Wine, Walking & Sightseeing in Paris, Germany, Austria & Amsterdam

4 countries, 13 cities in 16 days

I want to start this blog by thanking my husband Mike for his months of planning this outstanding European vacation. We saw the sights, tasted the best Bavarian beer ever, and drank some of the most outstanding wines in France, Germany, Austria & Amsterdam. I talked to wine experts in Paris and in Rudesheim where I enjoyed tasting some of the best Riesling wines the Rhine valley produces. We visited over 13 cities in 16 days. The idea of visiting so many places in such a short time where I didn’t know the languages frightened me a little. Now that the trip is over I can let you know that most of the people we encountered spoke some English and we didn’t have any problems communicating.

My head is still spinning from all the amazing places we visited, so to keep myself straight on all these experiences I’ve created a snapshot of our journey including; a brief description of where we went each day, pictures, travel tips, and a link to a PDF of our itinerary.

We knew this trip to Europe would be a whirlwind because of the chocked full itinerary. We planned it this way to take advantage of every experience possible while in Europe for one airfare. Both Mike and I are very budget and health conscious so this made sence for us.  Prior to this trip we both wanted to get in better shape, loose around 20 pounds, and this trip was a catalyst for us. We worked out at our nearby health club, walked a lot to get in shape, and went on a high protein diet with lots of vegetables and no sugar or flour diet.

We went off our diet in Europe, the food over there is amazing. I admit it, I’m a carb addict and I can’t resist fresh homemade bread, pastries or macaroons when placed in front of me. We both dreaded coming home and stepping on the scale, I gained two pounds and Mike actually lost five pounds (darn him). In Germany all the hotels came with a full breakfast of fruit, eggs, meats and cheeses, bread and some hotels additionally offered slaws and veggie salads. We usually took a couple of apples and had them for lunch while we were sightseeing. This helped with our diet and budget.

I tried to keep each days summary short with only highlights for you to consider if you visit these places.  Blogs like these can be like photos of other people’s kids, a couple of photos are ok but then you’ve seen enough. 🙂

4 countries, 13 cities in 16 days:

France: Paris, Versailles
Germany: Cologne, Schwangau, Rothenburg, Rudesheim, Koblenz, St. Gore, Fussion
Austria: Melk, Vienna, Salzburg
Netherlands: Amsterdam

Here is a link to a Google photo slide show of our vacation

Daily Snapshots

Travel Day to Paris

We took two evening flights from the US and arrived in Paris the next morning. We had a full day planned for our first day in Paris so I wanted to be as rested as possible. To help avoid jet lag I wore comfy clothes, a sleep mask and took melatonin. These things worked and I was able to get a little sleep. We stored our luggage at the hotel and then went sightseeing on foot.

Day 1 – Paris France
Our trip started in Paris where we took the Rick Steves Historic City Walk audio tour which included visits to Notre Dame (look for the Point Zero marker in front, indicating the center of Paris), St. Chapell with the beautiful stained glass, the Conciergerie where prisioners were tortured at one point and the Latin Quarter.  After going back to the hotel for check-in and a brief nap, we walked the Champs-Elysees and then up the steps of the Arc de Triomphe. This is a view of Paris that is well worth the climb. We finished the evening by stopping at a little cafe on the way back to the hotel at around 9pm.  We were surprised how late it stayed light there. 

Day 2 – Paris
Day 2 started with a tour of the Louvre Museum and another Rick Steves audio tour.  Having the Paris Museum pass allowed us to walk right in, no lines. After the Louvre we headed to the L’Orangerie, which had been closed the previous day before we could enter.  The Monet’s there are great, but I actually like the paintings down stairs better.  The plan for lunch was a picnic in front of the Eiffel Tower. We then headed to Rue Cler, a quintessential market street, where there are awesome shops selling bread, wine, meats, cheeses, desserts and other delicious foods. Our Eiffel Tower picnic included some of each with flan for dessert and a Spanish wine to wash it all down.

