This past holiday season was spent in Germany with my fiancé and his family. It was the first time I spent Christmas time away from my own family. But we kept in touch regularly via FaceTime so they didn’t seem so far away.
I took way too many photos for a blog post, so here is a gallery of some highlights in Germany, the places we visited, food we ate, and our day to day activities during the 3.5 weeks we were there!
Los Angeles to Frankfurt!
Enjoying Business Class alcohol.
My first Christmas Market and Glühwein in Frankfurt!
Our morning view in Linsengericht.
First latte and brotchen in Germany
Out and about in Marius’s hometown.
My first real Radler beer. So different from the Trader Joe’s one!
Exploring Hofgut Oberfeld.
I loved all the bakeries!
And cheese… It was hard to stay vegan.
And some of the best desserts!
Hanging out in Darmstadt.
… and measuring my eyes for glasses.
More Glühwein back at the Frankfurt Christmas Market.
This was how we ate almost everyday, organic cheese, bread and veggies.
Shopping at IKEA, I’ve never had beer at an American IKEA.
Christmas Market in Ingelheim am Rhein.
Honey wine is so good! I brought one of these back home.
Awesome grocery store, Paradieschen. Germany has the best cheese I’ve had in my life!
Out and about in Büdingen, one of my favorite places I visited.
I loved how old everything was!
And the cute architecture.
Explored my first castle!
Germans were really small back then.
And this was how they checked weather.
Christmas Eve with the whole family and Luna, the carrot eating dog.
Probably one of the cutest dogs I’ve seen! But she didn’t like me.
Finally got my glasses!
My first Christmas in Germany!
I just loved how colorful our food was, and I never got tired of eating like this almost everyday.
German liquers!
Night out in Frankfurt.
Best Italian food I’ve had was in Germany. Lol!
Sunset in Gelnhausen.
Forest in Gelnhausen.
Me and tree.
Can’t remember the name but this cheese was marinated in onion and garlic…
…and it was not pleasant to eat.
I don’t eat eggs but I gave it a try with this traditional Frankfurt dish of bratkartoffeln and grüne sosse.
Strasbourg, France for a day!
So pretty!
I felt like I was in Beauty in the Beast.
Tarte flambée.
Outside of Strasbourg Cathedral.
It was tough getting the whole cathedral in a photo.
Baked brie with roast vegetables.
View of Weinheim from inside an old castle.
Snowday in Schmitten.
Attack!
Coldest day ever!
Shopping for New Year’s Eve fireworks.
I found ramen in Germany. Check out my other blog, ramenrun.com.
Out and about in Gelnhausen.
One of the many cathedrals we visited.
#forinstagram Lol
Gelnhausen.
Making ground mushroom tacos for NYE dinner.
Raclette for dinner!
Cheeeeeese.
Viel Glück!
Toast to 2018!
Luna! And the family on New Year’s Day.
Heidelberg Castle.
This was one big barrel of wine.
Market outside of Heidelberg.
Delicious vegan food at Radischien restaurant.
Rhine cruise!
If you like castles like I do, you’ll see tons of them along the Rhine.
I highly recommend doing this cruise!
Eibingen Abbey
Statue of St. Hildegard.
Bakery at a farm in Wiesbaden.
Last dinner in Germany…
Or so we thought. We couldn’t get on a plane so we spent a few more days. Awesome Italian food btw.
Flood in Riedstadt.
Booking a flight back home.
Frankenstein Castle has nothing to do with the Frankenstein you’re thinking of.
Last dinner in Germany.
Headed home!
First meal back in LA, ramen.
The food and sight-seeing were all amazing, and spending time with Marius’s family was wonderful. It’s always interesting to see how life is in a different country. When you’re in a small village, life seemed slow and simple, but then you get on the freeway (or autobahn) and people are nuts! I was allowed to drive once I got my glasses and driving 120 mph scared the crap out of me.
I really loved how available organic food and vegan options were, and how much more affordable cheese is! And the bread was amazing… I wish I could find good German bread in LA. We went out to eat but we did a lot of home cooking. Marius’s mom made some amazing vegan food that I would like to re-create at home. I brought over some of my recipes as well (mushroom and soyrizo tacos, quinoa bowls.) It was really cool buying groceries at farms and all the organic stores, but tortillas were hard to find. German beer was all delicious, and we were stocked up of organic beers where we stayed. Let’s just say that the food was probably one of my favorite parts of this trip!
I loved my time in Germany. Despite how long we were there, we were surprised at how quickly time flew by and didn’t get to see everything we planned on. But that’s okay, we’ll be back!
Joan Quinto 