Days 12 & 13; Reflections

 

We are writing to you from the futuuuuure! We will all be at a B&B in Cincinnati for a weekend in July of 2026 and while it rains outside, preventing us from swimming, we will wrack our brains of what happened those last few days on our glorious trip to Germany.

Ah yes, we remember it now, so long ago.... October 5th, 2025. It was a Sunday, as I recall, a day of trains and transportation. Even buses! As the train that would have normally taken us swiftly from Rust to Baden, Germany was shut down because of construction, when we got off the train at Freiburg, they loaded us onto a bus and so we to see the lovely views of Germany's highways from a packed bus with a weird (throwup? a drink?) puddle slowly seeping down the center row. Either way, it got us to the train station in Baden where we were able to finally continue on our way to Zurich on the (actually) scenic SBB train. It was really nice and fancy! And the hills...they seemed almost alive....with music??

Looking back on our phones, it seems most of this day was just traveling from Rust to our AirBnB in Zurich. From bus to train to bus to train to....you guessed it! A bus! The bus dropped us off at a stop about a block away from the condos that contained where we would stay the next two days. I had messaged the AirBnB host the day before telling them of our ETA to the condo so we could get instructions on how to enter the abode, and it was now about 2 hours after that ETA. But no message.... I tried contacting them on WhatsApp. No answer. Through the Agoda messaging system. Nothing. We were stuck outside of the condo, tired, holding our luggage, and it had been raining and drizzling all day. After 45 minutes of us panicking and Jeff walking around looking for keys or someone to talk to, and me contacting Agoda Customer Service, did the owners FINALLY get back to us. No apologies, no realization that they hadn't messaged me pertinent information the evening before like they said they would, just instructions on how to find the key to the condo and the combo to unlock the box it was in. >:|  Humph! They're lucky their condo was SUPER fancy and big and comfy and really cool!

We unloaded our luggage and settled in, ordering dinner to be delivered from a local restaurant, Lindentreff, that had EVERYTHING on the menu! Linny had a spinach pide, V had a gyro kebab (with tiramisu for dessert), I (Angie) had the Town Burger and baklava, Jeff had a doner kebab. I do remember it being very tasty, and I was also able to convince everyone to watch DragonHeart. Heh heh heh.

I'm pretty sure we were exhausted and we were able to luften the windows and fall asleep to the sound of rain.

FINAL DAY: We did a test run to see how long it would take us to reach the nearest train station when walking, since that is what we were going have to do early tomorrow morning to get to the airport. It took us past some nice bushes, a church, big cranes doing construction, a dog at the window we couldn't tell was real or stuffed, something about fiberglass in the bushes we wanted to touch? LOL, this blog is gonna be great with our partial memories! All in all, I think it took us about 20 minutes to walk to the train station. From there we took a train down to the central city of Zurich itself and saw the sights. Large old cathedrals! An amazing opera house! Mute swans! Mute swans! Great crested grebes! Ducks that peeked out from behind rocks!

Sorry, my bird enthusiasm came out there. But yes, we were really taken by Switzerland. I loved seeing the giant, snow-peaked, Swiss Alps in the distance off the shores of the lake. The lake was gorgeous too with so many cool birds! 

We walked around downtown and also to the Chinagarten. It was a nice sunny day that day! Lots of construction on the main road that got kinda loud, but we were able to walk parallel to it about a block away and it was much more cozy among the shops and apartments.

Before our dinner reservation, I popped into (well, as quickly as I could in the small, packed shop) a Christmas souvenir store and bought another Christmas pyramid and a wooden Santa ornament. The two Asian girls running the registers were super sweet!

Mario? Is that you?

Finally it was time to walk to our final dinner of vacation and a meal I had been looking forward to: Fondue!!! When in Switzerland, you must dip things into melted cheeeeeeese! It was DELICIOUS!!! Jeff got potatoes to dip and they came in an adorable little sack! I got pickles and onions and bread to dip in good ol' cheese, and the Linnemans got a plate of veggies to dip in a white wine truffle cheese. Then for dessert we got fruits and marshmallows to dip in melted chocolate. We really loved it and highly recommend Swiss Chuchi Restaurant!

After this delicious meal, we were full of food, and were weary so we took the train to get back to the condo to pack for our flight home the next day.

