Well, it wouldn’t be a Lotz vacation if something didn’t go awry! And awry it went! We headed out from Frankfurt early. We had a connection in Koblenz that was to take us to Luxembourg. We were going to spend about 3 or 4 hours exploring Luxembourg city and the hop on to our train to Paris.

Side note here: If you’ve never used the train system in Europe, it is notoriously punctual. There has been a lot of construction in the bigger cities that have caused minor delays, but really nothing more than 5 or so minutes.

Okay, back to Luxembourg…..kinda. So, our train was running late. There was an incident on a track and some communication things and we left Koblenz about 20 minutes late. No biggie.

Until it was. We got almost half way there and the train stopped. Not in Luxembourg. Wellll….it was in the country of Luxembourg, just not the city. It was in a city named Wecker. The conductor then said that due to whatever the issues were, we were going to be stopped there for 5 minutes or 2 hours. He couldn’t really be sure. So, the option was to hop on the local bus. It would take you to a stop where you could change to a tram and get to the station.

Cool. We hop off and head to the bus.

So does everyone else.

The bus shows up and everyone crams on. Everyone except us and about 15 people. The driver says the next bus should be there in 20 minutes. Yep. That was not true. It was going to be an hour!!!

About 15 minutes before the bus is to show up, the conductor yells that the train is going to get underway! So, we hop back on and continue to Luxembourg city.

We’re like okay. We still have about 2 hours. We can make this work.

We roll into the train station and start looking around at what to do when Wade gets an email.

Our train from Luxembourg to Paris is no longer leaving from Luxembourg.

Wade goes and talks to the train people. They say “Oh, yeah. Just hop on the bus to Thionville and then get on the train to Paris.”

Nope. After waiting for a non existent bus, we talk to the bus dude and he says “Nope. You gotta get on the train to Metz. Get off at Thionville, then get on your train.” Dude showed up with receipts.

Cool yo. We follow those directions and finally get on the train to Paris.

Of course, the train to Paris started having issues. We stopped at one point and three different people kept opening up panels and closing them. We finally got moving, but the AC would go off and go back on. We were 40 minutes late, but we made it!

We get off the train and head to the train that will take us to our hotel. Paris is lovely 94 degrees and humid. The train to our hotel has no AC and is a steaming tube of sweat and sorrow. Keely stated that she was sweating so much she could hydrate the desert.

But, we made it to our hotel before the rain and are comfortably in our room, watching soccer and the rain storm. Enjoy the reminder of the photos we got today (which are not many).

17 years ago, Wade spent 3 weeks in Germany working on his international finance portion of his masters degree. The school is in Vallendar, but Koblenz is close by and was visited regularly. He loved it and we had to come back. We started the day with a boat cruise down the Rhine to see the castles. The food and drink were surprisingly reasonable. So, we enjoyed a light lunch and drinks.

Then we wandered around Koblenz for a bit. We found a cute little wine store that happened to have a bottle of Riesling named Lotz. Yes, we bought and drank it. It was lovely.

Next, we headed up to Vallendar. We got to walk around campus for a bit before heading back to Frankfurt.

After which, we got some ice cream and then prepared for a travel day tomorrow. We are heading to Luxembourg for a few hours and then Paris.

We walked around Munich today just enjoying the city.

Keely found the Lego store. I think Lego is missing out on an opportunity. They should consider creating country exclusive Lego kits. You can only buy them in that country at physical stores. We would have to buy an extra suitcase for the new sets we’d get. I mean, come on! A Bavarian pretzels Lego kit would be awesome!

We also went to the Bayern Munich store. It was 3 floors and amazing!

Wade and Keely continued their “normal people” photo and “us people” photo series. Then we headed back to Frankfurt. We’ve spent the last ten days backpacking it so, it was nice to see our “extras” and the suitcase.

Tomorrow we go to Valendar and Koblenz to cruise down the Rhine and see the school Wade studied at 15 year ago.

Wade and I love Munich. There is a certain charm to the city and it draws you in. We went to Hofbrauhaus last night after we got back from Dachau. I mean the OG Hofbrauhaus is a must.

Today we went to Neuschwanstein castle. It’s the castle Disney used as a model for Sleeping Beauty Castle (often called Cinderella’s castle).

Historically though, King Ludwig II had it built. Unfortunately, it didn’t get finished before he was arrested for losing his marbles and died somewhat mysteriously at age 40.

You are not allowed to take photos inside sooooo here are lots of photos from outside.

On our way back down the mountain, we stopped for lunch and some tasty donuts. Keely and Wade decided to hijack my phone and then fell asleep in front of me.

The rest of the evening was relaxing. Tomorrow we will show Keely more of the beauty of Munich and then head back to Frankfurt.

We went to Dachau today. This was my third time, Wade’s second and Keely’s first. I have learned something new each and every time. It’s important to note that Dachau was the original camp. It was the only one in operation for the entirety of Hitlers reign. There is a lot to learn here.

The following maps are the networks of camps during the Third Reichs time. The map with the red dot is important to me. That red dot roughly represents where my father was born and grew up; where his family was at the time.

