Germany Whirl Wind

 HA! An actual post from traveling! WHEEEE!!! Let's do this!

It's been quite some time since Eric and I had taken a trip over to Ramstein, Germany. What's so special about that place? Well, aside from a completely bitchin' BX (think in terms of Costco size), we have several friends over there that we haven't seen in forever! I think the last time we were there and actually had time to visit was in January or February of this year...eesssshhh..

So, Eric and I hit the road early on Saturday morning since we were wanting to check out Trier considering it's on the way. I had picked out some places there I had wanted to check out since it's one of Germany's oldest cities. Since we were going to be in that area, one of Eric's co-workers asked us if we could stop off at a winery shop she was rather fond of and pick up a case of her favorite wine. Sure thing! No problem since Eric was wanting me to see this lil wine shop anyway since they had some German pottery.

On our way to Trier, we stopped off in Bernkastel, Germany.. which is apparently famous for their wineries. Since I'm not a wine person, I wouldn't know about such a place...other than it's really pretty. This was the place we needed to head to in order to pick up the co-workers wine case and our pottery :) We managed to find a parking spot after 30 minutes of stalking spaces.. the area is surrounded by wine fields and it's next to the Moselle River...gorgeous!

The path we had to use from where we parked.. it was right along the side of the river:

We finally found the little shop that had the coveted wine! Very cute little place! The German gal that was working..kinda friendly, kinda not. LOL.. I mean, she tried to speak English to us, but she seemed rather annoyed despite the fact we were dropping some serious money in there.

The outside of the shop:

Inside of the shop:

This set up reminds me of a place in Aachen.. there's a oil & vinegar shop that I'm inlove with and they use these containers to hold all the different types of oils and such. This place was using 'em to hold the different specialty wines that they offer :)

While Eric was poking around and trying to find the specific wine we were sent for, I ventured off to the part of the store that had the pottery :)

I know you're probably thinking," What's so special about German pottery?". Well.. Polish Pottery is made very well, lots of different patterns and can be used in all types of ways. Same thing with German pottery, except theirs is very thick, heavy, and pretty indestructible. I remember my Grandma having several nice pieces when I was growing up.. and they're from when she was younger than me! After flip flopping back and forth, I ended up getting a Garlic Keeper and a Butter Bell.

 See what I mean about their pottery being heavy? The Butter Bell without anything in it weighs a lil over 2lbs :)

Holds a little over 2 sticks of butter! (I only put in 1/2 a stick for the picture)

 Here's something that will really blow your mind as to how this thing is used. Seems odd at first, but it works REALLY well! I had to borrow this video from VAT19.com since it pretty much explained how this thing works...

Here's my spiffy Garlic Keeper! Eric made me laugh cause when the German lady asked us if we knew what it meant (I knew what it said and said it correctly), Eric pronounced "Knoblauch" like "Ka-Know-Blocken"...the lady pretty much looked at him like, "Stupid American." and shook her head, LOL

 From there, we made our way out of the country side and headed on over to Trier. I was amazed to see all the different vineyards that went all up and down the steep hillsides! I mean, GEEZE! I felt sorry for whoever actually had to walk up and down to harvest that stuff in the olden days! I think now a days, they use small tractors that have enough torque to deal with the incline...

 Once we got over to Trier, finding a parking spot turned out to be "Mission Impossible". It was quite frustrating considering we were wanting to check out the "Dome of Trier" which is a gorgeous cathedral. We literally spent 40 minutes trying to find some sort of parking area...all of them were full.. people who parked on the street parked VERY stupid and made it hard for others to fit into other spots. We eventually gave up and tried to make our way over to Porta Nigra (click on the link for some historical information).  Go figure.. we had the same problem there as we did as the Dome of Trier. NO PARKING!!! Very irritating!! Eric and I got to the point where we threw in the towel.. I managed to get some pics as we drove past Porta Nigra (ha).. we'll try to make it back there again, someday... only took a year and a half to make it there this time!!

An obvious last chance shot I attempted, lol. The camera was hanging out the window as I was trying to get a decent pic! 

 From there, we finally made our way over to Ramstein and got checked into our hotel (Hotel Rosenhof). It's in a very convenient area near the actual air force base, and the staff was awesome! Really nice and the rooms were sound proof (as funny as that sounds), because it's located right near the autobahn.

 When we went to check in, we were greeted by "Oscar", the hotel boxer. He was SUCH a big baby! Total cutie pie and the owner of the hotel got a kick out of how much he wanted to play with Eric as I was checking in:

 

 The walkway area to our hotel room:

 Eric modeling our room, lol

 Most European hotels have two mattresses pushed together (if you're opting for a double room), and you get two separate duvets. Their logic with the two duvets.. instead of the couple struggling and playing tug of war with 1 duvet, each person can have their own. Nice, hunh?

 All in all, our trip was a blast. Sorry I don't have any picture of hanging out with our friends..but it's for the best. We ended up partying later that night and got rather drunk off of Mojito's. Tell ya what... Turkish Baklava is the bomb-diggity, especially when you have the drunk hungrys :)