To start out the year, my friend and I decided to pay our other friend a visit. He works in Germany! He was kind enough to invite the DnD crew over and check out some of his favorite spots and maybe check out a few new ones! We stayed over for about 9 nights and needless to say… we were all tired. On one of the days, we had breakfast in Germany, lunch in Belgium, and some snacks in the Netherlands.
Day 1 was pretty chill and just stuck around my friend’s place. He took us to his fruit guy, had some great Italian and pretty much just recovering from the 7 hour difference from back home…
Day 2 was definitely more intense…but also fun. After a long drive, we found ourselves in Blackwood Forest National Park.
We did a bit of hiking before deciding to go get some food.
At the bottom of the mountain, it was a completely different story. There wasn’t any snow! So we walked around a bit after grabbing some lunch.
Day 3 was exploring a couple of nearby towns. Mainz and another town near Mainz….
We ended the night we beer, chess, and ping pong at a local bar.
Day 4 was taking it pretty chill once again and exploring the city closest to my friend, Frankfurt. He mentioned it was easier to take the train rather than drive through traffic – it was in fact pretty smooth. Trains seem to be…much cleaner than in Chicago and they have WiFi in their public transportation!
We began the day by grabbing some delicious espresso, of course, then going through pretty scenic bridges towards the Stadel Art Museum.
Although there has been plenty of remolding done through the city, it’s always super cool to look at some of the original structures and facades of the original architecture!
After indulging in some art, we decided to get yet another coffee nearby and also visit Globetrotter, a HUGE 4 story building full of camping equipment, which was pretty great.
Along the way, they had one of those cool bridges with locks on it.
Towards the end of the day, we happen to run into an outdoor market! Of course, we got some goodies.
We ended the day slightly early with some home cooked steaks (delicious) made graciously by our host.
Day 5 we a long one; we drove over to Brussels, Belgium to explore a bit but also to meet up with another friend that happened to be passing by.
While in Belgium…we of course had to grab some waffles…
We walked around a bit…trying to watch shop (ended up getting some Swatch Moonwatches!) and we ran up against the Manneken Pis statue.
The main center had some beautiful buildings as well.
On the drive back, we stopped in the Netherlands for some snacks before heading home.
Day 6 we visited Christmas town! Or Rothenburg. As well as another nearby city where we ended up eating some delicious Chinese food!
Rothenburg was honestly great. Awesome shops, awesome coffee, and a very overwhelmingly huge Christmas store!
Over the next couple of days, we simply stuck going to the nearby towns and some cool secret spots with our friend’s seal of approval and struggled over how to pack lots and lots of chocolate, wine, and souvenirs.
All in all, thank you to our friend for going above in beyond during the trip and for showing us a great time around Germany!