This was one of the best experiences of the trip. Luckily the rain held off until after lunch and while it made things damp, it didn’t stop us.  On the walk back we stopped by the Army Museum and Napoleons Tomb, both great places to visit. Napoleons Tomb was really beautiful!  The next stop was the Rodin Museum where we saw the Thinker among many other statues.  The last stop before heading back to the hotel for a break was the Orsay.  After waiting maybe 5 minutes in line, we did another Rick Steves Audio tour.  We were kind of tired at this point so we may not have done the museum justice.

Day 3 – Paris
We boarded a RER train headed to Versailles.  We arrived around 9am and waited in the security line for about an hour.  This was easily the longest wait for any sight in Paris.  Once in, we listened to yet another Rick Steves audio tour while we wandered through this enormous palace filled with grandeur, gold, art, and tons of people. That evening we followed Rick’s audio Marais walk which included the Picasso Museum and us walking through historic streets. The meal Mike wanted to try most was Beouf Bourgogne so he researched for the perfect place and found it, Au Bourguignon Du Mariais, 52 rue François-Miron, 3e, Paris. This was one of the best meals on this trip.

Day 4 – Paris
We took a short subway ride to Anvers to do Rick’s two-hour audio Montmartre walk which included Pigalley, the red light district, Le Moulin Rouge, and the Sacre-Coaur Basilica, a beautiful structure that overlooked Paris.  Hide your money on the way up because there are lots of pick pockets and guys trying to sell souvenirs.  The last of the Rick Steves audio tours, the Left Bank Walk, took up the second half of the day.  Our last dinner in Paris was a simple affair with a bottle of wine and an assortment of meats and cheeses, a great ending!

Day 5 – Cologne Germany
Day 5 brought our exit from Paris and the first train trip, outside of the local Paris trains.  Our train left Paris heading to Brussels, where we had 8 minutes to transfer to the next train headed for Cologne.  We were kind of worried about this short window for the transfer, but it turns out we had plenty of time. Arrival in Cologne brought about one of my favorite sites of the entire trip, the massive Catholic Cathedral, which is right next to the train station.

Prior to this, Notre Dame had been our favorite Cathedral.  We had about 5 hours to walk around Cologne, which included touring the Cathedral, seeing the beautiful buildings, charming cafes, and our first walk along the Rhine.  Lunch was weiner schnitzel, for Mike, curried vegatables for me and the only beer we ordered by name, Klosch.  This beer is unique to this part of Germany, light and refreshing, but we quickly found out that there are no bad beers in Germany.  Then it was back to the train station to board the night train, where we had our own sleeper car for the trip to Vienna Austria.  The plan was to sleep our way through the journey so we could wake up refreshed for our first day in Austria.  When we initially got to our birth, we were concerned that someone else would be in with us since there were 3 bunk beds, but this was not the case, the room was all ours.  We also had our own bathroom, including shower, to small bottles of wine and a few other items.

Day 6 – Melk & Vienna Austria

It took a while to fall asleep on the train, with all the rocking back and forth, but we eventually did. After a shower and breakfast the next morning, which was included, we were ready for Austria.  We hit the ground running in Vienna, by taking the metro from our arrival train station to another train station, then hopping two connecting trains to get to Melk (I couldn’t have done all this train hopping without Mike).  Here we toured the Melk Abbey that overlooked the Danube River. I felt this was one of the most beautiful churches we visited.  After the train ride back and another quick subway ride we got to the apartment we rented by 2pm.  We had to wait about an hour for the owner to show up with the keys, but it was a nice quaint apartment overlooking a courtyard.  After getting settled, we went for a walk around Vienna.  That evenings dinner and entertainment had been pre-arranged, it was a 3 course meal followed by a Mozart concert. The meal was very good and gets my vote as the ‘prettiest’ meal of the trip.

On the walk back to the apartment we explored a little bit and found this great wine store.  We went inside to find a huge selection of high quality wines, some with prices ranging into the thousands of euro’s.  The clerk told us this was the largest wine store in Austria, but alas it was late and we were tired so back to the apartment we went.  I would have liked to had more time to visit this store.

