Mc had been sneezing quite a bit, and I had been hoping it was his allergies. Unfortunately, late that night in Vianden he revealed that he had a terribly sore throat, which is exactly how my cold had started. I felt awful. This was Mc’s first trip to Europe, first trip really anywhere, and I’d gotten him sick. (He ended up handling it like an absolute champ, which I should have known he would.)
Mc and I were supposed to do a road trip to Amsterdam on Tuesday while V and M were at work, but we changed our plan and decided to do just a half day trip to Monschau so Mc could take it easy.
*SuperNova Travel Tip: Be flexible. If everything does not go exactly according to plan, it’s OK. Europe will always be there. You can’t do everything, so enjoy what you can do and earmark what you missed for your next trip.
V very generously lent us her car and GPS, and Mc and I headed to Monschau. Some of you may remember that last summer I talked about a giant luge/slide, the Rohren Bobsled Coaster, which was an amazing amount of fun, and I had intended to take Mc there, but when we arrived it was completely deserted. It was an overcast day, and apparently if there is even a hint of the possibility of rain, they close the ride, so heads up.
*SuperNova Travel Tip: If you have the opportunity, drive in Europe. Contrary to popular belief, mainland Europe drives on the correct side of the road (meaning the right side, sorry Kiwis, Aussies, Brits, Scots, Irish, and Japanese). It’s much like driving at home, except in Germany everyone is in a mad rush, so stick to the slow lane or be run down.
Monschau is a very cool little town with an amazing senfmuhle (mustard mill) featuring over 18 types of very reasonably priced mustard. The cobblestone streets on the way to the senfmuhle are lined with adorable shops and there’s even a giant building featuring handmade-crafts. They do have a castle too, if you haven’t seen one yet. (http://www.monschau.de/tourist-information/)
*SuperNova Travel Tip: Think about your footwear. Ladies, let’s have a quick chat about cobblestones and fashion. Cobblestones may appear charming, but they are incredibly uneven and full of gaps and cracks just waiting to grab onto your heel and wrench it off. I wore ballet flats on this day and could feel the shape of each stone and stubbed my unprotected toe on one particularly evil one. Wearing high heels on this surface is actually asking to be hospitalized. I am not telling you not to wear ballet flats or wedges (I am, actually, telling you not to wear pointy heels) or to stomp around your vacation in hiking boots. What I’m saying is, if you choose fashion over being sensible, you are forbidden to complain about it as you have been previously warned.
We arrived in Monschau and found the car park and even figured out how to use it. The moment we started off from the car park, it started to pour. So we ducked into a restaurant and had lunch and the rain didn’t bother us again. The town was lovely and the day uneventful except for that I managed to get us lost. Monschau is a small town with a car park at one end and a mustard mill at the other. I merely had to get us from the car park to the mustard mill and of course, that was impossible. I somehow warped to level 9 and we ended up on a highway out of town. So we turned around and walked the opposite direction and ended up nearly to the car park again. So we stopped in the information office and they told us to go back the way we’d originally gone, but to “keep going straight.” This time, Mc made the important decisions and we got there no problem.
We had a lovely time, bought printen (German gingerbread) and a year’s worth of mustard, and were home early enough for Mc to spend the rest of the afternoon killing X-box zombies, or, as he put it, resting.
