In this episode, Tia, host of The Triptastic Podcast, shares her insights on living in Germany as an American. They discuss a range of destinations she has visited in the area from the vibrant, big cities of Munich, Nuremberg, and Cologne in Germany to much smaller, beautifully decorated 'Beauty and the Beast' villages of Alsace in and near Strasbourg and Colmar in northeastern France. The conversation covers a broad range of topics from river surfing in Munich, to Christmas markets, cultural differences, language barriers, and a range of recommendations for accommodations, food, wine and cultural experiences.
You can find Tia on Instagram @thetriptasticpodcast and The Triptastic Podcast on your favorite podcast app.
Please download, like, subscribe, share a review, and follow us on your favorite podcasts app and connect with us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wherenextpodcast/
View all listening options: https://wherenextpodcast.buzzsprout.com/
Hosts
Carol: https://www.instagram.com/carol.work.life
Kristen: https://www.instagram.com/team_wake/
If you can, please support the show or you can buy us a coffee.
In this episode, Tia, host of The Triptastic Podcast, shares her insights on living in Germany as an American. They discuss a range of destinations she has visited in the area from the vibrant, big cities of Munich, Nuremberg, and Cologne in Germany to much smaller, beautifully decorated 'Beauty and the Beast' villages of Alsace in and near Strasbourg and Colmar in northeastern France. The conversation covers a broad range of topics from river surfing in Munich, to Christmas markets, cultural differences, language barriers, and a range of recommendations for accommodations, food, wine and cultural experiences.
You can find Tia on Instagram @thetriptasticpodcast and The Triptastic Podcast on your favorite podcast app.
Please download, like, subscribe, share a review, and follow us on your favorite podcasts app and connect with us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wherenextpodcast/
View all listening options: https://wherenextpodcast.buzzsprout.com/
Hosts
Carol: https://www.instagram.com/carol.work.life
Kristen: https://www.instagram.com/team_wake/
If you can, please support the show or you can buy us a coffee.
Hi, welcome to our podcast when Next Travel with Kristen and Carol. I am Kristen and I am Carol, and we're two long-term friends with a passion for travel and adventure. Each episode, we interview people around the globe to help us decide where to go next. In this episode, we are meeting with Tia, an American living in Germany and host of the Triptastic Travel Podcast. We wanted to let you know, due to some slight audio quality issues, we had to shorten some of the introductory discussions. So join us as we dive straight into our conversations about seasons, food and hidden gems, and be sure to listen to the end to find out where to surf in Germany. Enjoy.
Speaker 2:Where we are. We're kind of right along. I would say it's very similar to like New England, like Northern New England, more like a New York kind of season. So we have all four seasons and in fact today we just had our first like 70 degree day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you see how high it is? Oh, and it's way higher than I'm. Looking at the latitude. The US is doing the same thing, yeah, so you have some long summers then we do.
Speaker 2:And, uh, it's interesting, in the winter the sun will go down at like four o'clock and doesn't come back up until almost nine, and in the summer, you know, it comes up at six and it doesn't go down till almost 10 some nights. So we have very long days in the summer, which is really great yes, what's the temperatures like there in the summers?
Speaker 1:or?
Speaker 2:and is it really in the summers? I? Don't think it's humid so where we are it does get humid because we're right on the river, right on the rhine, and so we get that humidity off the water but it gets up into, I want to say like 101, 102. Yeah, it's pretty miserable on those days, yeah.
Speaker 1:Is that?
Speaker 2:Austin, July and August. It's pretty hot.
Speaker 1:It's uncomfortable, Okay so that's not the best time to go. It's not.
Speaker 2:Truly, september and October are beautiful times to come to Germany, which, of course, you're coming for Oktoberfest, so that is the best time to come.
Speaker 1:Okay, sounds good. And what about the spring? How's that Is? It just still like snowy and damp.
Speaker 2:I think that the springtime is really, really pretty for going down towards the Alps and going down into the Bavaria area. In fact, I just got back from a conference in Garmisch and it was at the Edelweiss Lodge that looked over out onto the Zuchspitz and it was breathtaking. I mean, it is gorgeous down there.
Speaker 1:What's gorgeous. What is it called again?
Speaker 2:I wanted to look it up, a city called Garmisch, g-a-r-m-i-s-h.
Speaker 1:Oh wow it looks. It's very sound of music. I was going to say the hills are alive. Yes Wow, beautiful Garmisch. Yes Wow, beautiful Garmisch, that's yeah beautiful.
