A road trip around Germany was something we long dreamt of. We couldn't believe it when this day finally rolled round. It all started the very first time we saw a photo of Neuschwanstein Castle. This magical, white Disney castle in the heart of Bavaria. That one photo inspired a southern Germany road trip, squeezing in as much of this amazing part of the country as we possibly could. Starting in Belgium before we entered Germany, our route took us through Heidelberg, the Black Forest, along the Bavarian Alps and ticking off cities like Munich and Cologne.
First stop: Ghent
After a couple of hours driving, we arrived in Belgium to our first stopover, Ghent. Our hotel was Hotel Onderbergen, about 10 minutes walk from the city centre. We parked at a nearby multi-storey and headed straight for the city centre to grab some breakfast and explore.
We found a great breakfast place near the centre called Brasserie Agrea. It was nice and quiet when we arrived (about 10am) and the staff were lovely. We both ordered waffles for breakfast and they were delicious! We sat by the window and people watched, while we planned what to do with our day in Ghent.
The Agrea is well positioned between Saint Bavo's Cathedral and the Belfort. It was a beautiful sunny day, so we decided to go up the Belfort, which was so quiet! There must have been a total of 10 people up the tower. It cost about 5 euros each to go up the tower and that also allowed us to stop off at each of the floors as we worked our way higher, read a bit about the tower and see the massive bells. The viewing area at the top is a skinny corridor which goes almost the full way around the tower and the steps to the top were even skinner, but the views were worth the climb!
After this we spent time exploring the city centre, wandering around the streets and side streets. We'd planned the 'Boat in Ghent' canal ride mid-afternoon, but accidently walked across them whilst exploring so decided to do it then. Our guide was informative and hilarious, keeping entertained and informed throughout. We must have been on the canals for about 50 minutes and it was a brilliant way to see and take in the city and all it's prettiness.
While exploring somewhere for dinner, we came across t'Gouden Mandeke. A busy pub with everyone sat outside in the sun enjoying their drinks - looked great to us! The atmosphere was good and there was a spare seat in a sunny spot, so we grabbed a couple of drinks while we looked up places to eat.
We found a place we loved at the opposite end of the city called Eat-aly. Originally the name did put us off, but the menu was great and so was the food! We ended our night with a few more drinks, before a (somewhat) early night, ready for our drive the next morning.
Heidelberg
Next day we woke up early, ready to finally start our Southern Germany road trip! We had a 5 hour drive to Heidelberg ahead of us, however traffic around the Brussels ring road made this a 7 hour drive!
Before I dive too much into our time in Heidelberg, I'll start on the hotel. We stayed at the Ibis, near the train station. They offered free car parking, directly outside the front of the hotel which was great and the staff were really lovely and very helpful.
We walked 20 minutes into Heidelberg's old town and were surprised with how packed the place was! That said, we found some cute side streets which were a lot quieter and started to fall in love with Heidelberg's charm.
We explored the streets and buildings of the old town and made our way to the funicular to head up to Heidelberg Castle. When we arrived at the top, we saw the most amazing views over Heidelberg and the river. Exploring the castle and it's grounds was also cool, but the view does make it.
After the castle we took a walk along the river and over the bridge, before heading back over in search of a pub. We came across a great little place down a side street called Destille. It was a hot and muggy day, so we sat outside drinking and people watching. Our bar guy was really nice, recommending different beers to Oli and chatting away - great service! We also came across Billy Blues for dinner, just outside the old town. We were lucky it was super quiet when we turned up, as every table was reserved. The staff were lovely and the burgers were even lovelier!
The Black Forest
Next day we got up early and made the drive to The Black Forest. This was the first of our specific driving routes as we wanted to pick up the B500, also know as the 'Schwarzwaldhochstrasse'. This is a well known and particularly scenic drive through the forest. We drove via this route to Triberg and then stopped off for some lunch to stretch our legs for a bit. After lunch we headed to the Triberg waterfalls which was very pretty.
We then continued our drive south to Todtnauberg, finishing the B500 up some twisty, mountainous roads.
We stayed at the Herrihof Landhotel, which was half way up a hill with beautiful views of the trees, rolling hills and village below. We arrived mid-afternoon and the hotel offered free private car parking, so after checking in we were itching to get out and explore the beautiful scenery.