Day 7 – Vienna Austria
The day started with another subway ride to the Schonbrunn Palace and an audio guided tour. Afterwards we returned to the city center and an audio tour to the Hofburg Palace.  Up next was a Rick Steves walking tour of Vienna, which included St. Stephens Cathedral.  Our evening finished with the best meal of the trip, at a Heuriger (wine garden) on the outskirts of the city.  Historically a Heuriger was where a vintner would serve his ‘new’ wine for the season along with food to patrons sitting outside in a garden setting.  We went to Schubel Auer Heuriger, on Kahlenberger Strasse 18.  I felt this was as close to getting a home cooked Viennese meal as we could get without going to someones home.  The food was served buffet style allowing us to choose portions of several dishes, none of which disappointed.   We topped the evening off with a stop for gelato and indulged in this scrupulous dessert.  The next day would start early with a 4 hour train ride to Munich.

Day 8 – Munich
The rain arrived in Munich with us.  As it turns out, we would have 4 days in Bavaria and it rained to some degree each day until we left, with the first being the worst.  The 3 block walk from the train station to our hotel was wet.  The hotel was located in a risqué neighborhood where the shops around us offered xxx rated movies, naughty clothing, scary looking electrical devices, lap dances and little movie booths that I’m sure would glow wildly if you put a black light in them. Also in this same neighborhood were wine shops, restaurants and cute boutiques. Not sure if I should have, but I felt safe in this area.  The hotel was nice and clean, looking like it had just been refurbished, and served the best breakfast of the trip. Our location was great, it was walking distance to everything. We started another Rick Steves audio city walking tour, which included watching the Glockenspiel and learning the city history.  The plan for lunch had been to find a beer garden in the Viktulian market, a large open market, but it turned out to be too wet so we ate at a restaurant there.

After lunch and drying out, we tried to continue our walking tour, but we gave up and went back to hotel once we had reached check-in time.  After a break, dinner was at the Hofbrauhous where we enjoyed the huge beers and pretzels, and the oompah band.  This was the only other place where I selected a beer from the menu, most other times, as I did at lunch, I just looked around the room for what looked good and ordered that.  The beer in Germany is soooo much better than the beer in the US, by law they can only have three ingredients in their beer; water, barley and hops and it makes a difference.

Day 9 – Munich

The steady rain of the previous day had given way to light scattered showers for our second day in Munich. We resumed the Rick Steves audio tour of the city, stopping for a tour at the Residenz museum, the ruling families palace.

As in each stop of the trip we also searched for souvenirs and by this point had figured out that we needed another bag to bring it all back home. We extended the Rick Steves walk by continuing on to the English Garden, Munich’s largest public park.  Our original plans had called for bike ride through this park but the rain cancelled those plans.  One of the things we had read in preparing for this part of the trip was that where the Eisbach river enters the park, it created a permanent wave that guys would surf.  I didn’t think I would see this based on the weather, but there they were, two guys taking turns riding the wave!  Dinner that night would be a trip back to the Viktualian market where we bought a picnic dinner for that evening featuring fresh cheeses, meats, olives, soup and of course wine.  A nice fruity red wine for less than 3 euro.  Probably would not have scored high in wine rating, but it hit the spot and I loved it.  We later found out the Europeans (or at least Germans) on average spend about 3 euros per bottle of wine.