Speaker 2:It's a very popular ski town in the wintertime. In fact, that is where they had the Olympics. At one point we were very lucky to stay at the military resort that is called Edelweiss.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow, yeah, it's right on the end, right at austria and switzerland. Yeah, it's interesting that all the mountains they start after germany, switzerland, lichtenstein, austria, so I guess it's like right on, right at that.
Speaker 2:Yes, right on the border. In fact, to get there from where we are, you have to dip down into austria. Just a short period of time. Lichtenstein, lichtenstein, yep, that's very tiny country. Okay, it is a country.
Speaker 1:I'm like it is not part of Germany or Austria, but it's its own little country and it kind of, when I'm looking at a map yeah, because there's no, it just it looks like it's part of austria. Yeah, it does I don't see the line I don't see that. The eastern edge oh, unless it's like maybe it's just really, really tiny oh, I think it is yeah, if you scroll up a little bit more. Oh, we actually there's scrolling, yeah like in spruck is not lichtenstein.
Speaker 1:lichten Liechtenstein is like almost close to Zurich the word can't fit on it.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Actually the E in Liechtenstein that covers it. It's like a tiny little. It's super tiny.
Speaker 2:Have you been there, Tia? I have actually. I have driven through there. We drove a ferry and we drove through, but we stayed the night there in a little mountainside hotel and then continued on to Nice, France okay.
Speaker 1:Well, now I'm wondering like, what made this its own country? Like? I wonder what the history is. Some king, but that was really rich, just never like let anyone take him over, or something it's just so, so odd.
Speaker 2:There are so many of those tiny countries, and so it's interesting to learn.
Speaker 1:I do not know anything about it yeah it's very interesting because like yeah, switzerland or austria, it seems like one of those would have. It should have been part of of that which? Is like luxembourg too right, that's so small yeah, but that is also a beautiful country yeah so that's just so great. I had no idea, just yeah, we always learn, we love it. Yes, always yeah so what are some of the things that the Germans do day to day? What what's daily life?
Speaker 2:like germans, do not have big refrigerators, they have like a mini fridge and they shop every single day. So they're always shopping for fresh, fresh fruits and vegetables. They don't do the big walmart trip. They don't do a big costco trip. It's super rare for them to, you know, buy more than like two days at a time. The eggs here are not refrigerated okay yeah fresh eggs fresh eggs, exactly um. Even the butter really isn't kept very cold and the milk is also like ultra pasteurized, so it's not kept refrigerated either oh strange, oh wow and when you go to the grocery store you're gonna have five aisles of cheese, five aisles of yeah, sausages slash.
Speaker 2:You know versht. They love sliced meat. My god, I've never seen so much sliced meat and sausages in my life.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, is there a lot of heart attacks or heart issues?
Speaker 2:there. Well, to be honest, no, they are very healthy people because they love to be outside, they love to exercise.
Speaker 1:That's fantastic.
Speaker 2:And then do they have a lot of sauerkraut.
Speaker 1:That balances out, I think, all the sausage.
Speaker 2:They do love. They love their fresh vegetables and they do really great salads and things like that. So that's it.
Speaker 1:That's great. What kind of? You said they're outdoor people and I'm assuming it's the time of year, like when is it really snowy and I'm sure they're skiing a lot, or like what are the outdoor?
Speaker 2:things that they tend to do. Oh, they love to hike my god, they call it vanden, so wandering, and they just love to go on these walks. And they'll be like, oh, would you like to go wandering with us on sunday? And you're like, uh, sure, and they show up with like legit hiking boots and these poles, like these hiking poles and stuff, and a full backpack with like water and food and beer. And you're thinking, oh, I thought we were just going to like walk around the park.
Speaker 2:No no no, you know, five kilometers later, is it just?
Speaker 1:like more flat.
Speaker 2:They like to do the flat ones too. So we have a lot of farmland around us, but we do have some hills and we have a really gorgeous hiking outdoor area called the Nuremberg and it's um at the top of this hill that overlooks the city and we have a gorgeous Russian Orthodox church that has this golden onion domes on the top, but it's solid gold and when the light hits it it's like, ah, but um, up there it's's all woods and at the top of the mountain there you can park and walk through the woods and it kind of goes along the I wouldn't say like the ridge line, because it's not like a huge mountain, but you can go quite a bit of ways on it and it's not too hilly but it's gorgeous you said neuroberg, is that what you called it?
Speaker 2:yes, n-e-r-o-b-u-r-g looking at the photos, it just has the one photo on the top um, and we have a little funicular railway it takes that can take you from the bottom to the top. That is ancient and it's run completely by water power nice.
Speaker 1:Oh, I see that. I like how you called them onion domes, the little gold. I see those as well. And.