After an hour or so exploring the village and local area, we stopped off at a pub / restaurant called the Waldblick and grabbed a couple of drinks in the sunshine. We were deciding where to have dinner and actually ended up eating at the Waldblick, which was one of the best meals we had during the entire trip! I had a goulash which was amazing, while Oli had a game dish with a rosti which was also delicious! Our waitress mentioned how pretty the views were from the top of the hill, so we decided that's what we would do the next morning.
We had things planned for the day, so we got up early and were out the door around 6:30am/7:00am. The hill was super steep! But the views from the top were worth it. Everything was so silent and still where it was so early in the morning. But before I knew it, Oli was on one knee and I'm very happy to say that a little place called Todtnauberg in the Black Forest is where we got engaged!
We continued exploring and slowly made our way back to the hotel for breakfast, before heading into the main town of Todtnau to go on the Hasenhorn coaster. This is a toboggan style 'self-drive' coaster which was SO much fun and definitely not the first thing I imagined we'd do after we got engaged.
There was free parking at the foot of the hill, signposted 'Hasenhorn' and we took the ski lift up to the top. Once in the toboggan and heading back down we picked up so much speed! You can brake when you feel like it though. We were one of the first to go on it that day so it meant the track was nice and clear.
We walked around the town a bit and found a cute little square in the centre of Todtnau. We grabbed a drink from a cafe and made a few phone calls home to tell them the news! After, we drove to Feldberg mountain. We caught the gondola to the top and took in the amazing views from Feldberg tower. It was beautiful sunshine when we arrived, but as we stood up the top, we literally watched some horrendous weather roll in. It was great to watch the clouds coming in, stroking the tops of the trees - very atmospheric.
We decided to head back and beat the weather before it got too bad. Deciding it was time to continue our celebrations, we headed back to the square in Todtnau. It was boiling hot and muggy, although dark and cloudy. We sat under the restaurant's umbrella when the heavens opened up and the most amazing thunder storm surrounded us.
We loved everything about the Black Forest! It's such a beautiful place. We cared more about the scenery than the towns and villages. We'd love to go back and take in even more of that beautiful scenery. We tried to drink it all in, some of the views just didn't look real - definitely recommend anyone to go!
Zurich & Oberstdorf
After our couple of days in the forest it was time to move on again. We were a one hour drive from the Swiss border, so we decided to take advantage and drive into Zurich. A few people had mentioned that Zurich wasn't all that, but I guess it was one of those things we had to experience ourselves. It was pouring with rain, we probably would have had a different experience if it were sunny. We grabbed some breakfast from Confiserie Sprungli which we'd read good things about. However we found everyone to be rude and the breakfast didn't taste particularly fresh (we just had croissants).
We explored a little more, but honestly didn't see much appeal as we explored the streets. After three hours in Zurich, we decided to call it a day and left around lunchtime. We hopped in the car and made our way to our next overnight destination; Oberstdorf. This was by far one of the best places we visited in Germany! It was still raining and there was a lot of low cloud around, restricting the views of the top of the mountain peaks. But that only seemed to make the place look more atmospheric. We were instantly in love!
We stayed at a fantastic hotel, in the middle of nowhere, down a little dirt track called Hotel Birgsauer Hof. We decided to eat at the hotel that night, which was great. They serve traditional Bavarian dishes and they were delicious!
Prior to dinner, despite the rain, we were so taken by how pretty Oberstdorf was, we headed straight out after checking in to go for a walk and explore. There was nothing around us apart from mountains, rows of alpine trees and the odd farm, it was beautiful. The scenery itself made us wish we were staying in Oberstdorf an extra day - we'll just have to come back!
Hohenschwangau
Next day we got up early and left the hotel about 7:30am ready to drive to Hohenschwangau. This was the first opportunity we had to pick up the famous German Alpine Road - a 280 mile winding road along the Bavarian Alps. The scenery from start to finish was beautiful!
More excitingly though, this was the moment we had been dreaming of. The thing that inspired this very road trip in the first place. Today was the day we were finally going to see the incredible Neuschwanstein Castle - we couldn't wait!
We got to Hohenschwangau in a little over an hour and found our hotel (Hotel Alpenstuben) so we could park up and dump our bags. We then ventured out and headed straight for the castle.
The town was already busy. We opted not to go inside the castle. One because of the crowds. But two, we decided the most impressive thing is the castle itself. It really is like something out of a fairytale (it's said to have inspired Disney's Sleeping Beauty). It's breathtaking in real life.
The road to the castle is closed for private transport - you need to either walk, take a shuttle or the horse & carriage. It was a warm sunny day, so we opted for the walk. I'd like to think we're relatively fit and healthy but that hill was exhausting! The road to the castle is one long, winding, steep incline. We arrived at the castle and it was pretty touristy up there. Lots of souvenir shops selling typical tat you expect, but the up-close view of the castle was amazing.