Keely found solace in the survivors stories throughout the day. We spent 5 hours there and still didn’t get through everything. If you get a chance, you should go.

Today, we explored a little of Dresden before my cousin and her partner picked us up and we headed to my dad’s home town.

We passed by Moritzburg Castle on the way (pictured above). It was used in the 2019 Charlie’s Angels.

Anyway, we got to Großenhain and headed to the Kupferberg, where we met up with my aunt Ursula. The Kupferberg is a hill outside of town. At the top is an old tower that has been turned into a bed and breakfast and a restaurant. Everytime we’ve gone to Großenhain, we’ve eaten at the restaurant, so why change that now? The food is always good and it didn’t disappoint today. The hill next to it is where my dad and his friends would ski and sled. Nearby is a playground that Katja, my friend Skye and I played on when we visited in 1994. It’s still there and was a lot of fun! Keely got to ride on the same (updated) zip line that I did 30 years ago. This was also the first time I went to the top of the tower.

Then we headed to my dads old house. It is currently for sale. The garden is gone and so is the pergola that used to be there. We couldn’t go inside but the outside of the house was the same besides the yard.

Then we headed to the park where he would play and cross through to get to school. When the lake would freeze over, he would ice skate there. 30 years ago, a cousin dropped a stuffed rabbit in the lake. Katja, Skye, and I rowed out and fished the bunny out of the lake lol!

Then we headed off to his school. His school and another school have now been combined into one larger school. Katja’s partner, Axel, went to the same school after it was combined.

Then we headed back to Dresden and sadly said our good byes. We checked out a few more things and then called it a night. Wade enjoyed the old mailbox that is still used.

The Saxony region of Germany is hands down my favorite. The hidden castles, the history, the older small villages, rolling hills, farmland, and just plain calm of it all is very tranquil.

Tomorrow we head to Prague and then Vienna!

We left Berlin and headed to Dresden. The stop here has multiple reasons. There are a lot of beautiful building and rich history here in Dresden, my cousin (my dads niece) lives here, and it is about 40 minutes from my dads hometown.

We were able to meet up with Katja and Axel (her partner) when we got into town. We explored a bit, had something to eat, video chatted with my dad, and had a beer. They had to head off to another get together and we took the evening to relax. Tomorrow we will head out to Großenhain so Wade and Keely can see my dads house, his school, the park he spent a lot of time in, and the Kupferberg (my favorite restaurant in Großenhain).

We were so wiped out yesterday that I didn’t post. So here is the post for yesterday.

Oh Berlin! While it is still not my number 1 city in Germany, it is still in my top 3. Berlin embraces its history; the good, the bad, and the ugly. I’m a nerd and a sucker for history and Berlin has it.

We did a hop on hop off tour again because we knew there was just so much to see. If you are going to be in Berlin for 3 days or less, we HIGHLY recommend it. You can see all the things and then decide what you want to go back to later (ie the zoo).

Once we got to Checkpoint Charlie, I got a tad emotional. It hit me that my dad has lived on both sides of the wall as a German and as a German-American. He was born in and lived in East Germany until the age of 14 (he turned 15 in Munich on the west side). Then he came back and lived in Bremerhaven as an American solider. Reading the stories of people trying to get across that border, many surviving and many not, it hit me just how lucky he was.

And cut the emotional scene

Anyway, there were so many beautiful buildings and so many historical sites. Definitely spend some time if you can!

Side note; the photos are not in order. Between editing and consolidating mine, Wade’s, and Keely’s photos there were just too many and I’m still tired lol!

Today was unintentionally eventful. We took the train from Frankfurt to Berlin and got to our hotel relatively easy. We stopped at a cool little place by our hotel for lunch and then headed out. We were SUPPOSED to be making a quick trip to Charlottenhof Palace and then back to go to the Spy Museum. Wellllllll….the train from one point to our final point is out for construction. So we hopped on the replacement bus……or so we thought. Let’s just say, we did NOT go to the palace. But, we got a couple photos. I, of course think the cross walk people are hilarious, so there’s that.

We DID get to the spy museum. It was actually pretty cool. Keely is pretty decent at morse code. She passed the lie detector test (except one question about hand washing, but we will move past it). She also got a chance to use a rotary phone. I included the video of her second attempt. I cracked the safe in less than 37 seconds after watching a dude struggle with it for over 5 minutes and Keely quit in 3 minutes. Wade watched some James Bond and found some shows he wants to watch now. We just got a chance to have fun and be silly. Tomorrow we will hit the major points of Berlin.

I like Frankfurt. It’s a cool city. I like their airport and train station. However, in the spirit of honesty, it’s not my favorite German city. If you need a German city that has a lot of English speakers, then Frankfurt is the place to be. It has a lot of commerce, conventions, and travelers. I highly recommend checking it out. I think 2 days is good for someone who hasn’t been here before.

We slept in a bit. Keely had a waffle slathered in Nutella. We visited the Euro sign, the European Central Bank, and went to the observation deck of the Main Tower (all repeats for Wade, but cool nonetheless). We found some cool buildings and fountains. We…..well, I ate a warm apfelstrudel and we did laundry lol! It was a busy, but slow day in Lotz land.

Off to Berlin tomorrow!