Speaker 2:Wiesbaden is known for our thermal baths as well. Oh, yeah. I have not taken advantage of it.
Speaker 1:Where was it that the thermal baths?
Speaker 2:are. That's our town here. Wiesbaden. That's our town here, wiesbaden. Oh, got it. So so Baden is you know we're word for you know, bath bays, uh, we have a lot of public pools here that the Germans also love to swim, and they don't care what time of year it is okay, nice, and then what?
Speaker 1:what about getting around? So it seems like there's a lot to do in the whole country is do you have the high-speed trains? I, I think I've heard that you can travel by train pretty easily, but so the deutschland is the train system here and they have, you know, like regional trains.
Speaker 2:We have the ice trains, which are the high speed, um, and, honestly, if it's going to be more than an hour or two away driving, I prefer to take the train. It's very easy, it's inexpensive and now the trains have wifi. You can reserve your seat. I like to reserve the family cars, because they usually are like it's by yourself and you have, you know, four or five chairs in there and a little table that pulls out, and it's usually quieter. Oh, that sounds awesome. Yeah, and it's. It's just easier. Then you don't have to worry about driving, you don't have to worry about parking.
Speaker 2:Parking can get really hard over here and especially if you have a big old American vehicle, like I do. I have a Subaru Ascent.
Speaker 1:That's a big Colorado car.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a huge car in German standards and so it's sometimes hard to park. But you know you park at the train station, get on, go to your town, where you're going, and then you don't have to worry about.
Speaker 1:Okay, and speaking of that, I think of Germany is very high tech, super modern, and it is has electric cars taken off there.
Speaker 2:So I see a lot of Teslas, for sure, and there is definitely plenty of electric car charging spots around. You know, you have special spots at all of the grocery stores and the parking garages that are reserved, but I think it's about the same as in america okay yeah yeah, see like we have a lot, but I still I would say maybe two to five percent are electric cars.
Speaker 1:Colorado, I mean, I see them, but it's not the main. I mean type exactly driving, okay, cool, thanks for that insight. That seems really um. I was just looking up the spas too, or the thermal bath yeah, I've never seen that yeah, and it does mention that a beast bottom that you're, that's your town.
Speaker 1:Yep, that's that what. That's what popped up. Yeah, sounds like. Uh, that's where, where to go. Um, uh, for that for sure. Yeah, um, did you say what's your favorite thing to do when you're with your? Family or what people do as family.
Speaker 2:It sounds like hiking or they'll go for a long walk or so, or yeah, long walks are the thing to do, and um, now that we're getting into the spring and summertime, germans love flea markets. Oh nice, it's called. It's called flohmarkt, flea market, flohmarkt and oh my gosh the stuff that you can buy at these places.
Speaker 2:Um, I have picked up some gorgeous antiques. Um, because you know, oma died and the younger kids don't want it, so they bring it to these flea markets and they sell it for pretty cheap and the Americans are just like yes, give it to me. Um, it's the best place to buy those beautiful beer shines. Um, that are the ceramic with the metal on top. They can get really expensive. Custom ones can go upwards of a hundred Euro. Where you can get yeah, you can get older ones for, you know, 20 euro and they're beautiful I was also curious cost wise.
Speaker 1:How is it living there? Is it pretty expensive?
Speaker 2:we're very, very lucky because, um, the military provides us with housing here. Now we do pay for it. We get a bah, which is a basic allowance for housing, so that is in addition to his base pay and basically they they just take all of that and that way it pays for our home and our utilities here. Otherwise, you could spend for the house that we're in right now. You could spend about 4,000 Euro a month on it. Whoa, and the Euro. I think the Euro today is like 1.103. It used to be like 0.99 when we first got here, but when we were here before it was 1.35. So it was really bad. Yeah, so it's better. But and then utilities are a big issue here, especially in Europe. But in Germany, because of the conflict in Ukraine over the wintertime, it was difficult to get oil and natural gas, so people were paying a thousand euro a month for their natural gas.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's how you heat your home. Here is oil or natural gas for the most part, wow.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You can't go without for the most part. Also, you usually buy your apartment cold, which means that it's the walls and the socket and some of the fixtures, but it usually won't have a kitchen. Fixtures, but it usually won't have a kitchen. There'll be the hookup and there may be a sink, but it won't have the cabinets or the countertop or any of the appliances.
Speaker 1:Interesting that's from rent or when you're buying, either, oh my goodness, the person takes it with them. Yep, their stove and their refrigerator.