We continued further up the hill, towards Mary's Bridge. We had more steep inclines, but this part of the road was a lot quieter, so we powered through to get to the bridge before it got too busy. The bridge was a 20 minute walk from the castle but the view from the bridge (see picture above) is spectacular. I have honestly never seen such an impressive building before. It was great to finally see the thing that inspired our trip!
As we headed back down the hill, we were spoilt with the most beautiful views of Hohenschwangau below us and the lake. We decided to head straight there.We took a walk around Alpsee Lake which was really pretty, but there were lots of other people around, not really the quiet stroll we were hoping for. After an hour or so, we were back in the main town and looking for somewhere to have a drink (which was actually pretty difficult) and rest our feet. We came across a beer hall in the end - which turned out to be a generic tourist trap, but it sorted us for the time being.
The place was heaving by this point. Cars couldn't even drive down the road, because everyone was spilling out into the road. We desperately wanted to escape the noise so we took a walk outside the town and went for an explore in the woods nearby. When we came out of the woods, we came across a large patch of green, which had the most peaceful and beautiful views. We also had a perfect view of the castle against the mountains. It was a perfect spot and there wasn't another soul around! We found a little jetty by the lake (Schwansee) and sat in the sun, soaking our feet in the lake and enjoying the mountains around us.
Our afternoon pretty much consisted of this view. We stayed here till late (when we started getting attacked by mozzies) and made our way back to the hotel. We had dinner at the hotel, as there wasn't a lot else around and we didn't really want to drive into Fussen or Schwangau. We had a few rum & coke's to end our night and grabbed an early night.
Berchtesgaden
Other than the Black Forest, Berchtesgaden was the main location I was most excited about. I love WW2 history and I couldn't wait for an opportunity to go up to the Eagle's Nest, so Berchtesgaden was a massive highlight for me.
We stayed at the Explorer Hotel near Königssee Lake, which was lush! We reserved private parking at their car park and had a lovely room at the back of the hotel overlooking the mountains. Breakfast in the morning was amazing, lots of choice (hot and cold) and the first proper cup of tea I'd had in almost 2 weeks!
Once we'd checked in and dumped our bags we took a walk down to Königssee Lake and caught the boat service to visit St Bartholoma Church. We had a brilliant guide, who told us about the area and some facts about the lake and also had a witty sense of humour. I believe every guide does this, but he also told us about the flat mountain face, which if you play music to, reflects a perfect echo, note for note. So he whipped out a trumpet (like you do) and played a tune to the mountain face which we could hear echoing all around us.
We sat by the church and explored the area. The plan had been to catch another boat up to Salet and explore around there, but it got cold so quickly, we chose to get back on land and warm up. We drove into Berchtesgaden that evening for dinner and ended the evening at the hotel bar, sinking a couple of rum & cokes together.
We had the luxury of lie-in in the morning and grabbed some breakfast downstairs. We had our Eagle's Nest tour booked for 2pm, so we went for a drive and came across some really remote and pretty places in the general Berchtesgaden area.
After an hour of exploring, we headed into Berchtesgaden and explored the town. We were slightly out of season, so the town was really quiet and sleepy. We enjoyed a chilled out morning wandering around the town until about 2pm, when we grabbed our Eagle's Nest tickets and waited for our coach.
Visiting the Eagle's Nest
We booked with Eagle's Nest Tours and they didn't disappoint - what a tour! We took the scenic route up the mountain to the documentation centre and on the way our guide pointed out some of the Nazi built buildings, such as the train station, and told us about their history, as well as Hitler's background and life growing up.
When we got to the documentation centre, our guide showed us some original photos, to show us what the buildings originally looked like and what they were used for. She ran through a few key highlights in the documentation centre and really created a picture of what Nazi Germany was like for people. After that, we headed down into the bunkers and learnt about the huge network of connecting tunnels that had been built in the mountain.
We all headed back up to the bus area and hopped on one of the special Eagle's Nest buses. Whilst our guide was equipped with a coach, to get to the Eagle's Nest you have to use their specially designed buses, which are able to get up the ridiculous inclines and tight bends. We passed the Turken Hotel and she told us of the history of the hotel and its bunkers. There are also a lot of buildings still standing, which had been purpose built for the SS, admin purposes or for local workers who built the roads. It was interesting to seem them standing perfectly intact and learn that people were happily living in them now.