Day 10 – Salzburg, Austria
In Munich we rented a car for our drive through Bavaria and up to the Rhine Valley. Driving on the highways was easy; good roads and well marked. Driving in the cities is tough, especially since so many are pedestrian only zones.  The other problem was we had no GPS.  We had tried to rent one with the car but they were out.  We tried another location but again no luck, so we would use our phones when WIFI was available to get the map then even when disconnected from the internet it would help keep track of where we were going.  I would definitely recommend getting a GPS device.  Our first stop was Salzburg where we enjoyed another Rick Steves audio tour that started in Mozartplatz. The church still has the same baptismal font used to baptise Mozart. We opted to walk to the top of the hill to tour the Salzburg Fortress, instead of taking the tram to try to burn off some of the calories from all of the wonderful food we had been eating. It was an interesting tour with great views of the city below. Our schedule had us going to Eagles Nest in Berchtesgadin but the weather was rainy and cloudy so we wouldn’t have seen anything so we didn’t go. Instead we drove to Schwangau and checked into our beautiful hotel which reassembled a Swiss chalet. It was a gorgeous place with heavy wooden doors and ceiling, and a private balcony overflowing with flower boxes full of multicolored blooms. We enjoyed a relaxful evening and dinner in the hotels restaurant.

Day 11 – Schwangau
After a huge breakfast (which was included in all our hotels except Paris and Amsterdam) we toured two castles which Mike had previously book. We started with Hohenschwangau, a beautiful old castle nestled in the Alps. This is where ‘Mad’ King Ludwig grew up and where he planned his castle just up the ridge, Neuschwanstein. Next we toured Castle Neuschwanstein which was the inspiration for Disney’s Cinderella castle in Disneyland. It was just as beautiful and the views overlooking the snow-capped Alps and lake were the best of the trip. A wonderful way to spend my birthday.  The original plan called for us to go to the Zugspitza (Germanies highest mountain) after the castle, but again the weather prevented this. It was just too foggy.  But we did make the trip to the WeisKirche.  This is a rococco style church in the middle of nowhere.  There is literally nothing there except the church and a couple of souvenir stands.  From the outside the church looks large but not overly impressive, the inside however is awesome!  Absolutely beautiful.  This was Mike’s choice for the most impressive church interior of the whole trip.

Day 12 – Rothenburg
The walled city! I felt like I was back in mid-evil times in this enclosed town with cobblestone streets, horses, taverns, quaint shops and an awesome Night Watchman. He gave a guided tour that was entertaining, factual and it really made this a wonderful experience. This closed off town where driving is prohibited except for a few hours a day also is home to St. Jacobs church where a huge hand carved wooden Altar holds a drop of the holy blood (take the stairs in the back of the church). Our hotel was located with in the walled city and had one old feature we wished they had replaced, the doors were really short and Mike had to duck every time we went into the room!

Day 13 – Rudesheim
Next on the itinerary was the Rhine Valley.  We drove down the Rhine Valley using the Rick Steves audio guide to explain each of the castles or ruins as we passed.   We stopped at St. Goar and visited the ruins of the Castle Rheinfel, a large castle with a commanding view of the Rhine and tunnels under the walls for exploration.  Afterwards we toured the town before heading back down the valley heading for Rudesheim.  Here we visited a wonderful little wine shop called George Breuer and had an exquisite wine tasting featuring Riesling wine. The wine expert Robin Riedel was outstanding. He explained so much about Riesling wines and how the soil and climate determine the taste. The one point he wanted me to get across to folks was that not all Reislings are sweet.  The Georg Breuer wines are dry and packed full of flavor. A lot of them are aged in 60 year old oak barrels. If you ever get a chance to taste these amazing wines please do, you will be glad you did.  We tasted about 7 wines and it seemed that the main difference between them was the size of the planting or how many grapes were harvested from the site and how high on the valley wall the grapes were planted.  The higher the planting, leads to fewer grapes harvested per acre and more complexity in the wine and as you could probably guess, the more expensive the wine.  The last wine we tasted was a thick necture that resembled an Ice Wine.

Day 14 – Amsterdam
We dropped off our rental car in Koblenz and caught a train to Amsterdam.  Four hours later we checked into our hotel at the Barbizon Palace then took the Rick Steves Jordaan walk.  We started in the main square where he pointed out places of interest, and then proceeded to the out lying canals, leaving the huge crowds behind.  The walk included discussions about the different gable architecture style, the canals, the bike culture and took us by the Ann Frank house.  We had to be really careful of all the bikes and trams in the streets. This city has more people riding bikes then cars and they don’t like pedestrians getting in their way.