Speaker 2:Because you said it's mini, so they're small. They're pretty small, but yeah, if you're renting a place, you're usually I mean, it's a little less common now but you need to look at the listing to see if it's a cold rent or a warm rent. Oh, interesting, yeah that's crazy.
Speaker 1:I couldn't imagine you walk in and you're like, oh, I have no fridge, or well, actually, when you buy a place, that I guess exactly, but the countertops and cabinets.
Speaker 2:Countertops and cabinets, yeah. Yeah, it's a little crazy and they are big recyclers here, which I'm a fan of. I like it. But they take it to a new extreme. Ok, you have, you have your. You sort your glass into white, green and brown glass. Oh, that is, and you have to take the metal off of, like the wine wine bottles, or if you have like a screw top, you have to take the plastic off or the metal oh, yeah, yeah, yeah and then anything that's plastic goes into the gelbis sack or the yellow bag.
Speaker 2:And when I say anything that's plastic, I mean the wrapping for your ground beef, your, you know, your bread bags, your any sort of plastic packaging.
Speaker 1:Oh, they recycle that actually.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, it's not recyclable, oh interesting, um, and then you have your paper, okay, so your cardboard paper, and then you have your, your, your eco stuff. So basically any food at all, anything that's compost. I mean it doesn't even have to be compostable, it's anything that's food goes in here and we're talking there's a whole list of it. It's like bones, hair, I don't know what hair, but feathers, yeah, and then anything that you eat, and it doesn't matter if it's you know, you think about compost.
Speaker 1:It's only like fruits and vegetables and you can't put dairy and things in there. But no, this is anything. Okay. So then what goes in the landfill?
Speaker 2:is really a very small volume.
Speaker 1:It's a very small amount and do you have a limitation? I've heard some countries that, like you only have, like, I think, this career or something, christine, that you can only have like one bag per month or something. So that's why you really got to do that Is there.
Speaker 2:I mean, you're probably more liberal at the base, but they're a little bit more liberal with us and we do have a recycling center right over here, so you can take other things, because you can't just put big chunks of metal in your other recycling. You have to take it somewhere specific to be recycled, and clothing has to be recycled a different way.
Speaker 1:Fabric to be recycled and clothing has to be recycled a different way. Fabric yeah, we have the hard to recycle center in our town where that's where you bring your styrofoam, any big metals, clothing, apparel and stuff like that. Interesting okay, but that's just normal for everyone. Like, do they measure? Like like do you have, do you have a limit of how much stuff we don't go?
Speaker 2:into the? To be honest, um no, but they will find you oh they will they find that? Yeah, if they go through your trash and find that you're throwing away things you're not supposed to oh, interesting. Yeah, that's pretty hefty, finds uh, you know, I've never, I've never known anyone to be fined.
Speaker 1:So I was just curious if it's like really deterrent or people are like it would probably be about 500 euro oh oh wow that's hefty. Yeah, that would be quite large. Do you have to, like, wash everything before you throw it away too?
Speaker 2:um, you're supposed to rinse it, yeah yeah, yeah I mean you can't. You can't like recycle your glass that has like pasta stuff, still you're supposed to rinse it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean you can't. You can't like recycle your glass that has like pasta stuff, still You're supposed to rinse it out. So if it's glass, I put it through the dishwasher.
Speaker 1:Oh, oh, wow. So yeah, you throw like. Before you throw it away, you throw it through the dishwasher.
Speaker 2:Yes, Because we also do not have garbage disposals. Okay, there are no garbage disposals, so where does food waste go? So food waste has to go into that bio refuse. So you put it in your sink and you have these little strainers and you have to like, dig them out and like it's so gross, I can't stand it. But that's.
Speaker 1:That's a lot of work. It's very interesting how trash I mean when I, yeah, I visited South Korea this summer and when I came back I mean now I'm back, unfortunately, but the way I viewed trash and and but you know, for the most part that's not. We don't. We don't do that here in the.
Speaker 1:U S which a lot of countries do in South Korea that there were no trash. I couldn't find a trash can on the street and then where we stayed I was staying with a girlfriend she had this tiny little trash can and then it was like you had to like rants and then use or that sounds like Germany's, like that too.
Speaker 2:It is, and then reuse or yes, it sounds like Germany's like that too, it is to an extent, and you're going to find trash cans all over the place and even out in public. The trash cans are divided up into. You know the recycling and people get very. You know they watch you oh okay, your fashion. Oh yeah, they watch you. They're like is she gonna put in the right one oh, my goodness, that's interesting.
Speaker 1:So cost-wise it seems like it's. It's like how much would a week of groceries cost and you know, like just kind of getting around or living.
Speaker 2:So gas is expensive because it's by the liter. So it's like one a Euro 83 per liter.