We arrived at the Eagle's Nest and walked along the tunnel to Hitler's famous 'gold' elevator. Once inside, we walked through to Eva Braun's room and learned all about the history of the Eagle's Nest and Hilter's other buildings on the mountain, such as the tea house and what happened when the American's arrived at the end of the war. We are both massive Band of Brothers fans, so it was great to see a photo that Dick Winters had taken when they first arrived at the Eagle's Nest. We then had free roam to explore or grab a cup of tea from the restaurant (which is what the Eagle's Nest now is). Myself and Oli headed straight outside so we could admire not only the views and surroundings, but also the fact that we had finally been able to visit the Eagle's Nest - a massive bucket list tick for me and something I never thought I'd be able to visit.
We arrived back in town about 5/6pm and were feeling hungry. We had dinner at Gasthof Neuhaus, in the centre of town and it was amazing! I had Austrian gnocchi with fried onions and decor was great - nice and traditional. A lot of tables were reserved, but they managed to seat us on one of their benches. A little while later a German family, all dressed up in lederhosen sat on the bench too. We loved sharing a table with them and (somewhat) interacting with them - our German is very limited and so was their English - but it was great to sit together and enjoy their company.
Salzburg & Munich
In the morning, sad to leave, we checked out early to spend a half day in Slazburg. We were 30 minutes away and decided how can we not take advantage of the location? We found a great car park on Hildmannplatz and wandered into the heart of Salzburg. It was raining - just like our half day in Zurich - but Salzburg was (in our opinion) a much prettier city.
Our first port of call was the Fortress, which was great! We got the funicular to the top and enjoyed our morning wandering around the fortress and exploring. The views from the top are also pretty special too.
We enjoyed the rest of our morning exploring the streets and the old town. There's a lot of character in Salzburg and despite the weather, we really enjoyed our time in the city. Before leaving for Munich, we took a detour via the Red Bull Hangar by Salzburg airport which was so cool! Entrance is completely free and we had free time to wander around all the Red Bull race cars, kit cars and planes.
The place isn't particularly big though, so we left after about 30 minutes and made the drive to Munich. The journey wasn't too bad, despite hitting a few roadworks, there wasn't a lot of traffic and we made good time. We stayed in the Motel One Sendlinger Tor and really enjoyed our stay there.
We caught the underground to the Englischer Garten and enjoyed a chilled afternoon exploring the park. We came across Seehaus beer garden and grabbed a couple of drinks by the lake, although it did mean we were terrorised by the geese there! As we made our way through the park, we came across the Chinese Turm, where there was an oompa band playing! The atmosphere was brilliant, so we stuck around to people watch and enjoy the band.
In the evening, we found an amazing Italian called Vi Vadi Rustico. We gorged ourselves on food and after a long day of driving and being on our feet, we crashed pretty early and couldn't wait to go back to the hotel to catch up on some sleep.
Next day we had a nice lay in and had a full day planned. It was also Oli's birthday! We read great things about Baader Cafe, so we headed straight there for breakfast.
Our day was spent enjoying the city centre. We went up the town hall and St Peters Church - we unfortunately couldn't go up Frauenkirche, due to work being carried out on the tower. Although this didn't matter too much - I love the style of church and think it makes up a great part of Munich's skyline, so we got a great view of this from the top of the town hall. St Peter's Church then offers some amazing views of the town hall, as well as the church too. We took in as much of the city as we could, but kept it nice and chilled out so we weren't too exhausted.
In the evening, as it was Oli's birthday, we headed to Hofbrauhaus. We arrived about 6pm and didn't leave till 11:30pm. Beer is served by the litre (which Oli was very happy about). I'm not a beer lover, but thankfully they did serve wine, so throughout the night I had 2 bottles of wine. To myself!
The atmosphere in the beer hall was great, everyone was drinking and laughing. We ended up making some friends with a few people during the course of the night and have since kept in touch with them which was lovely. An oompa band also came on during the night which just added to the whole night and atmosphere. Overall a very successful birthday for Oli!
Rothenburg ob der Tauber
Next day we woke up reasonably early and felt a lot better than we deserved to! We packed our stuff and headed into the city for breakfast. It was Sunday, so most places were closed even at 10am, but we found a small corner cafe and grabbed a hot chocolate, coffee and a few croissants. After this we hopped in the car and made our way to Rothenburg.
