral (which dates back to the founding of St. Peter’s in Rome):

I was especially partial though to the smaller Church of Our Lady next door:

The town itself is also just very pleasant, despite (nor because of) its being the home of Karl Marx. 😂

For lunch, we grabbed some frites and frikadellen (a sort of Germanic hamburger), which were much more akin to the family recipe unlike the version that I had last summer in Denmark.

After lunch, we had a pleasant 2.5 hour drive to Reims, France via Luxembourg and Belgium. Coming in from the north, Reims appeared to be surrounded by farm land, but we saw little to no grape vines (despite Reims being one of the two major Champagne towns — as it happens, the vineyards are largely south of the city). Initially, we were a bit underwhelmed by Reims — the city seemed looked deserted on a Sunday and the area around our hotel appeared clean and safe but rather unspectacular.

As it happens though, the center of town (literally just “on the other side of the tracks” from our hotel) was charming.

Since it was later in the day already, we focused on finding a location for food. After surveying our options (many restaurants were closed due to it being Sunday), we opted for crepes which were surprisingly good for a shop that was “super hero” themed.

We also picked up some local pastries:

NB: In Trier, we stumbled upon one of the single most impressive collections of cats I’d ever seen in one place — seemingly randomly in the bottom of a parking garage. It turned out there was an exotic car rental business in the building, but my word what a fleet of automobiles!

NB #2: Since little, Emerson has taken an interest in lighting candles in remembrance. On this trip, especially being in Lutheran churches, she choose to light candles in memory of Pop, which I found touching.

Posted in Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg | No Comments »

Day #3: Rothenburg and Heidelberg

May 26th, 2018 by

Today, we drove to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, which is probably considered to be one of the most romantic (or at least most popular with tourists) of the towns on Germany’s Romantic Road. It really is a storybook setting…

We snacked our way through the town… the highlight (for me anyway) being Libby’s delicious pretzel bread that was stuff with a kind of bacon and chive cream cheese filling. Yum!

After our visit to Rothenburg, we drove about two hours to Heidelberg. We checked into our (rather forgettable but perfectly serviceable) Marriott that was about a 15-20 minute walk from the historic center of town, dropped off our stuff, and headed back out. The walk along the river was pleasant, though not spectacular.

In many ways, that was my overall sense of the city too. In his guidebook, Rick Steves pans Heidelberg. I actually think it’s a decent enough stopover, if convenient (as it was for us). But, I wouldn’t go out of my way to visit it when compared to other towns (including lesser known places like Würzburg).

We ate dinner–more schnitzel and radlers–at a decent German place in town before heading back to our hotel. Emerson ordered what were described on the menu as a “large ravioli” but turned out to be seasoned ground meat wrapped in noodles (I liked her dish more than she did — it was a little unusual but rather tasty). I ordered a “flat cake” with ham, gorgonzola, and pear, which was actually a delectable flat bread (which I shared with Emerson).

Posted in Germany | No Comments »

Day #2: Würzburg, Germany

May 25th, 2018 by

When I woke up, the ladies were just off the coast of Ireland, which gave me enough time to get showered, packed up, checked out, and over to their terminal on the other side of the airport. They landed a little ahead of schedule (Libby texted me right away) and were pretty quick getting through immigration and customs. In the meantime, I’d secured the keys to our rental car and then waited for them at arrivals.

It was great (and a little surreal) to be picking them up at the airport in Europe. The plan for the day was to drive to Würzburg, which is kind of the northern gateway to the Romantic Road in Germany. The drive in our sleek, new Volvo V90 station wagon was pleasant, though the car’s technology was mildly confounding initially — even to me. We checked into our hotel (a Mecure — similar to an Aloft) around 11am and received our rooms right away — two very comfortable suites.

We dropped our stuff in the rooms and immediately headed into the center of town (a short stroll along the river and over the Alte Mainbrucke):

We grabbed some strawberries for Emerson (so fresh and succulent!) and proceeded on a walking tour of the city using the local map vs. Rick Steves’ guidebook (the local tour of the old town is more comprehensive, which might be good or bad — we had the time).