Speaker 2:So that can get real expensive. To fill up my car it was almost 80 euro, oh, wow, okay. Yeah, that really wasn't filling it all the way up because I think I had like a quarter of a tank left. So you're going to spend about 100 euro to fill up a large car and groceries, let's see, I would say that for a family of three, family of four, you're going to spend between two to three hundred euro a week on groceries. But I mean for me that all that's not just groceries, like that would include, you know, household items too. You know what you mean. But the food here is, the food is cheaper, to be honest, because it's so much more fresh. They don't cross, they don't do a whole lot of processed foods, nice, and you know, it's just really good food.
Speaker 1:Oh good, what kind of like fruits and vegetables? I would say probably same as the US. Is there anything unique to that area?
Speaker 2:You're going to find a lot of the same things, but things go in and out of season here, whereas I feel like in the US sometimes you can find strawberries all year round, whereas here it's get harder to find them in the winter and they are so much more expensive.
Speaker 2:You know, it's not like you're going to find them all the time. So when things are in season, they make everything with those. So we're coming up on let's see, we're coming up on strawberry season, yeah, strawberry season, and oh, we have a white asparagus here called spargel s-p-a-r-g-l-e. Yeah, and it is this. Uh, it's asparagus, but they grow it, they cover it up so that it doesn't get any sunlight, so that it doesn't turn green and I think I saw somewhere recently about asparagus.
Speaker 1:I don't know if this was a spoof or something, but asparagus like grows straight up out of the ground. I don't know if it was like bamboo shoots.
Speaker 2:Uh-huh, yeah, you've actually never seen it. Yeah, there's spargel fields everywhere around here and you know, there there's sparkle, because there there are these rows that are like clumped up and then they're covered with a white plastic. They don't want any light to get in and it's really. Oh, they make a soup. It's almost like a potato cream soup, but it's with the sparkle and they love to do it with like a hollandaise sauce.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm telling you it's so good. Yeah, so that's season right now, and then later on we'll have the? Um, the cherries will come in season and the blueberries? Yes, and they love to do um. So the cakes here are different. They're much more light and they're not as sweet. So and they don't do like those heavy, dense chocolate cakes like we're used to.
Speaker 2:It's more of like a fluffier like an angel food or something a little bit uh-huh, um, and then they do like the fresh cherries in it with um, like real whipped cream icing. It's just amazing, yeah, okay I'm getting hungry here.
Speaker 1:I love the whole season thing. I think that's great because I don't know, it just gives you something to get excited for. Like yeah, it's blue barb season, now it's coming up here for us and strawberries. And then we have like the peach season in the fall where we all go crazy for the Colorado peaches.
Speaker 2:We have plums here. I like to do the plums, okay. Later on and do they have a lot?
Speaker 1:of like breads and, uh, pastries. What's the? Do they have bread?
Speaker 2:lots of. They have bread. Bread is a culture here we have. We have brookzeit, which is bread time, and that's when you have like a slice of like this really thick, like pumpernickel almost type bread. Um, I mean, it's just heavy and it's got, it's like a whole wheat, but we're talking like whole wheat with pumpkin seeds and, um, you know, sesame seeds and ground up oats and stuff in it, and then you usually have like a slice of that with some fresh cheese and, of course, like a slice of vush or even just fresh butter and you'll just have a little bit like it's a snack time kind of thing. But the other thing is bread here is a culture and they don't do sliced american bread.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay yeah, it's like those like big fat loaves that you just manage to slice and yeah, so to the, to the bakery area of the of the grocery store, and you pick out your big fresh chunk of bread and then they have a slicer machine right there and you put it in there and it slices it for you. But but their bread, the way that they make it, it's all very different, but it's so delicious, that's awesome okay.
Speaker 1:well, we're coming up on our hour here, kristen, do you have any other questions, or do you always like to talk about hidden gems or something? Well, yeah, no, exactly, definitely. You're asked that in terms of any hidden gems or special things that you know, if you Google, you wouldn't necessarily find that you would recommend, or that you enjoy, or you and your family enjoy.
Speaker 2:So one like fun fact about Germany is that there are more castles in Germany than there are McDonald's in the United States.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:That's a lot and I mean we're not talking like so long like Neuschwanstein castles, like the Disney castle down in, you know, closer to Austria, but we're counting smaller ruins and things like that as well. But it's very true because everywhere you look you're like, oh, look a castle, oh, look a castle. And it's funny because my son, the other day we were taking the train up to Cologne and the train from our town to Cologne goes right along the Rhine river and it's just gorgeous, it's breathtaking, and I was looking out the window I was like, look honey, look another castle. He goes. Yeah, mom, I've seen those before. So my child has become jaded to these beautiful ruins that are just like majestic and gorgeous along the rivers and you can go and tour them. We have closest to us we have Heidelberg, which is a gorgeous castle ruins and they've rebuilt some of it but do they have tours?