The drive was relatively short, so we made good time, taking the scenice route along the Romantic Road. We stayed at the Hotel Am Siebersturm in the centre of the town. We were given a key to a garage round the corner so we could park the car and then enjoyed wandering the town.
We explored the castle, the old town walls as well as the towers, turrets and walkways around the area. It was nice to have a relaxing day just exploring on foot and admiring what a pretty place Rothenburg is; pastel coloured buildings with exposed beams, cobblestone roads and medieval city walls. Bliss!
We grabbed some dinner and walked past a shop to buy our first schneeballen and I have to say...I don't get what the fuss is about? And that's coming from someone who has a big sweet tooth! They look amazing, but the taste is pretty heavy!
After a long day on our feet, we headed to the hotel for an early night. The hotel was lovely and so were the staff...unfortunately the sleep wasn't. It was boiling hot, so we had to sleep with the window open, which was fine until 12/1am when Rothenburg becomes a massive through-route for lots of trucks! They were so loud, especially where they were driving on the uneven cobblestone road. That was pretty much where our sleep ended because there was so many trucks coming through. We got up a few hours later feeling very sleepy and made our way to our next destination.
Frankfurt
We arrived in Frankfurt in good time, parked up at the hotel and dumped our bags. We walked along the river towards the old town where we had a quick explore before making our towards the Hauptwache. The weather looked pretty threatening so we made our way into the shopping centre for cover - and good timing too because it chucked it down! We stayed inside the shopping centre and grabbed a couple of hot chocolates to wait the rain out.
By late afternoon we were getting peckish and the rain had eased up. We decided to eat at Koh Samui and what a restaurant! Dinner was amazing and the staff were great. We both had starters (fish cakes to share) followed by a massaman curry, which was absolutely delicious. Highly recommend this place! We stayed there most of the evening and ended the night by going up Main Tower.
It was super quiet when we arrived - though I'm sure that was because of the weather (it was pouring again). We got to the top in no time and enjoyed the views from the dry and sheltered top floor. However in our infinite wisdom, we decided this was obviously not enough and wanted to go up on the observation deck. The views were incredible from the top and despite the weather, it was a really clear night. The rain though was 10 times harder and the wind was even more powerful. We were pelted by rain, but we thought it was hilarious and enjoyed the views before realising we're idiots and should go back down into the dry.
Next day the weather was on our side, with beautiful blue skies and sunny weather. We popped to a cafe for some breakfast and headed to the river for a boat ride to take in the sights. The views of the skyscrapers were great from the river and it was a nice way to spend an hour on a sunny day in the city.
The rest of the day consisted of exploring on foot and enjoying the dry weather. We headed over to Sachsenhausen for a wander and enjoyed the views from the other side of the river. Overall the day was pretty relaxed and we enjoyed the opportunity to take in Frankfurt at a slower pace than we normally do with cities.
We ended the night yet again at Koh Samui (yes we enjoyed it that much), with our last stop at Sullivan's for cocktails.
As for our hotel... We stayed at MK Hotel Frankfurt. It's a budget hotel, but then everywhere we stayed was budget, and we stayed in some fantastic hotels for that cost. However not this one. We arrived early on day one and the guy on reception seemed a bit put out by this. When we did get into our room it stunk of cigarettes. We doubted ourselves that it was a non-smoking room, until we saw the sign saying "thank you for not smoking". I then noticed fag ash on my bedside table and three used cigarettes stubbed out on the outside windowsill. At this point we really should have complained, but for some reason we thought as we were only staying 2 nights we'd leave it.
There was no air con and the room was boiling hot on our second night so we slept with the window open. We were street side so we heard everyone pouring out of the kebab house across the road at 11pm followed by what seemed to be a 24 hour tram line right outside our window running every 5 minutes. The hotel was below budget and definitely not worth the money we paid for it, compared to the other places we stayed for the same money.
Dusseldorf
We left that morning for Dusseldorf and arrived with no problems! It was a pretty quiet city to drive around in, compared to Munich or Frankfurt. We stayed at Hotel Batavia which was great. The staff were really nice and polite and had a garage across the road for the car. The rooms were clean and comfy and we were at the back of the hotel, where there was no public transport, busy roads, or late night fast food restaurants / bars etc... perfect!
It was a nice sunny day, so we headed towards the river and took a walk along the promenade, towards Rhine Tower. There was a great atmosphere along the river with lots of people eating and drinking and lots of bars and eateries. Rhine Tower was like a ghost town, which I was surprised about - we practically had the place to ourselves. We sat at a table and enjoyed the views over Dusseldorf, with a couple of vodka and cokes.
