Ryan and I arrived home midday on Monday. Our energy was completely depleted after our four hour layover in Munich, but almost as soon as we walked through the door, Ryan had to log into his driver’s ed class, which started at 2 PM Germany time. Somehow, he powered through the exhaustion, and in support of him, I forced myself to stay awake too, partly so I could keep him company and partly to make sure he didn’t fall back asleep. I unpacked and did laundry while he was in class until 4 PM, and then we both took a short nap. When Matt got home from work, we ordered Thai food for dinner, something we had dearly missed while we were in America, and then had an early bedtime.
Tuesday was back to work for me, although luckily it was a short week. Ryan held down the fort at home and finished up his driver’s ed class, while we were slowly getting back into our normal routine.
Friday was my day off, so I decided to cross another item off my to do list and finally visit Ravensburg, the town where the famous Ravensburger puzzles originated and are made. Ravensburg is deep in the Black Forest, almost all the way to Lake Constance, and I didn’t realize quite how long the drive would be. It honestly isn’t that far from our house, but there isn’t a highway or autobahn that takes you directly there. Instead, the route winds through a combination of two lane and local roads, making the drive take more than two hours.
The two main attractions on my list were Ravensburger puzzles and the “Flour Sack Tower.” When I arrived, I discovered that the only attraction in town specifically related to the puzzles was the Ravensburger Museum, which focuses on the history of the company and its games and puzzles. The museum is more oriented to small children so I decided to get a pass. Unfortunately, the Flour Sack Tower was closed on Fridays.
I did get to spend some time walking around the old town, which was absolutely adorable, and then climbed to the top of Veitsburg to get a great viewpoint over the city. Veitsburg is a historic hilltop fortification overlooking Ravensburg, with remnants dating back centuries and a long history as part of the city’s medieval defenses.
Google Maps had also promised that there would be a Biergarten at the top where I could grab some lunch. After making the steep climb and taking in the beautiful views of the surrounding countryside on such a clear day, I was more than ready for lunch.
Of course, as my luck would have it, the Biergarten was closed. I made the trek back down the hill, hungry and slightly disappointed, and headed to my car. Since it was my day off, I treated myself to McDonald’s on the drive home, which honestly felt like a pretty great consolation prize.
I also stopped at the Metzingen outlets to do a little shopping and still made it home early enough for a nap. By Friday evening, we were all exhausted, and Ryan and I were still suffering from jet lag, so we decided to stay home and watch a movie. We had recently made a list of movies we wanted to watch, and we decided to start with The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Saturday was calling for a beautiful day, so Matt and I decided to head to France. A Costco had opened just a few months earlier across the border in Mulhause and its only the second Costco location in France. Several of my friends had already visited and raved about it.
When we arrived, we first got our membership cards. Then, because we were starving, we grabbed hot dogs for breakfast. They were actually really good and still only €1.99, keeping with the Costco tradition.
After breakfast, we started shopping and walked through every aisle of the store. While it was definitely fun to explore, I have to admit that it was a little underwhelming. Most of the prices were higher than what we could get at the commissary on base for groceries or on Amazon back in the US. We did find a few good deals on things like batteries, area rugs, shirts and some specialty French items such as Dijon mustard and macarons. The alcohol prices weren’t particularly impressive compared with Germany, where alcohol is typically much cheaper. However, I can definitely see why this Costco, located within 15 minutes of the Swiss border, would be such an asset for people trying to escape Swiss prices. There were literally hundreds of cars with Swiss license plates in the parking lot when we left.
By then it was lunchtime, so we headed to Turckheim, one of the Alsatian villages along the Alsace Wine Route that we had never visited before.
The town itself is pretty small and sleepy, although there were quite a few tourists there. Unlike many of the other Alsatian villages we have visited, Turckheim doesn’t have a traditional main market square in the center. Instead, it is long and narrow and centered around its main street, the Grand Rue. We walked the entire length of the street and then turned around and came back, stopping at a cute French restaurant for lunch where we sat in the outdoor courtyard.
We ordered tarte flambée and French sausages, along with some of the famous Alsace wine, and finished everything off with a café gourmand.
I apparently still hadn’t purchased enough wine for the day, so we headed to Carrefour afterward, which has a huge wine cave. Of all the supermarkets I’ve visited in France, nothing beats this one. We bought about 30 bottles, spent less than €120, and then headed back across the border toward home.
As we were getting close, our friends texted and invited us over for drinks, so we grabbed a couple of our newly acquired bottles and headed to their house for the evening.
Sunday was lake day. While we were back in America, we found dog life jackets at TJ Maxx and couldn’t resist buying them, which meant we needed to find somewhere to actually use them. Google quickly directed us to Schluchsee, a beautiful lake in the Black Forest where you can rent stand up paddleboards and kayaks. It was supposed to be a hot day, so it seemed like the perfect way to spend the afternoon. The drive was about two hours, and when we arrived in Schluchsee, we immediately thought the town was adorable. We parked the car, realized we were hungry and found a cute café where we grabbed some espresso, tea and a quick lunch before renting our paddleboards. Ryan opted for a kayak, while Matt and I took the paddleboards.
It was so much fun! I don’t think Matt or I had ever actually gone stand up paddleboarding before, but we quickly discovered how relaxing it was to be out on the water on such a beautiful day. The best part, of course, was being able to take the dogs with us.
Slinky absolutely loved swimming in the water and seemed to enjoy riding on the paddleboard too. He had a blast jumping into the lake, swimming over to Ryan’s kayak and then coming back to us. Daisy was not quite as enthusiastic. While she definitely did not like being separated from Slinky, she wanted absolutely nothing to do with the water. As soon as we put her in the kayak or on the paddleboard, she immediately jumped into the lake and started swimming back to shore. It was pretty clear that she preferred observing from out of the water.
Soon, the day was winding down and a storm was rolling in, so we packed up our things and headed back to the car. When we got home, we ordered Thai food and finished out the weekend on the couch. It was a busy first week back in Germany, but with all of our mini adventures, it was a pretty great way to ease back into life after vacation.
Gilcrests Abroad 