We left Belgium more than ten times. No, we didn’t get lost; although we have been temporarily re-routed a few times so far (that’s what I like to call it – I’m the navigator). We left Belgium the first time when we crossed into the southeastern tip of The Netherlands and headed to Vaals. This is the place where Holland, Belgium and Germany meet. There is a triangle marker at the spot where the three countries meet and each side is in a different country. So, we had a lot of fun moving around the marker and being in different countries. The girls even managed to get three body parts in different countries at one time.

I actually just stumbled upon this trifecta of countries by accident. The girls had been dying to do a hedge maze (labyrinth) since we were in England. We found one with Neve in France, but it was abandoned. Mark and I had just been avoiding talking about it, hoping they would forget in case we couldn’t find one that was any good. But, my rainy day research had me stumble across one that was right at this spot. So, we basically planned our next week based on doing this maze (the words “it better not suck” went through my mind sooo many times).

Guess what? It DID NOT suck. Woohoo!!

When we arrived we were pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t busy. We are having a hard time adjusting to the fact that we aren’t travelling on a weekend or during a holiday. Sometimes we get to places like this and think “this place is great, where are all the people?” We have to remind ourselves that its off season: kids are in school and people aren’t on holidays. Sometimes this is great (places aren’t busy, prices are cheaper) and other times it’s not (places close earlier than we think they will, we have to really make sure we research places before we go; showing up when and having something be closed kinda sucks).

Another lesson we have learned is to always have a decent amount of cash. England, France and Belgium took VISA and Mastercard everywhere. Holland and Germany, not so much. Maestro cards?? and cash are king in these places.

When I went to pay for the maze they would only take cash. The nearest ATM was about 15 minutes away, not a big deal, but we did have to make it to our rental by 8pm that night, so we didn’t want to waste any time if we didn’t have to. Molly to the rescue! The girls each exchanged some of their cash at home to buy things along the way and Molly had hers handy, so I borrowed her cash to pay the entrance fee (super affordable, only 18 Euros for all of us – approximately $27 CAD). The woman at the entrance said it usually takes about 40-50 minutes to solve (you need to get to a platform at the centre to complete it). As we walked in Mark and I looked at each other and said, “No way this will take more than 20 minutes.” It looked simple as we entered. The kids wanted to compete against us to see who could get it done first. They ran off alone and we strolled along through the hedges. 90 MINUTES LATER….we still weren’t done!!! It was really hard. There were about 10 other people in there while we were and we kept running into them over and over. Even with their limited English and our limited German and Dutch, we managed to give tips and try to help each other. In the end I had to cheat. I went to the exit and followed the route backwards to the centre. Then I stood on the platform and helped Mark and the girls find their way. The fact that it wasn’t crap was a huge relief.

After we left Vaals, we continued on to our rental in Bruchweiler, Germany. Bruchweiler is located between the Rhine and Mosel Rivers which is why we picked this location. I don’t think they get many tourists staying there. We wanted to explore the area around both of these rivers and this seemed like a good place to base ourselves. The rental was a beautiful apartment above the home of a German couple. It had a huge balcony with patio furniture that got full sun in the morning. I’ve never been in a more orderly or spotless rental. We didn’t have much food with us, we had to do a grocery run the next day, so we asked the lady we were renting from where we should eat. It turns out it was Schnitzel night at the local restaurant. So we went.  It’s the first time I’ve ever left a restaurant with Mark (besides a buffet) and heard him say “I’m so full.” It was tasty, but not something I’d eat regularly. See details in “What Mark Ate”

We decided to explore the Rhine River valley first. On our list of things we wanted to do were: biking along the river (there are excellent paths all along the river), boat ride, some hiking and seeing some castles. The information centre in Bingen was our first stop to find out about renting bikes. It was too late that day to leave on bikes so we decided to take a boat to the town across the river (there are no bridges across in that section of the Rhine). Rudesheim is a small winery village surrounded by vineyards (pretty much every slope along this section of the Rhine is covered in grapes). It was like walking into a fairy tale village. After looking around here and trying some wine we took the cable car to the top of the valley where there is a giant monument, from there we walked about 3 km stopping at various lookouts over the river. At the end of the trail there is a chairlift to take you down the mountain to the village of Assmannshausen. From there we took another boat back to Bingen.