We continued exploring Dusseldorf, wandering the streets and side alleys. We grabbed some dinner in the sun and reflected on our amazing time in Germany, sad we'd be leaving the country the following day.
Cologne & Bruges
After a good nights sleep we left early and made our way to Cologne, where we had planned to spend our morning. It was only 30 minutes away and we thought how could we not go when we're so close? We were leaving Germany that day and had a four hour drive to Bruges later.
It was nice to have the opportunity to have another city explore. We parked up in a multi-storey not far from Koln Triangle. We cut across Hohenzollernbrücke and admired Cologne Cathedral during the whole walk. We enjoyed our time in the city centre, exploring all the side streets and people watching. The city was packed, but there was a really good vibe and atmosphere in Cologne which didn't make the crowds feel claustrophobic, but actually enjoyable.
We got an early light lunch to go, and headed back to Koln Triangle about 11:30am. We queued for about 30 minutes waiting for the lift and it was easily the busiest attraction we went to during our entire trip, but the views from the top were worth it!
We left Cologne shortly after midday, sad that was our last stop in Germany but very excited to arrive in Bruges. Here are our sad faces:
After a 4 hour drive, we arrived in Bruges! We found our hotel, parked up in the garage they offered us and had enough time in Bruges to grab a drink at pub and decide where to go for dinner.
Dinner: funny story... So we're sat in the pub researching restaurants and wondering where to go. Oli comes across 'Ribs'n'beer' and after reading the amazing reviews, we figured it's a no brainer! Just as we decided that, we overheard someone walking back to their table "nope they're fully booked, no ribs for us tonight". We asked them "sorry did you say something about ribs??" The couple informed us they'd tried to book a table that night, but were told they were fully booked that night, Friday night and Saturday night! However, the restaurant was towards our hotel, so we thought we'd stop by on the off chance they had a table for 2.
We arrived at 6:30pm and tried our luck. The Manager informed us a table was infact 20 minutes late and if they didn't arrive in the next 5 minutes the table was ours! 5 minutes came and went and still so no sign of them, the table was ours! We ordered starters (big mistake) followed by the smokey BBQ ribs (all you can eat for 18 euros). However the rack of ribs was massive and we were stuffed after 1 round, but we enjoyed every last bite!
Bruges
The original plan was to make the most of a full day and do the Flanders Field tour. However it was a lovely sunny day in the city and as interesting as the tour would have been, we decided a full day in the city would be time better spent. We grabbed breakfast at the hotel and explored beautiful Bruges on foot.
We explored as much as we could. Bruges is a lot smaller than we realised and we walked from our hotel to the windmills on the edge of the city in about 20 minutes. We walked all over the place; Koningin Park; Begijnhof; the churches and followed the canal back towards the centre. It was the best way to see the city, with no set itinerary, just seeing where we ended up. We raided a few chocolate shops, grabbed an early dinner and hit the pubs to make the most of our last night in Bruges.
We ended the night in the amazing De Garre. The place was packed but we found a cute table for 2 upstairs. I ordered a vodka coke, Oli got himself the house beer which he fell in love with. De Garre was definitely the best drinking spot in Bruges we went to. It's down a side alley, which you wouldn't even know was there. We only spotted it because we were looking out for it after reading up on directions for the pub. It's a really narrow pub, so seats fill up quickly, but the atmosphere is brilliant. Great little pub with lots of character. They also serve your drinks with cheese which was a nice touch.
Heading home...
We had enough time to spend the morning in Bruges and grab some breakfast. We left around midday and arrived in Calais for 2pm. We grabbed a cheap and easy lunch onsite and after that had roughly 1 hour to kill before we could get on the Channel Tunnel home.
We had the most amazing trip together - we've both agreed our best holiday yet. We drove somewhere in the region of 2500-2800 miles in 17 days. Visited our biggest bucket list locations in Germany, got engaged and now have some of the best memories together.
Germany was amazing and there are so many beautiful parts of Germany. It's hard to compare the first leg of our trip, which was all scenery and mountains, to the second leg of our trip (city after city). They're so different and we loved them for different reasons, but I think if we were ever to go back, it would definitely be all about the scenery!
The route along the alps and Bavaria are some of the most beautiful places I've ever been to - The Black Forest, Oberstdorf and Berchtesgaden in particular. This blog post makes me sad because I miss it all so much, but if anything it just makes me more excited for the day we get to go back again. See you soon Germany (I hope!)
