Germany Trip: Wrap Up and Food

We had a great time in Germany.  I have thought of our trip so many times over the last two weeks.  I would go back in an instant...but then again, there are so many places that I would love to visit in Europe.  Joseph and I never went on a honeymoon.  We were both way too practical to go on a trip when Joseph was still a student and we knew any money we spent on a trip would mean less money for us to live on later.  Anytime Joseph and I get away on a trip I always tell myself it was a catch up for never going on a honeymoon.  If we had gone on a honeymoon I would have have wanted to go on a European trip of some kind...no beach for me.  A beach is not my kind of vacation... ever, but Europe?  Yes, please!!  I guess our trip celebrating our 11th anniversary can double as our honeymoon!

A few things stuck out to me that were different from the United States....

1. Everyone smokes!  I thought a lot of people smoked when we moved to New York, but the New Yorkers have nothing on the Germans.  Every time we stepped outside we were overwhelmed with the smell of smoke.  Even at the restaurants if we ate outdoors we had to deal with people smoking and it really is disgusting.  

2.  We saw so many BMWs and Audis.  I know, I know, these are German made cars...after all, BMW stands for Bavarian Motor Works.  Our dream car is to own a BMW sedan, but once again we are way too practical and we probably never will own one.  How can so many people afford them in Germany?  Maybe they are cheaper than in the US?  

3.  Beer, but that was a given.  Everyone drinks beer.  Every time we sat down to eat in a restaurant our waiter was probably always disappointed when we ordered water or nothing at all.  If you order water in a restaurant it is served with glasses and your pour it out of an 8 oz glass bottle.  We could choose between "still" water or carbonated.  Anyway, each glass bottle of water was roughly 3.50 Euros...that's a lot for water.  After a while if we had water with us in a water bottle we stopped ordering it.

Okay, let's talk food.  I love good food.  I wouldn't really call myself a "foodie", but maybe I am.  It probably started when I was little and my dad would come home from business trips and tell us about the food he ate.  We rarely ate out as kids because our family couldn't afford it and Joseph and I rarely eat out.  Ninety percent of the time I honestly prefer to eat at home because I'm usually disappointed if I eat in a restaurant.  

Anyway, we had to eat out while we were gone and I told Joseph if we were going on this trip we were going to enjoy the food and not just buy the cheapest thing we could or try to buy food in a store.  That is what we usually do on trips...spend as little money on food as possible.  

Here are a few pictures of our food for anyone interested:

I"m not exactly sure what type of food this was, all I know is that everything on the menu was seafood of some type.  We both ordered noodles and they were really yummy.  It was our first real meal after the airplane food so it tasted extra good.

German food is...German.  I can't say I loved it.  I tolerated it, but it definitely wasn't my favorite food that we ate.  We ate it on a few different occasions just so we could say we tried it.

This is a typical German breakfast.  Everyone was eating breakfast sandwiches...meats and cheeses.  There were also oats with different mix-ins, but you had to just let it sit in hot water to cook and it wasn't my favorite.

Here was a traditional German meal...a bratwurst on sauerkraut with bread and mustard.  Who puts mustard on their bread?  Gross!  This was Joseph's meal and he said it was probably the best German food he had on our trip.

This was my German meal and it was just okay.  I ate it, but I didn't love it.  

This picture and the next are more "fast food" German.  This was called a currywurst with french fries.  The hot dog wasn't spicy at all...it was more sitting in a bed of ketchup with chili powder sprinkled on it.

This was my "bratwurst".  Not what I was expecting.  It just tasted like a hot dog to me.  I thought a German bratwurst would taste more like a NY white coney, but this one didn't.  Joseph's wurst in the picture with the sauerkraut DID taste more like a white coney...just for the record.  I"m sure the German sausages come in a wide range of flavors, I just wasn't a big fan.

We took a break from German food and ate Chinese.  It's hard to go wrong with Chinese.  Since we were in big cities we could pretty much each whatever we felt like eating.  We had Italian one day although I can't find the pictures of it.

Not all of the German food we ate was bad.  We did indulge in some pastries that were pretty good and some German chocolate.  For me the best chocolate is the kind with a nice snap to it.  On our first evening in Munich we stopped at a candy store and bought a small package of chocolate and it had a nice snap and it was smooth and creamy in texture.  Definitely better than American chocolate. 

My absolute favorite thing that we ate while we were gone was a Doner Kebap.  We chanced upon it in St. Gilpin, Austria.  We wanted a snack to tide us over until we got home so we bought 1 sandwich and shared it.  It was SO good.  It was just street food, but for some reason it just tasted divine.  It was all I could think about our last day in Germany. When we arrived home from Rothenburg Wednesday night Joseph asked what I wanted to eat and I told him another Doner Kebap, but I would settle for a quick pizza place/deli across from the bus station because I was hungry.  We walked in and this store also sold my dream food.  We both ordered one because I wasn't about to share again.  It was so, so good!  It was just roasted meat with lettuce, tomato, cabbage and a dill sauce. I know it doesn't sound like much, but it was amazing.  If I ever go back to Germany I'll eat one of these every single day!

Doner Kebap

And that was our Germany Trip!  Our flights home were uneventful and we were excited to see the kids when we arrived home.  They were excited to see us, too.  Lincoln was a little put out that I left him, but after a few minutes of smiling at him, talking to him and stroking his cheek he forgave me and we are best buds again.  Annika was instantly happy to see us and ever since our return she gets so excited to see Joseph every day.  She really is a Daddy's girl!