Wanderlust Journey

After a day where we saw more castles that we could shake a stick at, we went to Cochem, which sits at the foot of Reichsburg. However, we wouldn’t be visiting it because we were tired of castles… but we did enjoy a day of rest and relaxation in the fair city of Cochem. The [...]

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Our night in Zell was the only night the entire trip that we didn’t pre-book a hotel, but that didn’t really matter. Tourist travel through Germany, and we suspect all of Europe, was down with the economic doldrums and rooms were plentiful. We figured that in the worst case scenario we could just walk up [...]

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Today, we had the plasure of floating down the Romantic Rhine, known as the Der Romantiscer Rhien in German. We spent the night in Bacharach at the Hotel am Markt. We chose this since the part of the Rhine between Bacharach and Boppard is known for its beauty. The Rhine was the main route for [...]

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After our day in Koln, we made our way to the sleepy town of Bacharach. Bacharach was once the biggest wine trading points on the Rhine because reefs up the river forced boats to unlead cargo up the river and reload them here. We spent the night of July 29th, 2009 in Bacharach. We arrived [...]

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After climbing up the 509 stairs of the Koln Cathedral, Martha and I were in the mood for a little rest, a little hefeweizen (of course!) and a little snack. We walked down to the Rhein garten, a walking and biking path that tracks the Rhine River, for a little stroll and to find a [...]

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After a day of relative relaxation in Dortmund, we used up one of our EuroRail days to visit Köln (Cologne) on our way to Bacharach. Köln hosts one of the most remarkable cathedrals in all of Europe, one I read about frequently in high school in AP Art History. One of most amazing things about [...]

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In summer after junior year I had the opportunity to study at the University of Dortmund through an exchange program at Carnegie Mellon University. Dortmund is the 7th largest city in Germany located in the North Rhine-Westphalia. It was largely destroyed during WWII due to its strong industrial (coke and oil) plants. Since that time [...]

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In mid-July of 2009, my wife Martha and I (Jim) embarked on a nearly four week vacation in Europe. She was going to start her doctorate in the fall, which is a four to five year commitment, so we felt that this summer was our best opportunity to take a vacation like this one. Our [...]

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