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.
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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!
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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!
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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!
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