Braubuch, Marksburg Castle & Rudsheiam

After a few days bumming around Wiesbaden, Jospeh and I were ready to explore a little more of Germany (especially since we were over the jet lag! Yay!). On the recommendation of one of Josh's friends, we decided to go to Braubach and see the Marksburg castle. It's unique because it was never successfully "captured" so it's all pretty much authentic.  Braubach is easily accessible by train so Joseph and I headed out from Wiesbaden on the 9:33 train, and a hour and half hour later had arrived. (Also we only paid £26 for both of us, roundtrip, which is super cheap here so that was exciting.)

The town of Braubach is adorable, a stereotypical small german town... however the Marksburg castle sits well above the town itself, which is probably the reason the Marksburg castle was never taken over: getting there is pretty intense. Or at least it was for me, Joseph was fine... However the  hike was well worth it, and luckily the only other tourists were also English speaking so we were able to take a tour given in English- it was an hour long, £5, and very interesting.

The tourist center also gave us a map with other places to visit on a little walking tour, so after leaving the castle we were able to do that as well. Some of the places we couldn't find, but some of the places were pretty obvious: like the old town wall from the 1300,s- cant miss that! Or the mansion built for a kings widowed daughter in the 1560's... We finished off the walk with a stop at an adorable local bakery where we got a coffee and two pastries (both amazing!) for £4.

On the way back we stopped in Rudsheiam, which we had also heard was a cool place to visit. We only ended up staying a half hour because everything was closed-I think it is more of a tourist town so it is probably super busy in the summer but dead in the winter. Still I was yet another perfectly stereotypical German town. Seriously I kept joking "it's just like at the international village at Disney World!" ...but it's true they're just so perfect and picturesque.

The Swan Inn has been operating since 1692!

It was REALLY cold!

Marksburg Castle

View from the castle.

View from the castle of the Rhine River

I love tapestries for some reason and this castle had some great ones!

Cute little town of Braubuch

This was built for a widowed Princess in the 1600's, super gorgeous

Joseph with coffee and a delicious pastry!

Rudsheiam:

Wiesbaden, & my first European driving experience

The highlight of the day was that I drove on German highways. Good news: no one was died and no one was hurt. Bad news, it was scary! And I am pretty sure it took years off Joseph's life, since he was brave enough to drive with me (and navigate). Joseph and I drove to Ikea to look for some things -a french press, bread tin, measuring cups, curtains for Josh- but most importantly something to fill the gap between the door and the floor that lets in cold air all night long. I have been stuffing my jeans in the gap, but that makes them really cold the next morning, so I needed another solution.We found a blanket for €2 that I think will do the trick nicely, so the trip was a total success. 

Also I think that we drove by some pretty Germany country side on the way to Ikea, but I was too focused on the road so I didn't see any of it. :(

Josh went to open the front door this morning... and the door handle fell off!!

Definitely the best thing I have eaten in Germany so far!

I have no idea what this building is, but Josh's parking garage is right below it... seriously. 

I love that every other random building is totally gorgeous. 

Naurod, Germany

Since Josh was still feeling sick he offered to have some of his cool friends, Emma and Molly, show us around this afternoon. Molly lives just outside Wiesbaden so Joseph, Emma and I drove the 10 minutes to her cute little rural town to go on a hike. Although Josh claimed it would be a "nice forest stroll" it was really more of a "nice mountain hike." It was super steep but well worth it as the view was amazing at the top and we got there at sunset. Unfortunately, my camera died but I managed to get a few pictures. I am in love with Molly's town which is pretty much exactly what I picture a rural German town to be like. After Josh, Emma, Joseph and I went out to dinner and tried to get McFlurries, but unfortunately the McFlurry machine was down (the inhumanity)! 

All and all it was a great first (whole) day in Germany. And Joseph and I got lots of great tips for some local things to do, so we should have a busy week before we leave for Vienna on Thursday! 

How cute is this German house? It's just so German looking to me. 

Up the hill (mini-mountain?)! 

The cool building at the top, it's also a restaurant (but that was closed) and you can climb up the tower (...but that was closed, too). 

Even more Wiesbaden: it's official, I never want to leave.

This morning after Joseph and Josh rudely woke me up, we went on a walk to get coffee and Josh gave us a little Wiesbaden history. Wiesbaden is a suburb of Frankfurt (Josh called it the "Beverly Hills" of Frankfurt) it's about a 30 minute (and €7.40) train ride from Frankfurt.

Because it had the largest meeting hall in the area it was saved from bombing in World War 2, (since the Allies figured they could use the meeting hall after the war) so it has lots of really old and cool buildings.  All of which I love. All day I kept saying "look something old!" and then would take a picture. Pretty sure that will be me for the next three months! :) I am still at the stage where I can walk around a grocery store and be totally enthralled, everything is so much more awesome looking here.

This is in the main square of Wiesbaden. It was the old rat hall (parliament building) but there is a new one now.

Josh was sick but still took a short walk with us. What a trooper.

Love this, it was outside an elementary school.

All the restaurants have cute outdoor seating areas, which I love. 

I don't speak German but I am pretty sure this is chocolate cream cheese.... yum? I don't know how I feel about it but I am sure my curiosity will insist that I try it at some point. 

How cute is this playground toy!? The smoke behind it is one of the natural hot springs, which is why the Romans loved Wiesbaden... it's cold here. :) 

Wiesbaden

Joseph and I went for dinner and a walk, since Josh is sick in bed (he thinks he ate bad spinach dip at a party last night) and Joseph and I were are exhausted. Which makes sense for Joseph since he only slept for about two hours on the plane, but not for me since I slept for like eight... Here are some pictures of the adorable town that Josh lives in, Wiesbaden:

This is the street that Josh lives on.

and here is my bed in the "front bedroom" / entry way.