France medieval villages

France! Very close to Germany, just on the other side of the Rhine River nestled along the route des vin D'Alsace.  Within an hours drive we were travelling from one medieval village to the next.  We visited three in total including Richwihr, Ribeauville, & Berheim.  Each village was colorful and full of cafes and restaurants.  The streets were cobblestone and  very narrow, winding in between all the houses.

Busy village

Adorable archway

Colorful and full of flowers

Lunch bistro

The place we had lunch in Bergheim... so delicious 

Slanted windows

Quick trip to Switzerland

After spending the morning hiking a peak in the Black Forest, we traveled south the the Rhine River.  We wanted to 'bag' another country by taking a walk in Switzerland.  The villages close tot he Rhine were beautiful and colorful... quite a change from the villages in the Black Forest.  Here are some of our pictures!

One of the many beautiful steeples we have seen

Laufenburg Germany

Laufenburg Switzerland

Covered bridge over the Rhine

Rhine River

Market and Black Forest Visit

Spent the morning at the local market in Mullheim.  So much fresh produce.  Strawberries and cherries are in season along with white asparagus (just like green but less bitter and much better tasting).  There was an olive stand, fresh meat butchered on site, cheese vendors, fresh bread from France and many other treats.

Later in the day we traveled into the Black Forest to see a some traditional German Villages.  Each Village is nestled into the hillside and surrounded by green rolling hills.  Villages are only a few miles apart and easy to travel between.  We ended the day by going up Hoch Blauen... one of the tallest mountains in the forest.

Olives at the market in Mullheim

Black Forest home

One of our many views along our journey

Black Forest Village

Alex and view

View from the top of Hoch Blauen

Badenweiler

Here are a few pictures from our first castle trip!  Hopefully we will see more while we are in Germany!

Libby in archway of castle

Castle!

A&L enjoying some time in the town square

View from castle

Giant sequoia tree in Germany... who knew?!?

Ersten Tag in Deutschland!

We spent our first day in Deutschland walking and busing around Müllheim with Michael and Eva-Maria - out of their house, up through the vineyards, through the bluegreen gluten fields, and along the edge of the Black Forest. 

The Metcalf crew hikes!

Trail through the edge of the Black Forest - right after a deer ran by - lots of Oak and Beech 

Stopping for a view

The view back to Müllheim

The Drs. Metcalf inspecting baby grapes

And baby vines!

Cutest damn little vineyard hut

While walking, we kept seeing storks flying overhead - beautiful, giant, white and black birds riding thermals and playing in the air. We wound our way out of the vineyard and into Vögisheim where the storks were nesting on top of a church bell tower, the streets were quintessentially German, and the ripe, local cherries were sold at road-side stands for €3.00.

More later - hint, castles are involved...

Storks' nest with more baby things (storks)

Uncle Mike's morning walk route (he's demonstrating his walking technique)

New flower box ideas...

Goats!

"We're painting the roses red!"

My Hut

Blue green gluten and poppies!

The Metcalf's European Vacation

For so long we have wanted to go to Europe.  We finally got our chance thanks to the ISSRM conference being held in Hannover, Germany. We have broken our trip into three parts 1) Visit with Uncle Mike and Aunt Eva-Maria in Mullheim (South of Freiburg outside the Black Forest) 2) ISSRM Conference in Hannover (Northern part of the country) 3) Travels to Bavaria region with Josh and Adrienne Gruver (think Sound of Music).  

Today we landed in Frankfurt...no idea how to speak/read German. We managed to find the 'Bahn' and take it south to Mullheim.  We stepped off the train and were welcomed with a rolling/rugged pastoral landscape with vineyards in the distance.  Eva-Maria instructed us to take a taxi to their house.... however there were no taxi's.  Equipped with our new German knowledge we asked a man chowing on a baguette if he "sprechen sie English?"  He informed us that there were few taxis.  We then called Eva-Maria (who does not have a vehicle to pick us up with) and she told us to find the taxi area south of the station... completely void of taxi's.  So we waited....and waited....and finally a taxi came....except that he was full.  Finally, an empty taxi came and we made it!  

Uncle Mike and Aunt Eva-Maria greeted us with hugs, champagne, warm food, and a hot shower.  We are both exhausted but so happy to be here.

A&L on plane to Amsterdam

So European... Kaffee and Bhan tickets

View of the Black Forest from Metcalf home

Uncle Mike, champagne, and chocolate