If anyone thinks that I am the person in our marriage that pushes for travel…they’re wrong. Dead wrong. Don’t get me wrong…I love it. But my husband looooooooves it! He is the navigator, and I’ve given him full reigns for day-by-day planning. The upside of that is that he takes us to some seriously off-the-beaten-path places that I never would have put on the list…the downside is that when we set off on an adventure, he has a HUGE list of places to see and things to do!
Here are just a few of his little treks he’s taken us to…itty bitty towns that you are not likely to find in a tour book!
Gengenbach, Germany:
We loved its winding, narrow streets…
And gorgeous downtown…
It’s old medieval wall that still remains in parts of the city is pretty cool, too…
I was fascinated by the old water system that still had water being sent across/over the street, and down into the water wheel…
The highlight for the kids? Of course…
We also went to Triberg, which is teeny tiny, but apparently populated by enough tourists to have a few decent gift shops in town.
We found some German Christmas ornaments for sale…the same exact kinds we used to sell in our store in Alaska (from the town where glass-blown Christmas ornaments originate)! I don’t miss selling those…
And we found a few cuckoo clocks.
Well, a few hundred, actually…
The one store that we set out to visit with our Aunt and Uncle was, in fact, closed for the day.
I love that when you’re driving through Germany, you can look over at the side of a hill and see something unexpected like this jutting out from the mountainside…
Or perhaps unexpected, like these”socks” covering some road poles…
huh??!!!
We also visited Neustadt an der Weinstrasse–it has a long name, but it is a fairly small and cute town.
Just her size…
We stopped for pretzels and pizza, and a British/German couple (husband was British, wife was German) stopped and asked us why we were there in this particular town. “Because we heard it was beautiful”. The wife was pleasantly surprised and said, “Well…yes, it is!” as if she was so flattered to hear that someone would refer to her hometown as such.
It actually had a great shopping street with plenty of shops, and plenty of shoppers!
We were amused by the free-standing toilet stalls that you pay .50 cents to enter. Have you ever been in one of these? It’s a secret little wish of mine…to use one of these…after hearing about them over 10 years ago! It self-cleans itself after each person leaves…with a full water flush on the floors, etc! Check out Wikipedia’s write up here. I tried to look online for a video, but instead found this video about a wild self-cleaning toilet seat…in case you’re germ obsessed, check this out 🙂 It’s totally unrelated… Haha!
Gargoyles are really odd…but kinda cool…right? Umm…I think so…
Old building tops…and you wonder, “if those walls could talk”…
European homes are never without their flowers.
Woah, Ella with bangs! Love it!
Glad you like them! I was so sick of un-done hair…notice the previous photos of her usually have scraggly hair covering her eyes?! Problem SOLVED!!
Love the pics…and somebody’s new haircut with bangs! She looks SO different. It’s very cute.
There is something so “fairy tale” about these photos. Maybe they remind me of Disney World with all the flowers and color.
Do you like it? It took getting used to…but I was SOOOO sick of her not letting me put her hair up…and it was always in her face (and in her mouth)! I’m happy with it!
So, should these photos remind you of Disney World, or should Disney World remind you of Europe?! Hmm…. 😉 Soon enough!
Wow! I sure love that beautiful colorful little town! Off-the-beaten path places are the best!
Absolutely! I can’t tell you how many times we look at each other and say, “Gee…this sure beats _____” (where everyone else goes)!!!