And now, for the annual vacation blog REFLECTIONS!! Where we share our tips, observations, and hand out awards to our favorite things!

I'll go first.

Angie:

I had saved observations I wrote down at the airport waiting for the flight home, so these are from fresh-vacation brain:

Observations:

-Lots of smoking while walking on the streets

- Why no spoons??

- Money for bottle returns/machines at supermarkets

- Free bathrooms have bathroom attendants sitting at tables outside and you "donate" coins to them? 

- So many dogs, many of them small, and they're allowed in a lot of places. Almost all of them well trained 

- honestly did not see any examples of Resting German Face

- Gut and digestive health is a big thing with DM having mostly herbal and alternative medicines for gut health. They freaking love their yogurt, too.

Ah, such wisdom from 2025 Angie!

Awards:

-First place goes to Imodium. After this trip I will never not have you packed in with my Just In Case medicines. The Pepto Bismol tablets and chewable Tums I did have with me weren't just strong enough for the job at hand. I have learned from this experience to be more careful about washing my hands, not touching my face, and lather on that hand sanitizer!

-Second place goes to my ankle brace and Guess boots. The boots were able to be laced up loosely so I could wear my ankle brace, thus giving my tibial tendon and falling arches the support they needed.

-Third place goes to my VNV Nation Jacket/Rain Coat and my coat ring. Too hot? Not raining? Still need to easily access them when they are needed? Get a jacket holder ring to clip onto your backpack or luggage!

I was super duper happy to go on this trip with my bestest friends and found family! I love you so much and can't wait to go on more adventures together!! That's all I got!

Violet:

It was great visiting Germany for a third time, but this time with super close friends! Both the planning and going on the trip was a great time!

Big Takeaways:

• The extra leg room is worth it during trans-Atlantic flights
• Baden-Baden is a super cozy and relaxing place, worth staying at again
• In Baden-Baden, try the Roman baths next time, and maybe put the most cozy place at the end of the trip
• Although German trains aren't the most punctual, they will get you around pretty reliably
• Rust is essentially Europa Park town, with a great Asian buffet
• Europa Park's rides alone are worth the trip, but the food is good and the design is a lot of fun
• We went to a German Oktoberfest in Germany!!! It was so much fun seeing German's celebrating and their lederhosen puts ours to shame!
• I would visit Freiburg again, the cathedral was incredible and I would love to eat outside at the rooftop restaurant
• The Chinagarten in Zurick was a beautiful surprise with lots of cool history
• Zurick despite being pricey has many cool buildings and cute wildlife

Jeff:

- A second pair of shoes is almost always a waste of packing space, but I keep bringing them because I am paranoid. See also: my 3DS.

- The thing about Germany (and France, and Switzerland) is that almost everyone outside of Baden-Baden just addressed me in English. This was helpful, because my German is garbage and my French is non-existent [apart from "Je ne respecte pas la langue française."].

- Despite eating at several four star restaurants, fondue, high quality German food, and everything else we had; I'm pretty sure the thing I enjoyed most was the Döner Kebab Box on night one in Baden-Baden.

- I got to have several fascinating conversations with various people while hanging out near the rides at Europa Park. Such fun!

- I need to remember to bring a film camera next time.

- Always carry at least 10 euros in change, because of either pay toilets or deposits for drinks at festivals.

- Travel cutlery is a winner, as always.

- If you're gonna order food delivery in the EU, use Deliveroo when its available. Lieferando is basically Skip The Dishes/GrubHub, but worse.

- Oktoberfest was fascinating from a peoplewatching standpoint.

- My final hot tip: If you see a bathroom, you might as well stop. They are incredibly infrequent (especially on the weekends, when most public restrooms are closed for some reason - despite the streets being more crowded).

Linny:

I loved this trip so much! It was my first time exploring Germany independently and I couldn't ask for a better group to travel with. Two weeks in Germany with my best friends? It was exceptional.

Big Takeaways:

- I absolutely just love wondering around in each place we went to even if there is no specific itinerary in mind. All of the locations offered different experiences and I enjoyed trying out as much as I could.

- Rust has a bonkers Chinese buffet. All you can eat and all you can drink. Primo. 

- Swiss fondue is even more divine than I expected. I would visit Swiss Chuchi again in a heartbeat.

- I would love to spend more time in Zurich. It is pricier than some other areas we visited, but it seems like there is a lot to do that we didn't have the time to check out.