Speaker 2:course yes, okay are any of them just?
Speaker 1:kind of like out there where people just kind of around just check it out. I feel like in portugal when someone said that it's just kind of surprising yeah, some of them are.
Speaker 2:You know, they're not really owned by anyone anymore and they're just kind of left to ruin, um, whereas others are still owned by the families that originally built them and they're just kind of left to ruin, whereas others are still owned by the families that originally built them and they're still passed down, passed down, passed down, and a lot of those have become wineries, breweries, special special event places.
Speaker 1:Oh, what about Airbnbs? I hear sometimes you can stay in Airbnb in the castles.
Speaker 2:In fact, I'm going to a lunch, a luncheon, in a couple of weeks at a Schloss, which is another word for a residence like that, a fancy castle residence. So the restaurant, I mean, they're everywhere. Yeah. So that is one of the Thank you, that's one of the you know gems that I would say is like just if you see something that you want see, pull over and go go check it out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you got to mention the Rhine river. I don't think we've even talked about that, cause I know, Carol was mentioning it and I heard it. I don't really know too much about but uh any specific but I know there it looks like there's even a like a place called Rhine river on the Rhine.
Speaker 2:River. So the Rhine River goes from I mean it goes all the way up from Amsterdam, basically, and flows down to Switzerland, kind of. I mean, don't quote me on that, but that's how long it is Most of your major cities are going to go along there, because where do societies land Near the water? Yeah, correct, fresh water. So where we are, we are in the wine area, so the Rhine is known for wine because it provides such wonderful soil and you have water right there, and so we're really in the they call it the Rhine's land, of course, here, okay, and you can do the Viking River Cruises. There's a couple other companies that go up and down the river.
Speaker 1:That's what I was wondering about. Do you think those are? Good or are they cheesy?
Speaker 2:Oh no, not cheesy at all, but they're not a family thing. It is definitely like adults only, and it's maybe not quite as it's not like Carnival Cruises at all. You need to think. It's much more. It's more expensive. They're going to start about $7,000, I think, but you're going to start at Amsterdam and go all the way down the swim. Okay, so you're going to see and you're going to stop in all these places and you can get off and take tours of the nearby cities. So it's really amazing and it's a great way to see a lot of the country.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, yeah, Enlighten me here.
Speaker 2:Okay, that's really interesting.
Speaker 1:Next time we see we get like brochures, because you know we're hitting that age oh yeah, Like. I don't know, but but yeah, well, you can like tour the city and don't have to worry about driving or directions and food where to go, and you can still get off. I don't want to be trafficked if they stop every day.
Speaker 2:They stop in, they stop a lot in. I believe Mannheim is one of the places I want to say they stop and they will bring people over into France, because right along that Rhine area too is the Alsace region of France, which is my new favorite area of Europe to visit and I see it, so that's oh what's your favorite?
Speaker 1:again, I was looking up the Rhine river to see it's. It's pretty big, it's really big. Is it like by?
Speaker 2:Strasbourg, is that in France? Strasbourg, uh-huh, strasbourg, france, which um has gone back and forth between being French and being german, of course with help of wars, and it is now france. But it's right again, it's also along, is it? On the rhein river? You can't quite tell there is water right there there is a river.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is the right river, right in strasbourg okay, so they pull into strasbourg and then they have people who get off and all through the Alsace region there is also a huge wine area and you can do the route which is the road of wines, the route of wines, and that is also a huge, long area of these tiny villages that are all different wineries, yeah, and so that's, that could be a whole, nother episode but, my, my new favorite area and my new favorite city there is Colmar C-O-L-M-A-R.
Speaker 1:Okay, so look it up here and what's that? What's in there?
Speaker 2:So Colmar is a beautiful little town and they have a Petit Veni which is Petit Venice, Little Venice, and I'm looking at something and it says strasbourg river cruise, and I'm curious.
Speaker 1:It looks like venice, but switzerland style, like the house. Yes, oh, my goodness. Yeah, I'm looking wow, this is beautiful. I'm trying to figure out where. Where is that? Is that it?
Speaker 2:it's a lot of canals. I see lots of canals, uh-huh and uh. So Strasbourg is the bigger city, some people fly into there or they train into there, but Colmar is the smaller one and my favorite see this a little bit like Charlie, you said see, like Charlie c-o-l-m-a-r yeah, the building looks the same.
