It's GAGA! (Gabe & Amanda Going Abroad): Rhineland

Frankfurt

We had to catch a series of trains to make our way from Paris to Frankfurt. Ordinarily you could take one high speed train directly from your destination to your arrival but we like a challenge. With our Eurail pass we avoided spending large amounts of money and had the benefit of seeing more of France/Germany through our windows.

We don't have much to share in terms of our day in Frankfurt because essentially we didn't do much. Our immune systems were still not pleased with all of the foreign germs we had introduced to ourselves and held strong on the protest. Not feeling so hot we mainly ventured out long enough to buy a few necessary supplies and then settled in for some R&R. We have decided to spare you pictures of the neighborhood that we resided in. Imagine the sorts of things you could find in a Red Light district and there you have it. Perhaps not the best location we have stayed in but rest assured, the hostel itself was very safe, secure, and clean. Directly outside somebody had to be life flighted to the hospital because a car hit them, but we were safe. Promise.

Reflecting on the factors that led us to have troubles at Versailles, we both agreed that our shoes were not up to par with all the walking we have yet to do. Gabe's basketball shoes he was supporting were going on 5 years old and my (Amanda obviously) hiking shoes had been hiked out after 4 years of use. We invested our afternoon into shopping and found these cool kicks.

OH MAN. What a difference they have already made. Our feet already love them. While shopping we decided to grab a new pair of jeans for me (Amanda) because my current pair are threatening to split at any time. Let me just tell you, I don't think Europe understands the concept of the curvy woman. Shopping for pants already isn't what I would call a fun experience at home. Doing it over here was ridiculous. I made my way into the dressing room four different times just to find that every pair of pants I brought in could not be pulled up. Now I am damn proud to claim that "my body's so bootylicious baby"(A song from Destiny's Child in case you didn't get the reference) but shopping here felt shameful. As I reached for bigger and bigger sizes, tiny girls raised their eyebrows from across the racks. I think I found the diamond in the rough because there was one pair that I could successfully pull up all the way, button, and they weren't crazy baggy in the waist. They will now be my favorite pants and Ill probably wear them everyday!

Back at our hostel we enjoyed a free pasta dinner in the lounge area, hosted by the hostel, and eventually made our way to bed.

Rhine River Cruise

We left Frankfurt early and made our way towards Rudesheim, a very cute small town bordering the Rhine. We grabbed some scrumptious pastries (we couldn't even get a picture before digging in) and waited for our boat to start accepting passengers.

An awesome perk to having Eurail passes is that we were able to take a cruise along the Rhine for free. We gleefully boarded our boat along with a large group of Japanese tourists fresh off the bus and a group of German middle school kids on a field trip. The weather had empty threats of rain all morning and by the end our our ride the sun was out and shining.

The Rhine river valley was absolutely beautiful. We both agreed that it reminded us very closely of the Cascade region by Portland along I-84. The main difference was that in Oregon you would see waterfalls sporadically, here it was castles.

Along the river we saw many neat things including:

1) The Mouse Tower. Originally it was a customs tower and now serves as a signal tower. Legend has it that a wicked bishop was thrown into the tower as punishment and was eaten by mice, hence the name.

2) Ehrenfels Castle. This served as a hiding place for the treasures of Mainz Cathedral during times of war.

3) Rheinstein Castle. This once served as a custom's post. Many merchants did not like traveling up the Rhine because anybody with a desirable location could create a custom's stop and you would have to pay a toll before you could move forward on your journey. Prince Frederick of Prussia bought the castle and renovated it. It is available to the public for visitation.

4) Reichenstein Castle. More than 1,000 years old.

5) Bacharach. Beautiful town, also over 1,000 years old. The city walls have 16 watch towers and it is overlooked by Stahleck Castle, now converted into a youth hostel.

6) Loreley. A steep rock 132 meters high overlooking a stretch of the Rhine that is only 90 meters wide. According to legend, the Loreley was a siren who lured passing sailors to their death. There was an opera song that they played on the cruise that was written about it. The song told about how majestic and grand the outcrop of rock was. This really made me (Gabe) appreciate some of the beauty I've seen along I-84 and highway 1 in Oregon and Cali respecitivly. While Europe does have the history and amazing buildings, the U.S. really does have spectacular natural beauty.

7) Seven Virgins. When the water levels are low (like they were for us!) you can see the reefs of the seven virgins. Legend says that in that spot seven hard-hearted virgins were transformed into rocks. If you go to the base of the loreley you can still hear an echo ring out seven times.

8) St. Goar. Founded in the 6th century. Very beautiful picturesque small town.

9) Maus Castle. Currently used as a farm for eagles and falcons.

