Eating our way through Prague, Czech Republic

Posted on October 12, 2015 by Weekenders

If Berlin was for beer, Prague was definitely for the food! We stayed in another Air B&B right near the city center and were able to walk the city to almost everywhere we wanted to go. The city itself is beautiful! Old architecture, Castles, Cathedrals can be seen everywhere we went. After visiting the Old Royal Palace we made our way to a Beer Garden on a hill overlooking the entire city. It was an amazing sunset perch! Another day we decided to indulge ourselves and went to a Beer Spa, where they soaked us in hops and had a tap flowing right to the tub.

Sara did an awesome job of finding great restaurants for us to sample. For one of them, Kastrol, we had to take a bus out of the city then walk close to a mile to get to the restaurant. It was definitely worth the effort for some fantastic local food. The other restaurants we liked were: Lokal, U Tri ruzi, Cestr, and Cafe Savoy. One of the pubs we used to refresh was Peklo at Strahov Monastery.

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Brewery Hopping around Berlin, Germany

Posted on October 11, 2015 by Weekenders

Before getting to Berlin we found a shared apartment Air B&B in the Kungerkiez neighborhood for our home base. As usual we didn’t know much about the city or have any plans for when we got there. We chatted with the host for a bit when we arrived and he gave us some good tips on where to go.

The first day we learned that there was a kite festival at the nearby Tempelhof Central Airport. We took the metro and had a fun afternoon watching all different styles and sizes of kites fly.

We did some of the typical tourist sightseeing, such as the Berlin wall memorial and Topography of Terror which was incredibly eye opening. From my learning I had a very watered down view of all the horrific atrocities that had been committed.

While doing the normal sightseeing we made plenty of time to find good beer and food. Sara’s friend had gotten us on a Doner kick, and that is all we wanted to eat. Berlin has an amazing beer scene, we even stumbled upon a ‘wild’ (sour) beer tasting festival at one of our stops! There are too many breweries to recount, but I can at least list where we drank:

Bierkombinat Kreuzberg
Heidenbeters
Hopfenreich
Hops & Barley
Bierlieb
Eschenbrau
Vagabund Brauerei
Arminiusmarkthalle

We found amazing food at the following:

Valle dei Templi
Mekan Grillhaus (Doner)
Burgermeister
T’unas Gemuse Kebap

It was a fun visit to Berlin, we loved their vibe and the public transportation was quite efficient at getting us where we wanted to go. Next stop: Prague!

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Even More Friends in Southern Germany

Posted on October 10, 2015 by Weekenders

We took the train back north, meeting up with Heidi again. This time she drove us to her hometown of Waldmohr in Germany. In addition to sightseeing we had a big item we needed to take care of… we had to find proper Lederhosen and Dirndl for Oktoberfest.

Heidi took us to Trier for our shopping excursion, along the way we had plenty of time for sightseeing in the beautiful city. We saw the amazing Porta Nigra as well as Kurfurstliches Palais.

Rounding out the quick stops we reconnected with some of Sara’s friends who were stationed in Bitburg. We had a great time telling stories of our travels and talking future plans.

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Strolling through Puidoux, Switzerland

Posted on October 9, 2015 by Weekenders

Another beautiful train ride took us through the heart of Switzerland. We were glad to be in a scenic car with huge windows to enjoy the views! Arriving in Lausanne we were greeted by a friendly face, my cousin Cheryl was there to pick us up and take us to their home overlooking Lac Lamen (Lake Geneva). We were really enjoying staying with all these wonderful hosts across the region.

Little did we know that Jimmy and Cheryl had several adventures already planned for our stay. First up was a walk through the terraced vineyards with beautiful views of the lake. We stopped at Caveau de Riex for wine and aperitif. For dinner that night Jimmy and Cheryl even made fondue for us, we felt right at home!

Our next adventure was a local hike starting at Les Avants working our way up through the picturesque valley of Les Beviaux. We stopped a perch to enjoy lunch and the views before heading back down. To recover after our hike we stopped at Docteur Gab’s brewery to try some more of the local beer.

The last tourist activity they had planned for us was sightseeing through the old city of Lausanne. We meandered our way through the winding streets admiring the old architecture. The Fontaine de la Justice was our home point and we branched off from there. We even made it to the top of the Lausanne Cathedral for spectacular views of the city below. I could get used to having a local show me around on our travels!

It was a wonderful visit to Puidoux and fantastic being able to stay with our cousins for a few days. We wished we could stay longer but we had to keep moving as we had a few more stops planned before Oktoberfest in Munich.