Speaker 1:It looks just like what I was looking at.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I just took my friend. He flew in from New York city for a week to see me and I took him over there for a night and we had just the best time.
Speaker 1:We stayed right there.
Speaker 2:No, I don't. I mean, I don't think so, especially not like yeah, not like Paris or something, just you know. I mean, oh yeah not like Paris, or something.
Speaker 1:Just you know, I mean oh no, not like Paris.
Speaker 2:Okay, it looks really nice, oh, my goodness. Oh, the food is so good, the wine is so good. And then we did a tour of a winery and they showed us how they make their sparkling wine, which is called Cremant C-R-E-M-A-N-T, and it's champagne, but from Alsace.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, I keep it. Keep when I look uh Colmar. Germany. It keeps saying Colmar France, but I think it's France it is. It's not Germany got it.
Speaker 2:Okay, it's on some so you go to France.
Speaker 1:Colmar in France. Yeah, to go and see. And there's this one picture and it has just all these very beautiful colorful buildings, or like oh, yeah, and every one is a different color. Yeah, yeah, and for our guests? I'm looking, I see many hotels in um colmar. They're all over the place. I see one thirty dollars that must be a hostel 84, 74, 119. Then I see like 200. So whatever you want, it's like there's a something, yeah, so we?
Speaker 2:stayed at La Columbia, which is right there in Little Venice, and they've recently done a big renovation and their rooms were just wonderful. They're very small but they're so clean and modern and their breakfast was great that was was included. Parking was easy, so I highly recommend that place. Omar, you could walk the entire city, so you drove. Is there a train that goes there? So there is a train, but I drove because it was like two and a half hours and I knew we were going to want to stop at all of the little wineries and cities, and we came home with nine cities, right, and we came home with mine.
Speaker 1:oh my gosh, it popped up christmas there, holy cow, oh yeah, oh my gosh, it literally looks like a beautiful christmassy lights everywhere village.
Speaker 2:That just looks amazing, it's some of these are kind of nicknamed the beauty and the beast villages. Amazing it's. Some of these are kind of nicknamed the beauty and the beast villages. They very much.
Speaker 2:They have that it looks like the opening scene of Beauty and the Beast is these towns and this is what they were based on. And I took my parents to a little town called Rikvia, w-i-q-u-w my German's coming out W-I-H-R. And that is the beauty in the Bees Town, and at Christmas time they decorate the street and all the houses from top to bottom. And when I say top to bottom, I mean there is not a surface of these homes that is not decorated.
Speaker 1:This is crazy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, isn't it definitely like?
Speaker 1:a bucket list destination oh my gosh. Yes, that's gorgeous uh-huh, yeah, I'm looking on a map. Where is that place because that's sad american. Here is like oh, it's like epcot center. No, that's what I'm.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like disneyland and so if you go uh, if you want to go for christmas time, you need to book. If you want to stay in the old city there, you need to book ahead of time. But you don't have to stay the night in that town. Um, you could stay in pomar or strasbourg, which is a little bit less expensive because they're bigger cities, and just um, rent a car and go over there. But what we what's? This town called. I thought this was Colmar yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, gotcha, you know what you're talking about. Yeah, okay, yeah, it literally yeah, very much Disneyland, yet Not.
Speaker 2:It's the and these little towns are also part part of a French tradition called oh God Okay, la plus belle village, part of a French tradition called oh God okay, la Plus Belle Village. So the most beautiful villages.
Speaker 1:Okay, and these are also in France. It looks like it's all France. Okay, got it, okay. Wow, that's really very yeah. What a, what a treat. Who knew we'd sneak in France with the?
Speaker 2:Well, so we're only, we're only two hours two and a half hours. So it's very common to like pop over the border and some people will even be like, oh, I need to go back, I need to go shopping today in France because I've got to go get some specific cheeses and wines and stuff and you could just pop over and get what you want and come back over. Oh yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1:We had a lady we interviewed in cheeses and wines and stuff and you could just pop over and get what you want and come back over. Oh yeah, that's right. We had a lady we've interviewed in Basel and Switzerland and she was like, right too, she goes. Oh yeah, we go to Germany and France all the time for different food items.
Speaker 1:All right, okay, so I'm going to go to the rapid fire questions now. I don't know if you've thought those, but okay. So we talked to quite a bit about food and holiday traditions that Christmas, so I'll just go to what's what? What's a popular breakfast? What did you have?