10) The Hostile Brothers. Ruins of the castles Sterrenerg and Liebenstein that are divided by the hostility wall. Legend says that the two brothers built their own castles and eventually ended up killing each other in the church below.

11) Marksburg. The best-preserved castle on the Rhine

We docked at Koblenz, another beautiful small town, and boarded a train for Cologne. We had planned on catching a specific train with knowledge of its departure and arrival times, which seem to come in handy. When you don't really know where you are, you at least know when you should get off the train. We saw on the reader board that there was a train leaving earlier than the one we had planned on taking so we waltzed ourselves right on board. Now, the prep work we put into looking at train schedules beforehand and the trains we select are usually intentional. The train that we jumped on left the station earlier, arrived later, and had waaaaay more stops than the original. It also took its course more inland and stayed away from the river causing us to wonder if we were even going to the right place. All's well that end's well. We made it in, were thrust into the crazy underground train system, and managed to find our hostel after only an hour of searching due to some suspect directions.

The hostel itself was great. It had more of an apartment feel to it and only 4 other people in the room. The space was large and equipped with a nice bathroom. We also had the kitchen right off our room with a cute little nook where one of us could type while the other cooked.

Cologne

We are still fighting off colds, though are hopeful that we are at the tail end of the battle. Unfortunately I (Amanda) am now officially "that girl" who coughs at night keeping others begrudgingly awake and gets disgusted looks thrown my way for coughing in communal spaces.

Nothing was going to keep us down and from doing one particular activity we had planned for the day…Chocolate Factory! This particular factory was all about Lindt chocolate, the company who makes uber delicious truffles. It was much more informative than anticipated and really well done. The only thing they could have improved, in our opinion, was upping the amount of free samples. I suspect however, that even if they gave us a huge bag of candy we probably would be saying the same thing.

Here is a modified version of our tour:

We walked in to an introduction of the history of the cacao bean. Carl von Linne, creator of the Linnaeus naming system, was a huge fan of chocolate. He gave it the name Theobroma cacao. "Theos" in Greek means God and "broma" means food so it was literally food of the Gods. I don't think Linne was too far off mark. Obviously there was a ton of info we are excluding but another interesting fact is one about a snail. There is a species called the Achat snail that originates in East Africa. To keep them from feeding on the cacao plants and seeds many of the farmers have taken to eating the snails, probably tasting less delicious than chocolate.

At the factory they had a small room that was set up to feel just like the environment that cacao plants grow in. You had to step into one set of automatic doors and wait for them to fully close before another set would open letting you pass through. The humidity was crazy. It felt like instantly being transported back to Hong Kong.

After hanging out with the plants we got to see how all the the machinery works in creating the chocolate. First the beans are roasted at 130 degrees celcius for 20-30 minutes. The roasting process is usually a carefully guarded secret with manufacturers.

Next the beans are pounded in a crusher and separated from the shells. The beans make their way to a cocoa mill where they are ground and the melted fat is collected.

The fat of the cocoa is used to make chocolate. Here it is mixed with a variety of other ingredients.

Finally the mixture is "conched" meaning it is heated up to 90 degrees celcius and is kept in constant motion for a period of up to 72 hours.

We also got to see some of the filling process where the chocolate was poured into a mould and shaken to make sure everything was evenly distributed.

Eventually they were dumped out of the mould and sent down a conveyor belt to be wrapped and dumped into a box with all their delicious friends.

We also got to see how they create hollow chocolate like some of the chocolate bunnies you can buy for Easter. Both sides of the mould are filled and mounted in a centrifuge, always in constant motion. There is a cooling process of around 45 minutes and then the chocolate is knocked from its mould.

We grabbed a free sample and made our way to the store below to buy lots of other samples!

After the choco-fest it was time again for some real food and as we were coming out of the museum I (Gabe) had noticed that there was a sausage stand just outside. After a quick order we got our hands on some bratwurst in a bun with some special mustards. The two they had on hand at the time were a basic brown mustard and one that had some type of chili pepper mixed in and man it was really really good. Eating it I (Gabe) made a mental note to try out mixing in some chilies and garlic into a mustard sauce next time i cook up some sausage. Oh man, drooling again, time to move on.

After the sausages we took a nice meandering walk along the river and through a park. We would have shared some cute pics we took during our walk but it turns out we were accidentally on the camcorder setting. Instead we have short 2 second films…

Before calling it a day we made one last stop to the cathedral. It is the largest Gothic cathedral north of Switzerland and it was gorgeous. While the other cathedrals have been made of white stone and give a pristine appearance, this one was very dark. It felt moody and romantic, everything that is Gothic.