- I prefer the most direct transit as possible. It was great to use almost entirely public transit, but as someone who gets very motion sick, the constantly changing modes of transportation can be very hard. Dramamine for the win!

- The Oktoberfest was so much fun and one of my highlights from the trip. It felt like a mix of a school festival and Oktoberfest. 

-Shoutout to the raincoat I bought (made by the brand Rain). It is currently my favorite rain jacket and I still wear it constantly.

- The Tesla rollercoaster was so much fun! All of Europa Park was fun, but that rollercoaster was worth the wait times. I'm also glad we bought our cute stuffed otter Jopie from the Pirates of Batavia ride. He's so cuddly and reminds me of all the fun we had on this trip.

- We saw many a Woolworths. That was kind of surprising.

- I made a friend on the way home to Ohio. I sat next to this old man named Stan and he was so sweet and made the ride back very interesting.

All in all, I had a fantastic time!

Day NineTenEleven!

 What? Who me trying to squeeze three days into one blog post? I'm on top of it, I've got this!

Day Nine: Thursday, October 2 was a rest day. We were pooped from two days at Europa Park so we took it easy. Slept in, did a little grocery shopping for snacks and sandwich supplies, and ambled around the neighborhood a little bit. But mostly staying in, reading, and resting. We did have an amazing dinner at a Chinese buffet our apartment host recommended called Aroma. It was fantastic with so many options! Also, the drinks there are serve-yourself as they are all just in bottles in fridges. Anything from beer to juices to sodas. Anything but still water :( But that's okay, because I had a really yummy orangenschorle! 

Day Ten: Friday October 3.  Jeff and I did a day trip to Strasbourg while Ryan and Linny (who had been there before on a previous trip), stayed in and relaxed and explored the town of Rust a little more. I'll leave it to them to talk about their lovely Friday adventures:

Linny here! Ryan and I wanted to take a day to really explore Rust. We didn't realize that it was a German holiday, so everything was closed; however, that didn't dampen our day. We started by walking through the neighborhood and saw a cute cat in the field near our apartment. We originally saw our cat pal hanging out, but by the time we passed by him a second time, he caught a mouse! We also walked through the local cemetery which was beautiful and peaceful. The graves were so well taken care of and had many personal touches, such as photos, special symbols, and tons of flowers. Walking down the main street of Rust, we admired the gardens, houses, and of course, more cats. As we've discussed on this trip, we really should create a blog of The Cats of Rust. After our two hour walk, we came back to the apartment for lunch and a well-deserved nap. When we woke up, we watched a lot of German QVC TV to learn some basic vocabulary. That means we now know the terms for turtlenecks, denim skirts, and pleated pants. Overall, a very relaxing day that ended with pizza delivery with Jeff and Angie. We'd been to Strasbourg in the past and loved the city, but were happy to spend the day enjoying the lovely town of Rust.

 

Jeff and I took two trains to get to Strasbourg, which is actually in France. If you have a Deutschland Ticket (a German train pass that gets you a discount), it does not extend into France. Luckily we didn't have to worry about any of that. We were lucky to find seats (even though all the good ones were taken, we got those fold-down seats in the middle, windowless part of the train) since it was PACKED. In fact, that was pretty much the theme of our experience in Strasbourg. For one guy, I guess it was a good thing it was so packed, because when he suddenly collapsed in a faint from standing with locked knees for too long he was cushioned by all the people and kinda just gently tumbled to the ground. The people on the train immediately shouted for a doctor ("Arzt!!" Thanks Duolingo) but he was able to get up and sit in a seat, waving away the offer for help.

Anyway, once we arrived and tumbled out of the train and swam downstream with the rest of the crowd we looked at my past notes on things to find in Strasbourg. We had three places to see: Little France, the Notre-Dame Cathedral, and the Nature and Zoological Museum. 

First up: Little France. Google took us the ugliest and most run down way possible and I felt like I was in lower Price Hill. The day was gray, overcast and chilly, and it kinda cast a pall over everything, not really doing Strasbourg any favors. No sunburn though, so we had that going for us which was nice. And going this route got us away from the crowd! Yay?

Little France follows along a canal with locks that control the water level. Those were pretty cool. And the houses along the canal were nice but could use a bit of a paint job. Again, if the sun were out I think I would have been more dazzled. I did find a Christmas shop and bought a patch for my travel backpack and ornaments for the bird tree and the travel tree!