Stopping into the information centre was a win because not only did we make sure we had bikes that were the right size for the day we planned to bike, but we also found out about some fireworks that were happening that night in St. Goar, a town down river. It was part of a festival called “The Rhine on Fire”. We drove to the town of Boppard, north of St. Goar, and took the train because we were told parking and driving would be impossible. While we were waiting for our train and wondering if we were on the correct platform we met a young couple from Houston, Texas who were wondering the same thing. Calvin and Kristina were so friendly and easy to talk to; we ended up hanging out with them for the night. We got on the correct train and chatted about their travels and ours. It’s always so interesting to hear about other people’s experiences and get their advice. It turns out that they have a friend who is a blogger and I’ve stumbled across her blog while doing research for our trip. Helene in Between has great resources for travellers and bloggers.

The fireworks were, by far, the best we’ve ever seen. Just when we thought we’d seen the finale, another amazing round would explode. As the fireworks exploded they lit up the ancient castle high on the hill above the river and the sound echoed so much in the valley that you could feel it vibrating in your chest. Amazing. There was wine flowing everywhere, which was really neat because it comes from right there. Our train back wasn’t due to leave for another 45 minutes so we walked around St. Goar with Houston (that was our nickname for Calvin and Kristina). Back at the train station there was a crush of people waiting to get on the trains north and south. Security people were making announcements about something, but of course we had no idea what they were saying. Beside me was a young woman, so I asked if she could tell me what they were saying. Not great news. Our train was delayed for an hour. But really, we had great company. Calvin and Kristina were truly some of the nicest, most open people we’ve met so far and we’d wait on a delayed train with them any day (even if they dress for winter while we’re in shorts!!).

The night of the fireworks we purposely took an out of the way route to get there because we wanted to see that section of the river on a bike. The day we rode, we started our ride in Bingen and rode 30km to St. Goar. In that 30km stretch we saw over 10 castles. We packed a lunch, but stopped off in towns along the way for coffee, tea and Fanta’s. There are cyclists everywhere, so all of the towns are well signed and really easy to navigate.

Castles and hiking were still on the list, so we decided to combine them. There is a 12km hike that has been voted the best hike in Germany a few times.  It just so happens that it also goes right passed the Eltz Castle (one of the most famous castles in Europe). So, we packed a lunch and headed out. The hike was fairly easy; there was one hard uphill section coming out of the river valley, but the rest were manageable. We hiked through fields, forests, beside streams and though fruit orchards. And, the castle was a real frigging castle with gates and towers and cobblestone paths. It’s still owned by a branch of the original family.

Our last “must do” was a boat ride. We decided to do this on the Mosel River because it’s narrower and we had already biked along the best (most castles) part of the Rhine. We boarded in the town of Bernkastel-Kues and cruised to Traben-Trarbach and back. The Mosel also has plenty of vineyards on it’s banks and beautiful villages. That evening Mark and the girls decided to find an observation tower near our village, I stayed back to read my book. I missed out, but Mark got some great pics.

Our last stop in this part of Germany, before heading to the Amsterdam area, was Cologne. We weren’t going to stay long; just in and out to see the cathedral.  It’s the tallest twin spired church in the world and one of the largest on the planet. You can also climb 533 stairs to the top and we did.  I wasn’t sure if it was going to be worth it,  but I knew that there was plenty of cheese to come in the Netherlands and I figured if the view wasn’t worth it, the extra cheese would be.  I was in luck, the view was spectacular!  Our timing was pretty good too. We reached the bell tower on the quarter hour, so we got a sample of the sound without leaving with permanent hearing loss.

Because of our detour, this wouldn’t be the last we would see of Germany.  But for now we were headed to the land of windmills, cheese and bicycles.

So lange für jetzt Deutschland.