Day 15 – Amsterdam

Mike had a wonderful last day planned in Amsterdam. We started with the Rick Steves City walk which took us from the train station down through the old town section of the city.  We walked through shopping zones, the flower market and many other interesting sites.  Next was a tour of the city by Canal Boat. The tour included an audio guide as well as the boat operator explaining and pointing out attractions of interest.  Afterwards, we toured the Rijkesmuseum, where we saw some amazing Rembrandt paintings and other great Dutch masters. Dinner for the evening was at an Indonesian restaurant where we had Rijsttafel, a Dutch word that literally translates to “rice table”.  The meal consisted of a bowl of rice with about 12 plates of specialties food items to eat with it.  We had Chicken and Pork Satay, pickled cucumbers, mixed vegetables in a coconut curry sauce, and spicy beef just to name a few.  These meals are designed for a minimum of 2 and would probably have worked for four.  You could also order a Rijkestafel that specialized in fish or one that was vegetarian.  Delicious!  After dinner we took the last of our walking tours; the Red Light District.   We actually skipped the Rick Steves Audio and just walked it by ourselves. The sights seemed to speak for themselves.  Lots of Sex Shops, Live Sex Shows and scantily clad women parading their wares in front of large picture windows.  And this was all going on at around 7pm, I can only image how wild the scene became later in the evening.

Day 16 – Trip home
We walked across the street to the train station and took our train ride to back to Paris, which lasted 3.5 hours.  Then the short RER train ride back to the airport and the airplane home, completing the circle and ending a great experience.

Here are a few quick tips if you are planning to go to Europe:

1. Spreadsheet – Mike created a 10 page spread sheet to keep us organized with planes, trains, subways, hotels, directions, times, attractions, car rentals, and concerts.  Put in as much detail as you can.  It may seem silly at first but writing down that you should take the blue line train towards the ILe de Citi stop saves time over just saying catch the metro and then having to figure it out when you get there.
2. Audio tours for your smart phone – We downloaded a bunch of Rick Steves audio tours for most of the city walking tours and major attractions.
3. Research – Mike watched a ton of Rick Steves PBS shows and read travel books on the places we visited. We read reviews on hotels, on tripAdvisor.com, and other travel sites.
4. Language – Know the basic words like hello and thank you wherever you are going.
5. Shoes & clothing – make them all comfortable. We walked 7 to 19 miles a day on our trip. Take less clothing than you need so you will have room for souvenirs.
6. Woman’s clothing for May – pack light, take a black dress, jeans (black & blue), black sweater, black leather jacket, 1 colorful scarf, 1 pair of black shorts, 2 pairs of comfortable shoes, one for dress and nice black sneakers. 2 black T-shirts, 3 multicolored T-shirts,2 black long sleeve T-shirts, 2 nice evening fancier shirts. A cross body purse with lots of zippers. Hand wash items and let them air dry in the evenings.
7. Camera & phone – I bought a Samsung S5 phone with an awesome camera, The phone plan I’m on didn’t cover Europe so I couldn’t use it as a phone, but I used it for wi-fi, and downloaded maps and used Google location for navigating city streets. I bought a travel prepaid phone for sending texts and placing calls while in Europe. The phone cost about $29 and put $25 on it and didn’t have to worry about roaming charges. The phone is ours to keep for any future travels.
8. Change for bathrooms – Not all bathrooms are free in Europe. The train stations and even McDonald’s charged to use the facilities from $.50 to $1.00.
9. Pickpockets – Pickpockets were everywhere in Paris, especially in the tourist areas. We were asked for money in the train station about every 5 minutes from so many people I lost count. Wear a money belt. Don’t sign any petitions, they want your hands busy so their partner can pick your pocket.

The best tip I can give you is to plan and enjoy yourself.

Cheers – Carrie