Some highlights included…

The Neumunster Basilica:

The old buildings of the University of Würzburg:

The Residenz:

With its magnificent interior (this was an ill gotten photo on my iPhone — I was too smitten with the silver overlay and silver sage walls to resist the temptation):

And its charming gardens:

The Residenz was clearly a highlight:

We had some time after our walking tour before a reasonable dinner hour; so, Libby and I followed another local tradition of having a glass of wine on the bridge. Libby enjoyed a Aperol Spritz (a wine- and aperitif-based cocktail), and I had a glass of the local rose wine (called a Rotling) — both where quite quaffable and got us in the spirit of the local wine festival that was happening.

After this, we headed to a local biergarten for dinner:

All in all, we had a great first day together in Germany, and we came away from Würzburg suitably impressed. Candidly, I picked it as a stop simply because I’d assumed it wouldn’t be too much for a first day and due to its proximity to “what we really wanted to see” tomorrow. But, it turned out to be a great place to visit and somewhere I’d happily return to again.

Posted in Delta Airlines, Germany | No Comments »

Day #1: To Frankfurt

May 24th, 2018 by

Our around the world trip has officially begun!

My meetings having wrapped up yesterday, I departed the Cotswolds around mid-day for my 3:30pm flight to Frankfurt. It was about a 2 hour drive to London Heathrow under cloudy skies with light rain — more typical of English weather than I’d seen during the week (which had been simply gorgeous):

I arrived at LHR in plenty of time to check-in, go through security, and visit the business class lounge before departure.

Unfortunately, my flight ended up being delayed. First, my inbound plane was late to arrive — thereby delaying our boarding time. Once we were all on board, the pilot reported that we had a potential mechanical issue that needed to be checked out. That concern was sorted out, but the delay cost us our take-off slot, which caused us a further delay. All told, I landed in Frankfurt about 2 hours late — not great, could’ve been much worse.

In the meantime, the ladies had managed to travel to Tampa airport, catch their flight to Atlanta, and were a couple of hours away from departing to rendezvous with me in Germany in the morning.

I spent the evening at the oh-so-conveniently located airport Hilton, which was part of a train station/business park complex attached to the airport terminal. The facility included a number of restaurants, and I opted for the “biergarten” (such as it was in an office block):

Really, it’s difficult to go wrong with German specialities and beer.

After dinner, I stayed up until my crew was airborne and headed toward me. Thankfully, they were on-time in departing, and I drifted to sleep while they raced toward me at 500+ miles per hour.

Posted in Delta Airlines, England, Germany, Lufthansa | No Comments »

Around The World, 2018

May 20th, 2018 by

Well, this is a first. I’m writing this blog post on a Virgin Atlantic flight somewhere over the UK. Our family vacation around the world–which isn’t a first–was scheduled to start this upcoming Thursday for all of us, but I’ve departed a bit early in order to spend a couple of days in England with members of my future / new team.

That requires some explanation: I’m starting a new job in a new industry in mid-June with a company based in England. Like most of my professional career, I’ll be working remotely from my home office in Florida, as well as traveling pretty extensively — including probably monthly trips to the UK once I’m established in the role.

So, this week will be a preview of that (and my future professional life) for me.

Since there wouldn’t have been time to participate in these meetings, fly home, and then immediately return to Europe, I rearranged my travel so that I’ll meet Libby, Emerson, and Mom in Frankfurt, Germany on Friday morning. From there, we’ll be off on a drive through Germany and France. We’ll spend a couple of days in Paris. Then we’ll fly to Dubai (despite it being summer and the holy month of Ramadan, neither of which are optimal for travel to Middle East). Finally, we’ll end our trip in Tokyo, which will include a visit to Tokyo Disneyland (something that thrills the girls).

I should mention this flight as it was my first time in Virgin Atlantic’s Upper Class. The airline recently updated the cabin on their A330 fleet, which now has three rows of single seats that are angled forwards (so, you take off and land at kind of a 45 degree angle to the direction of the plane). The seats and bed (though short) are very comfortable. The food and drinks were just alright. And, while the space in your “suite” / seat module is used very well, it’s used a little too well for my liking. That is to say, there’s very little room on either side of your seat and essentially no storage space other than the overhead bins. Overall, I like Delta’s business class product better — even the much maligned 767 product.

Posted in England, London, United Kingdom, Virgin Atlantic | No Comments »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »