Weekend with Laura's Dad

The weekend with Laura's dad, Ken, was great. We really weren't sure what to expect, but we had a wonderful time with him and his wife Marlis, and they treated us to much more than we had in mind. In addition to visiting them in Bitburg, they also brought us to Trier, Germany on Saturday, and we stopped in Echternach, Luxembourg before driving home Sunday.

We left Kempten around 5pm Friday when Laura got home from work. After a quick gas fill-up, we were on our way to what we thought would be about a 4 to 5 hour drive northeast to Bitburg. (I don't think I'll complain about gas prices anymore when I get home, it's about 10 euros per gallon here, or around US$200 to fill-up the tank!) The drive ended up taking about 6 hours, but it was very pretty the whole way (until it got dark) - green and yellow fields, random castles everywhere. We hit some construction traffic and another stand-still on the Autobahn because of a flipped car - we have yet to drive long distance on the Autobahn without seeing a flipped car, we even saw one Sunday on our way back. Even though Bitburg is a small, rural town, we didn't have much of a problem finding their house, thanks to the navigation system in the Mercedes. But we didn't arrive to until 11pm. Ken and Marlis greeted us with some much needed cold adult beverages and a late dinner of home-made Spargel Zuppen (asparagus soup - it's a big thing here) and Spaghetti, while we met and got caught up for a couple hours. Their house is very nice, and big for German standards. They have some very nice views of the countryside, and some great yard space and sitting areas.

After sleeping in, we woke up Saturday morning and had a big breakfast before taking a long walk into town, along with Ken and Chuck, their dog (he's a beagle that looks like an older/fatter version of my brother's dog Tripp - he's so fat because he only seems to eat human food). Bitburg is a really nice, rural town. Everything is so green in Germany this time of year. But up in this part of the country, it's a lot hills with green fields (wheat crops) and gorgeous bright yellow plants which are eventually turned into some type of industrial oil; and lots of windmills. It's absolutely beautiful countryside all around the area, which pictures can't come close to describing.

We walked along the walking trails through some of these fields from Ken and Marlis' house into town. Ken gave us a bit of a tour and history of the town as we were walking through, going through the main square, before eventually landing at the Bitburger Brewery. The buildings in Bitburg are not that old and historic like much of Europe, because it was bombed on Christmas eve during World War II. Bitburg is a town of only about 10,000 people, but about 3 times that many US military in the surrounding area. One of the bases was recently closed, making the Bitburger brewing company the largest employer in Bitburg. I didn't know this before going there, but Bitburger is actually the largest beer producer in Germany, and one of the largest in the world. Unlike most German beers that are only served locally, it is commonly served throughout other parts of Germany. We tried to enter the Bitburger Brewery, in hopes of taking a tour or purchasing something in their gift shop - but the brewers must have been off sampling for the weekend because it was closed. So we decided to have our first sample of the local Pilsner at a Biergarten out front - can't get much fresher than right next door. Then we stopped by the grocery store and walked Chuck back home, so we could put him away for an afternoon trip into Trier.

Trier was quite a treat for us, since we weren't expecting to do much but hang around Bitburg with Ken and Marlis. We had no idea what a great, historic town Trier was. It is a beautiful city on the Mosel river, about a half hour from Bitburg. It's a city of about 100,000 people and considered the oldest city in Germany (although Trier is not the only city to claim that, so I'm not sure). There are several Roman ruins in the city, which is very interesting when seen right next to some of the more traditional, German Middle-Ages architecture. We took a couple of hours to walk around Trier, viewing the Roman baths ruins, huge Basilica built for Constantine, the Roman Church, the town square, and the old city entrance gate called the Porta Nigra. The Porta Nigra is the best preserved Roman city gate in Germany, in good enough condition for Laura and I to walk up the steps to the top for a nice view of the city. This is more of a wine area than beer, so the hills on the outside of the city are lined with vineyards. We did get to sample some of the local Riesling before walking back to the car, stopping at a nice little wine garden by the church.

Marlis' son, Johannes, is a student at the university in Trier, so we met him and his girlfriend, Julia, for dinner before heading back to Bitburg. The restaurant was great, with a huge selection of traditional Bavarian dishes as well as grilled items. I was easily talked into the "Buffalo Bill" by Ken, figuring this might be my only chance for a real American-sized steak for awhile - but Laura's veal in wine sauce turned out to be much tastier. I was the driver between Bitburg and Trier, because Ken had his license taken away last week for some pretty excessive speeding on the Autobahn; plus our car was bigger for the 4 of us. It's a pretty common mis-perception in the US that you can always go as fast as you want on the German Autobahn. There actually are speed limit signs on the Autobahn, but they do get lifted in certain areas where you can drive at unlimited speeds. But when there is a speed limit sign (especially in the construction zones, which there are so many of), they are pretty serious about it, and they use speed cameras to detect speeders - hopefully I don't get one of those notices in the mail!

When we got back to Bitburg, we picked up some Bitburger beers for me to enjoy while we sat for a couple hours in the winter garden of their house and chatted (the winter garden is a sitting room on the side of their house, that is really a glassed in porch). The next day we were planning to get up early and drive back to Kempten, stopping in a couple towns along the Deutsche Weinstraße (Germany Wine Road). But Ken and Marlis had plans to take us to Luxembourg to fill up on gas and have lunch. We had no problems altering those plans.

Before leaving for Luxembourg, Ken let me take his little BMW Z1 convertible for a spin. The Z1 is a very limited edition car that was made only in Germany in the early 1990's. It was the prototype for the Z3 that we have in the US. It's stick shift, and wow....that thing was FUN to drive!!! Afterward, I told Ken I'd trade cars with him for a few weeks, but he didn't buy into that. I took Laura along for about 45 minutes, just driving around the countryside, trying not to get lost. Ken told us if we went left out of the neighborhood there was a golf course. So we saw that, and then continued a bit, until we stumbled upon a random castle called Schloss Hamm.

Ken's initial reason for taking us to Echternach was because it's about 30 euro-cents cheaper per liter of gas in Luxembourg (not like my Dad, driving miles out of the way to save 1 cent per gallon, this was 25 km to save more like $2 per gallon), but seeing the town of Echternach proved to be well worth it. While everything seems to be closed in Germany on Sundays, this border town in Luxembourg was really happening - it was filled with tourists from all over, and Germans who drive across the border to be able to shop on Sundays. Again, it was such a gorgeous, sunny day and we sat at an outdoor Italian restaurant near the town square, with some less than stellar live music being played behind us. After lunch, we walked around the streets of Echternach, to the main square, Medieval town meeting hall, and church. They were typical European narrow streets to walk along, with great architecture, shops, and cafes lining the sidewalks. The Mosel River also runs through this town, and up above the city in the hillside you could see the lookout tower from some old Celtic caves that were used for hiding back in the day.

The weather has been absolutely amazing this whole trip - sunny, in the 70's every day. We even managed to get some sunburns on Saturday, so we covered up with sunscreen on Sunday. Ken says this great weather won't last long. He was right.....we saw our first German cloud on the drive home Sunday evening when we got close to Kempten.

After our walk, it was time for farewell. But it looks like we may see them again soon. Marlis' mother who recently passed away has a place in the Rhine River region that we may meet them at again in a few weeks. We are starting to realize that there are so many things to see in Germany, that we may not get to some of the other European cities we had planned to visit before we arrived. Oh well, we have to take advantage of the opportunities we have right now, having a car and knowing some locals to show us around.

The drive back wasn't quite as bad - only about 4.5 hours. The scenery driving along the hills and countryside in Germany, with random castles all over the place, certainly doesn't get old - much nicer than driving down I-75 to Gainesville.

Next up: Neushwanstein Castle and my parents visit, where we'll go to Austria