Europe | Germany

★ Week Seven & Eight Itinerary:

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Cologne, Germany

Luxembourg 🚂 Cologne

Cologne, Germany | September 9th – 11th.

We’re back in Germany! For a good reason to but I’ll get to that later in the blog post.

At this point in our Europa travels we have ventured to amazing places, with incredible sights, diverse cultures and tasty cuisine. Unfortunately we have also been moving across the north half of the continent from east to west and met with ever increasing prices. It’s hard to justify buying a container of peanut butter that costs the equivalent of nine NZD when it’s not even crunchy peanut butter, let alone going out to have a drink, nice meal or partake in a tourist excursion. 😦 The lack of variable food was what was really getting us down. While neither of us would be considered foodies and our taste buds definitely do not require fancy meals, eating different foods is part of experiencing a new culture when travelling and provides a social aspect of seeing locals and spending time in their environment.

Up until this point in the Europa blog posts I have focused on only the positives. While I definitely understand that life is a mixture of good days, neutral days and days you’d rather forget I intentionally chose to only write about good times so when I look back I have fond memories and not those of getting unwell or terrible transits. A highlight reel of travel to put it succinctly.

Oh and amongst the downpour we did trot around and see the many sights of Cologne such as the:

• Kölner Dom (Cologne Cathedral), Romans’ Northern Gate, Heinzelmännchenbrunnen and Römischer Abwasserkanal
• Hahnentor, Edith-Stein-Denkmal, Malakoffturm and view atop the Schokoladenmuseum Köln (Cologne Chocolate Museum)
• Vorgebirgspark, Volksgarten Köln and Friedenspark
• Severinsbrücke, Deutz Suspension Bridge and Hohenzollernbrücke
• Basilica of St. Severin St. Severin, Antoniterkirche and Basilica of St. Cunibert Kath. Kirche St. Kunibert

Heidelberg, Germany

Cologne 🚂 Heidelberg

Heidelberg, Germany | September 11th – 12th.

Whilst Heidelberg was only a quick overnight stop on the Europa tour it was fantastic. Staying overnight and exploring the surrounding old town was beautiful; with its cobbled streets, colourful buildings and rich history Heidelberg was truly magical. We trotted the Philosopher’s Way and back along the Neckar river, across various bridges (Old Bridge Heidelberg and Theodor Heuss Bridge) and through various parks (Bismarckplatz Park, Karlsplatz, Scheffelterrasse, and Herkulesbrunnen) before making our way to the Heidelberg Palace for sunset. It might be my favourite evening in Europe!

Freiburg, Germany

Heidelberg 🚌 Freiburg

Freiburg, Germany | September 12th – September 15th.

While the decision to visit Freiburg was for hiking we couldn’t go to a new place without exploring their old town first (the excitement and novelty of every European settlement that we visit having an old town still hasn’t left me) and so off we went. The sights we marvelled at most include:

• Freiburger Münster, Europaplatz and Bertoldsbrunnen
• Schwabentor and Martin’s Gate
• Colombipark, Stadtgarten and Stühlinger Kirchplatz

The next days saw us trot various trails in the Schwarzwald. We climbed to peaks of mountains and man made structures (Kanonenplatz, Ludwigshöhe, Aussichtsturm Schlossberg and Friedrichsturm) relaxed on grassy mounds and enormous benches, saw various wildlife from lizards to squirrels and I even had my first ever snake sighting!

After the fresh air and wide open spaces of Freiburg we were headed to the city centre and tourist hoards of Munich… for one festival in particular.

Munich, Germany

Freiburg 🚌 Munich

Munich, Germany | September 15th – 19th.

Unfortunately N.D and I seemed to attract the rain to Munich as well; after hopping off the bus and walking the hour to our accommodation we were thoroughly soaked. With four more days of torrential rain we never had a chance to dry but that didn’t stop us venturing out and exploring the sights of Munich.

Some of these included:

• Frauenkirche, Marienplatz, Old Town Hall, Victuals Market and Turm “Alter Peter”
• Nymphenburg Palace (my favourite building and surrounding grounds in Munich)
• Odeonsplatz, Hofbräuhaus München, Eisbachwelle, Monopteros im Englischen Garten and Siegestor
• Friedensengel, St. Lukas, Sendlinger Tor, Olympiaberg and Bavaria Statue

I’ll spare you all the details of us trying to find traditional attire of a dirndl for me and a lederhosen for N.D. In the end the two days we were going to be at Oktoberfest and the struggle of then carrying the outfits around in our carry on afterwards didn’t seem worth the enormous cost of them! Plus the money saved on costumes could instead be spent on appreciating the various breweries at the festival right. 😉

The 187th year of the worlds largest and most popular ‘folk festival’ shouldn’t be discussed without a little history first. For the wedding of Prince Regent Ludwig of Bavaria, the later King Ludwig I and his fiancé Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen civil officer Andreas Michael Dall’Armi had an idea; why not commemorate the special day with a horse race! And so on the 17th of October 1810 five days after the wedding a huge festival began in the grounds of Theresienwiese which lasted two full weeks. While no beer tents or fairground rides were present back then the celebration was marvellous and the Bavarians wanted more, so each year the celebration continued growing larger and larger with time. Now in 2022 after a two year hiatus due to the pandemic Oktoberfest was back on and N.D and I were excited!

Instead of explaining how N.D and I visited all 27 tents during our opening weekend visit, tasted several of the breweries specialities, made friends with people from Germany, Norway, Denmark, India, America, even Australia (didn’t see that coming haha) and I found a group of kiwis to sing with! I will instead let the photographs and video show you the highlights of our time and you can imagine the rest.