Our last full day I Germany we spent on our pilgrimage to find the Bergstresse. This is the street that my family’s name was taken from, or vice versa. I have to say it’s VERY exciting to see. I don’t care who you are, it’s always amazing to see where your ancestors came from. We started our day late since we stayed out at the Redroom so late. For us the issue of not getting up early enough is more about the fact that it is hot in the middle of the day. No where near like NYC but still a little too warm to be enjoying a leisurely stroll through a German town without much direction. Our first adventure was trying to find a close train station since we’re staying in the “old city”. During that attempt we hit a few stores finding no Kinder Eggs for my friend Karl, some yummy gummi bears and we kept seeing guys waring sashes and hats. We asked our front desk at it's academic regalia, current students and alumni come together and support one another, each group is different having different colors. Sounds like a fraternity to me... and it's always men. We finally made it down to the bus stop but after waiting for a bit we ended up finding a smaller station close to us on a map, which we opted for. It was modest station to say the least but it worked. I of course HAD to pee… so let me digress a bit and tell you about toilets here. If you read my previous blogs about Europe travel you’ll know the number one rule is to ALWAYS pee when you have the opportunity because bathrooms are hard to come by and often cost money. The train station bathrooms run anywhere between .20 euro to .50 euro and range in cleanliness too. Oh and make sure you have coins because they do not give change or take credit cards. This isn’t just the case for freestanding things like a train station. That castle we paid 5 Euro to see cost us .50 Euros to use the restroom… so for both of us to pee is was a whole euro. However, I will say that bathroom was pretty nice, not like the one pictures from that small train station. It’s CRAZY!! So yeah, if you are ever wanting something to be thankful for it would be our consistent, free and easy access to a toilet.
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| Where are we? |
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| A German Frat, perhaps? |
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| These signs are all over. Woman and child hand holding zone. |
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| Woman and child that are holding hands are not allowed. |
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| Yum... my pay 3rd pay toilet of the trip. |
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| Gummi! |
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| I eat you, dear gummy. |
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| My perfect view. :) |
We took the non-air conditioned train into Weinheim , which is a little city North of Heidelberg. The Bergstressse runs from Darmstadt to Heidelberg but sadly the awesome sites aren’t super accessible by foot. We really would need a car to do all the things we wanted. BUT we weren’t going to let that get us down, after a quick photo shoot on “my” road, we at lunch, and went shopping where we hit the jackpot... KINDER EGGS. Karl, we did it. We got your eggs. Sadly they melted quite a bit but they officially on their way to your house. I struggled in choosing because they have two different kinds of Kinder Eggs, so I bought some of both and tried both… I liked the Kinder Egg Joy the best. Bascilly what they are, are chocolates with a gift inside. The standard is egg shaped chocolate with an plastic egg shaped container that holds a surprise. The Joy is a plastic egg that has one side with a surprise and the other side is eaten with a plastic spatula type thing… almost like Nutella. Eitherway, delicious… I just wish they hadn’t melted so much, but it’s hot out. After a walk around town we ended up finding some Bergstresse wine. Very exciting to see my name on a bottle. ;)
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| Kinder Eggs!!! :) |
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| Oh sooo much Nutella! |
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| There are not only shops, houses, and bus stops on my street but also a McDonalds. |
We decided to head back to Heidleburg via public transport since the train had no a/c. We waited at the station and when the train showed up we got on, only to be told we had to take a bus and then get on the trame. Annoying, but that wasn’t the worst part, the worst part was that it had no a/c either. At least on the train we were constantly moving and could somewhat open the windows. Holy crap was it hot! I have to say it was such a relief to get off the bus and onto the tram… or so I thought but turns out it didn’t have a/c either.. sigh.. much more like camping than I thought. ;) haha I ended up being REALLY happy just walking in the shade instead. It’s such a beautiful city and when close to the water and in the shade it’s hard not to just lie down under a tree and take a nap. We found more of the Bergstresse and then headed to dinner. We found an Asian restaurant no the water and enjoyed the water breeze with our Chicken and pineapple mean. I ate pinapple… I highly doubt it’s got e.coli since they couldn’t grow it here and it was cooked.
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