The city is timeless and packed with people. There are bikers everywhere. Everyone bikes and they ride in packs. They will not stop for you so if you’re not sharp, you’ll absolutely be hit by a bike.

At the heart of the city are countless tiny alleys with adorable European shops that sell chocolate, Gouda cheese (it’s their specialty), and their famous pancakes and frites.

The canals are how I picture Venice. The trees and flowers really set a perfect stage and helped you forget the thousands of people swarming around you. The city looked fake it was so stunning.

This chocolate shop was so elegant and the people were so patient with us. I got a few options but my favorite was oddly the passion fruit chocolate. It was recommended and it didn’t disappoint.

Here’s our cruise ship. It’s really smooth but a very jarring sensation when you’re walking while it’s moving. Some of us needed the Dramamine. We spent most the day on the boat as we drove through the scenery of Netherlands.

There are still 19 of the original 20 windmills in Kinderdijk running. Since the town is 2+ meters under sea level (and continues to sink), the livelihood of people in the Netherlands depend on pumping water out of their gardens, streets, and land. People pay rent to live in the windmills and it’s an honor to live there. There are generations of families that live there. There’s a 30 year waitlist to be able to move into a windmill.

Inside the windmill, there are often 4-5 stories and very steep stairs. Most don’t have indoor plumming or bathrooms.

There’s only one way to get to the windmills and it’s by bike path. You can often see residents biking with their grocery and toiletries but they’re often biking in heavy rain conditions

Our tour guide wore wooden shoes and loves them. He says that they are very comfortable and can last farmers 2 years. But if you walk on pavement, they only last 10 weeks. When they’re done, they use their wood shoes as planters. They’re very frugal and reuse everything.

The Cathedral of Cologne was the most beautiful building I’ve ever seen. We had a perfect view of the cathedral the whole day from the river. The black on the limestone is from air pollution which makes the building look very gothic.

The cathedral is famous for having the remains of the three wise men. Story goes, they stole the wise men from a church in barados.

Wyatt and I walked the 563 steps up a narrow spiral staircase to the top of the cathedral. Here is the view at the top.

The inside of the cathedral is ordained in stained glass windows and countless organ pipes. People that are associated with a faith under the government pay a religion tax. Every year, Cologne designates 9 million to restoration. The country of Germany gets billions of dollars in religion tax every year.

This bridge is covered in love locks. People etch their names into padlocks, lock them into the bridge, and throw the keys into the Rhine as a way to symbolize everlasting love.

After walking around old town Cologne, our final stop was at the chocolate museum for something sweet.

We ended the night with the best carrot cake I’ve ever had and watched the sunset on the deck with the cathedral in the background.

Parade of castles! We stayed on the boat for the middle Rhine which showcased 22 castles.

This is the Marksburg castle and we got to tour it. It’s the only castle on the Rhine that wasn’t destroyed at one point.

There are two castles in this picture, the closer one was on an island in the middle of the Rhine.

Stepping inside the Marksburg Castle.

Kitchen at Marksburg

The castle was covered with plants that were there during the Medieval times. Some plants are hardly found in our modern society now but have been preserved by the owners of the castle.

We stopped for gelato at the town square.

Aaron is tapped out.

This was our lunch spot on the food tour. The specialty in Alsace is a very thin, tortilla-like pizza that has sour cream, crème fraische, onions, cheese, and ham. The people of Alsace make fun of you if you fold the pizza in half. The locals roll the pizza like a cigarette.

The dessert pizza is made with apples and brandy, which they light on fire.

This is famous clock that takes up a huge part of the cathedral in Strasborg. It keeps the time, season, and so much more that I forgot.

The most amazing gelato! They shaped it into a rose. Pistachio, tiramisu, and coffee flavored.

We went on a short hike to some waterfalls. It looked like a fairytale.

Here is the mountain town in the Black Forest that we stopped at. Cuckoo clocks are famous here and they’re beautifully made.

I didn’t get as many photos here but this is an example of the town square.

We tried to go into a Protestant church since we mostly only ever tour catholic cathedrals. This was a very expensive museum unfortunately.

We got fondue since that’s a staple of Switzerland. It was incredibly delicious as well as wildly expensive. Whoops.

We had to get gelato one more time because it’s that good.

Group picture with our new friends. We became good friends with our captain, Michael, and our waiter, Solaban. We invited them and their families to visit us in the states.

We’re really sad to leave the ship but we’re on to Eisenach!

On our first morning, we wandered the town and found a cute cafe. Everyone’s pastry was good, but the rhubarb streusel was out of this world.

This is just a parade of cute buildings that we loved. This town is just as beautiful as the other German towns we went to and the food was fantastic. We found out that Eisenach is a tourist town for other Germans around the country which seems like a compliment.

Now below is Wartsburg castle! We consider ourselves locals now because we pronounce it as Vortsburg, how it’s supposed to be. This castle is HUGE! And we didn’t drive, we hiked up the giant hill to arrive.

We earned a brautworst after such a long haul. The mustard in Germany is so much better than in the States.

Here’s the sunset from the Airbnb. We watched the sun go down as we sampled Eisenacher beer and ate German ice cream bars.

A few of us wanted to get a hike in. We saw a hiking option with good reviews and woke up really early to get it in. We couldn’t get there by Uber or bus so we walked two miles just to get to the trailhead. We had low expectations but were completely blown away. The rocks were covered in moss, the logs covered in mushrooms. A small creek paved the way for us to a waterfall.

What made the hike so special was after the waterfall. The photo shows a grated floor because it was creating a walking platform over rushing water. The rocks were incredibly close together which created a type of slot canyon. The rocks were covered in moss and dripping water. It was absolutely unreal to creep through. We enjoyed it so much, we went back and told the others, begging them hike it. So that’s how we spent our last few hours! I walked 11.5 miles before 1 pm since I did it twice, but it was worth it!

We’re in the train, heading to Frankfurt for our last night. We’ll be home soon!