Speaker 2:for breakfast today, or normally have. So the Germans do like a cold breakfast and it's usually bread not toasted with meat and cheese, and sometimes like yogurt fruit. Not my favorite kind of breakfast. We have regular old american food uh, cereal, waffles, toast nice, okay, got it.
Speaker 1:And then what about the music? Is there something that's kind of traditional, like what?
Speaker 2:I think we're fast with the accordion so the the umpapa bands are very traditional um, but that is really Bavaria, that's not like a northern Germany thing. But they listen to American music here. They love rock and roll, and so as far as traditional, you know, they have the classical music as well, but there's not the Oompa Pa bands. I mean, you're going to hear that all over Germany too.
Speaker 1:Nice, I love that you call it that, or is it actually called that? Cause I'm just, I mean, that's what people call them. I love it.
Speaker 2:All right, and then can you get away with just speaking English most of the time, do you think Absolutely, especially in Frankfurt? In the bigger cities, you can absolutely get away with speaking English. Everywhere I've traveled throughout Europe I could have spoken English, but I think that it's just polite to try and learn the language of wherever you're going. So every country we go to, I try to learn how to say hello, thank you, goodbye. I really do try, when we go out on town, to speak German as best I can.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Good opportunity.
Speaker 1:It's hard to practice when you come back to the U S right Nice, okay, and the money is the Euro We've talked about that and we say what's the closest place to serve Um? We know you're landlocked um, but not completely at the top.
Speaker 2:I think they're not landlocked but we do, I would say so, in Munich. Actually, you can go to Munich and there is a public park that has a famous little water feature uh-huh that would be the closest place to surf oh, my goodness, I heard what it's like.
Speaker 1:Is it? Do they force it to do that or is it natural that there's like this wave?
Speaker 2:okay, yeah yeah, I mean it's this river yeah, it's um, but yeah you'll. You can go to munich and in the summertime they'll go down and be like are those people surfing?
Speaker 1:yes, they're surfing oh my god, you could also go up you could probably go down to Central Bay.
Speaker 2:I don't know, are there waves there, though, but that would be another close area, or Barcelona.
Speaker 1:This is funny. I just Googled that river surfing in Munich, Germany, and it's got lots of pictures. It looks amazing. And then there's yeah, I love that.
Speaker 2:There's this guy and two girls wearing the traditional I don't know if that what they're called traditional german uh, the later hosen and the dirndl yep, they're wearing that and surfing nice, oh, that's uh. Yeah, of course, oh that's great love that.
Speaker 1:I was also curious um on the surf side and then also like a favorite mountain or ski place. Do they have a highlighted mountain or ski place?
Speaker 2:So I mean people are going to, they're going to go down to the Alps to ski, so they're going to go down toward like where I was, where Garmisch is, or they're going to pop down south to along the Swiss border or the Black Forest.
Speaker 1:Sounds like a good place for cake. Yeah, and that's where they would ski to.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, there's going to be skiing Anywhere there's a mountain with snow, they're going to ski, they're skiing.
Speaker 1:Sounds good, perfect, oh, this has been so much fun. Thank you so much. Another fun fact.
Speaker 2:Yes, another fun fact German chocolate cake is not German. Oh, you guys know that it was created by a man whose last name was German. That worked for, I believe, nestle. Black and white coconut is German, but German chocolate cake is not.
Speaker 1:Okay, that is a fun fact, love it. That is I love it Okay, and where can people find you and your podcast? They want to learn more about Triptastic.
Speaker 2:Yes, I would love, if you guys want to pop over to Instagram. I'm at the Triptastic podcast. I'm also on TikTok and, of course, Spotify. You know Apple podcast, wherever it's the Triptastic podcast, and you know see what I'm doing, see where. I've been.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we'll put in the show notes as well. The links to those can find you Great Well, thanks so much to you.
Speaker 2:Um, thank you for staying up late for us.
Speaker 1:And I know it's the end of probably a long week for you.
Speaker 2:So the beginning of a fun weekend. It's Cinco de Mayo, so we're probably going to get the fire pit out and maybe have some margaritas out back.
Speaker 1:Oh no, sounds fun, that's great that you guys just have some margaritas out back. Oh, sounds fun. That's great that you guys just Germany, cause you're American.
Speaker 2:That celebrates the army. We do what we want here on the base. Yeah, have fun. Oh, that's great, wonderful. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:Thank you so great to meet you, good talking with you. Take care, bye, bye, bye. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed the podcast, can you please take a second and do a quick follow of the show and rate us in your podcast app, and, if you have a minute, we would really appreciate a review. Following and rating is the best way to support us. If you're on Instagram, let's connect. We're at where next Podcast. Thanks again.