Amsterdam to Rhine Valley & Munich!

“Wir fahren mit dem Caravan
Nach Munich auf der Autobahn
Auf Wiedersehen, A’dieu Goodbye
Wir fahren heute vort!”

Okay, so knowing a German nursery rhyme wasn’t going to help me much when we reached Deutschland… and that i learnt, by the way, in German class back in secondary school. Considering the last time I spoke German was 16 years ago… I had equipped with me the bare minimum to help me say a hearty ‘HALLO!’ to any German person i saw… especially Heidi Klum types. (Damn you, Seal!) And we had Jack too, who was non-German speaking… sooooo Anna, our tour manager, taught us some simple words to use in the name of courtesy… the most important being ‘Thank you!’ said with a resounding ‘Danke Schon’. (note the ‘o’ is supposed to have 2 dots on top). I could just string together an ‘Entschuldigung’ (Excuse me) and a ‘Wie geht’s’ (How are you)… but most importantly… ‘BIER’ (beer, duh) would be the word of our next 2 days in Germany!

This time around, managed to overcome some jetlag to say a bit awake to take some scenic photos of our drive there from Holland.



Our next stop was the very scenic Rhine Valley… home of some of the best Riesling wines in Germany, Birkenstock and 1L Steins (German beer mugs). Our hotel was a humble, cosy home-like Winzerhaus.



Now when I say Rhine Valley was scenic… I meant it was REALLY a treat for the eyes… consideration for a retirement home, maybe? Quiet, chill and full of wine… need I say more? We were informed that the vineyards of the area were situated on some of the steepest mountain slopes in the world, a range of mountains with the River Rhine running through it.



Had a bit of time to meet up with my brother and sister-in-law too, who drove down from Frankfurt to say hi (Thanks Bro!).







Ahh the lovely sweet grapes of the Rhine, which eventually ended up in my first glass of Riesling… which the bartender filled to the brim, by the way, and got handsomely tipped for that too. =) yummmmmmm…

So after food, wine and Schnapps, we were more than ready to hit our cosy lil’ beds in Winzerhaus, to get some rest before a big day heading to Munich!

At the break of dawn, we drove out to a town called St. Goar first, to get some insight into one of Germany’s biggest Stein makers, who specialise in producing German beer mugs for everyone… highly durable ones at that, so that a burly beer toast will not result in shattered glass on and in your hands (Yow!).



Jack managed to purchase himself a Stein that had a piece of the Berlin Wall attached to it! Limited edition… and (hopefully) valuable in years to come. From there, it was a bit of Birkenstock shopping, in the home of the brand itself… and I’m proud to say I invested in my first pair of Birkenstocks, cos they were at least 20-30 bucks cheaper than they are in Singapore, so thought, well why not? My feet are Birkenstock virgins no more! Was looking forward to wearing them when we walked around Munich.

But to my surprise, we went one up. Upon reaching Munich, first thing on the itinerary was a bike tour around Munich, with ‘Mike’s Bikes’!





Our guide, James, an Aussie chap, took us around some of the monuments in Munich itself, of historic significance, and explained to us a fair bit about the political significance of some of these places, some stories originating from the times of Hitler’s rule.









Naturally, all that cycling was gonna make us thirsty… so as we cycled through ‘English Garden, which was a HUGE park, we ended up at the local beer garden, where I had my first encounter with the legendary 1L glass of beer. Okay 1.5L eventually cos one of the girls on the tour donated half a glass to me =P



The 3 hr bike tour (and beer session) ended around 8pm, and with that came the time to appreciate some German culture. We headed straight to Hofbrauhaus… which was the local beer hall… no its not a pub, bar or nightclub.. it was a BEER HALL. A huge area, littered with big benches, sturdy tables, a band playing traditional German folk music, pork knuckles, sauerkraut and 1L Steins of beer. Jack & Rai were finally home.





Here, we got to know some of our mates on tour better. What better way to bond than over a few litres of beer! Say hi to Chris and Steve from New York, New York!



And Jack, and his wifey, with some random German folk. =)



An interesting fact we took back about the beer hall was that apparently, during Hitler’s rule, the hall was used as a meeting place for the Nazis. So the ceilings were actually painted with swastikas at that time. Hofbrauhaus had the place repainted but apparently one can still spot the remnants of the swastika under the paint.



After 3L of beer, the camera got retired into my pocket (for obvious reasons), and we carried on the beer halltoasting and partying till the wee hours of morning… barely remembering that we had a 745am call-time to board the bus to start making our way to Venezia, commonly known as Venice. Stay tuned to this blog to find out why I had a near spiritual experience of deja vu in Venice. Auf Wiedersehen Deutschland!