Next up was the Notre Dame cathedral (any cathedral in France is a Notre Dame in reference to the Mother Mary. This is not the famous one in Paris that Quasimodo swings around in). A gothic cathedral that was started in 1015 and completed in 1439 the outside is just a plethora of sculptures and ornamentation in an homage to the saints and stories of the Bible. We had plenty of time to marvel at it as we stood in a long line just waiting to get in. Which I guess was nice because it made it much less packed inside the cathedral. Almost all the naves were roped off, so just the main part of the church was available, but you could still see the giant organ and its famous rose window.  We never did find the astronomical clock but I did locate the gift shop which had some nice little souvenirs. 

Also, just by walking to the side of the cathedral there were much better photo ops and so many adorable little scrungly gargoyle friends!

This guy looks like he just realized he left the curling iron plugged in at home

It was a little past noon now and we were hungry. Looking at what was nearby we followed our little American hearts and taste buds to... a smashburger. Mind you, not the Smashburger, this place was called Junk and their menu consisted of 4 sizes of burgers, fries or panko-breaded chicken as a side, and little cookies for dessert. Nice and simple and the guys working there seemed to prefer English. And the burgers were better than most I've had in the States! We were very satisfied with our lunch choice!

Next up and last on our list is the Musee Zoologique, which just reopened this year. It "aims to be a place for scientific outreach, exploring the environment and the human role in the animal world". While not a large museum, it was a nice little place full of information. We learned about animal roles in the city environment, how they have been tracking bees (with tiny RFID chips glued to their backs) and the effect of pollutants in their water, the spread of disease to us and other animals through mosquitos, and the exploration of deep sea wildlife in the Sagami Bay near Tokyo.

After this our batteries were drained from the crowds and we had seen all that we came to see. The trains back home were about every hour and we had just missed one by 10 minutes so we wandered the unexceptional station that is the Strasbourg Gare. We also learned that today was a German Holiday: Unity Day! This explained a lot of why it was so freakin' crowded today, as everyone was on holiday!

Dinner that night was pizza delivered from Pizza Titan. Not just a Pizza God, they are Pizza TITANS! Our eyes were bigger than our stomachs as we ended up getting two lasagnas, two large garlic breads that ended up just being a dry pizza crust with no trace of garlic or cheese that we could find, a Popeye Pizza with spinach and gorgonzola and mozzarella, and a classic cheese pizza. It was decidedly okay, but we were hungry.

Finally, catching us up to today, we have Day Eleven, Saturday, October 4. Today we had originally planned to go to Colmar, which is also in France, but we couldn't find a way to get there that didn't take forever and 5 different train connections. Also, all the ride share people were either booked, or taking the day off. So we decided to go to Freiburg im Breisgau. This is a picturesque University town on the edge of the Black Forest, it also has a big cathedral, a farmer's market, and quaint shopping streets. Saturday is always a day known for its crowds as most people are off work and school, so it's a big day to be out and we expected the crowds today. The weather was overcast and very windy, but warmer than yesterday. We brought our rain gear in anticipation of rain!

Luckily, getting to Freiburg from Rust is just a half hour train ride away and very easy. We walked to the park that normally holds the small Christmas Market during the winter holiday (nothing there yet, boo). Everyone and their mother was at the farmer's market down by the cathedral, and after squeezing through the crowds for about 20 minutes and devouring a container of fresh raspberries like starving birds, we decided to just go and have lunch somewhere away from the crowd. We ended up at a nice restaurant called Skajo that played weird jazz music that was recorded live and the crowd was much too enthusiastic for the music being performed. We all really enjoyed our meals though. Linny and I had a delicious beef stroganoff linguini!

We picked out a couple shops we wanted to look at: a Christmas shop for me and a (closed) game store for Jeff. It started to rain while we walked down the shopping streets and made it to a quaint little popular street called Konviktstrasse.

We walked around a little more, down by the Gewerbekanal and saw a heron. 

Then it was time to turn around and head back to the train station. Plus, it had been raining pretty steadily.

After making it back we took naps and showers and prepared to check out of this wonderful apartment tomorrow morning. Our next apartment is only a few days in Baden, Switzerland in an apartment that seems to be very out of the way. Hopefully it's as nice as this one was!