A few weekends ago, we spontaneously rented a car at the Cologne airport and visited a few places that have been on our 'to see' list, but are annoying to access by public transport. Our plans were loose, but we knew that we had the car from 9am to 11pm that day...and the sky was the limit!
First stop: the quaint Monschau, accessible only by bus (and
webcam).
This little town is right on the border with Belgium and it at one point was part of France, so we saw a lot of Dutch and French in town. The best part of this cultural mixture -- poffertjes and waffles!
The winding, narrow streets, the castles on the hills surrounding the valley town, and the pretty stream flowing through town make Monschau the epitome of a small, German village.
We spent about 3 hours wandering around, then hopped in the rental car for the next leg of our trip.
Second stop: Metz, France, only 300km from Cologne but accessible only by a 5 hour, 200 Euro train trip (one way). This is the part of the trip that resulted in traveling in 4 countries! We drove out of Germany and through the tip of Belgium...
 |
| more dragons teeth |
...then through Luxembourg....
 |
| land of cheap gas and oversized nutella |
...and finally stopped at the eastern corner of France.
The cathedral in Metz is really beautiful, a warm sandy color with an incredible amount of stained glass. We loved the main rose window, in particular. It's huge, too, almost as large inside as the Koelner Dom.
We wandered around town, stopping for baguettes on our way to the __castle___. This is one of the original water castles, one of the few left standing.
This was a pretty tiring trip since it was long and involved a lot of driving, but it was so nice to have the freedom of a car again. I think that's one of the biggest things I have missed here--the trains are amazing, but the 'choose your own adventure' aspect of a car is hard to beat!
I've got a few more Ausflüge to post from various points during the year...more coming soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment