Tuesday, July 19th – Monschau

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.

Summer Bobsledding in Monschau, July 19th

Puppy's parents arrived from Berlin on Sunday. So Monday we all hopped in the car and took a trip to Monschau. Monschau is a little mountain town known for its mustard and its Christmas Bazaar. What it should be known for is it's awesome bobsled coaster!

Puppy found it online and we decided immediately that we not only needed to go there, but it needed to be priority #1 of our sightseeing list. We jumped in the car and with the aid of Frau, Puppy's GPS, we found it with little difficulty. We parked and headed to the entrance.

It was an absolutely beautiful day, and being off the beaten path did not prevent this activity from being fairly packed with people. What we discovered when we arrived is that the Rohren Bobsled Coaster is a 751 meter long track made of what looks like a huge pipe cut in half and nailed to the side of the mountain. You ride down the track on a 1 or 2 person scooter while holding onto a handle between your knees that doubles as a brake if you push it forward. The windy track is full of sharp turns where your scooter banks up the side like a real bobsled. This was going to be fun!

We bought tickets and marveled at how cheap they were - 2.50 euro per person - and got into line. A teenage German girl put the scooter you picked out on the track and told you when to go. I went after Mrs. Puppy. I started down the hill gaining speed very quickly. I got worried for a second when I hit the first turn and saw a sign that I thought said that I needed to brake (but couldn't tell as it was in German and it flew by in 2 seconds) and I didn't want to go flying off the track. However, as I did not see any carnage on the side of the track like hats or shoes or bodies, I just let it go and held on.

I was flying down the track, when coming out of a turn I saw a group of three in front of me. "That's weird," I thought, "how could you have 3 people when the largest scooter they have is a 2-seater?" As I got closer I could see that it was not a group of 3, it was 2 scooters pushed together. There was Mrs. Puppy, liberally using her brake, chugging along at her own pace, completely nonplussed that there was a German couple stuck to the back of her scooter looking very confused. I leaned on my own break so as not to hit them, and we all went tooling down the rest of the track at a perfectly modest pace, enjoying the scenery. I was laughing so hard by the end of the track, I could barely get my scooter off the track.

When you reach the bottom of the bobsled track, you pull your scooter off, walk a few meters over to another German teenage girl, who sets you on another track sitting backwards. She then hooks a rope connected to a ski lift to the back of your scooter and WHOOSH, you are hauled off towards the top of the mountain by what looks like the seat of your pants. This track is straight and a much more fun alternative to having to drag your scooter miles uphill, not to mention dignified looking.

Once we were all gathered at the top again, we realized that there was no choice but to go again. This time we realized that it was even cheaper if we bought all 5 tickets at the same time. Puppy suggested that we go down together since the extra weight would make the scooter go even faster. Seeing that this was a genius idea, we selected a 2-seater and hopped on, Puppy in front. As we started rolling, Puppy shouted over her shoulder, "Oh, by the way, I don't use the brake!" "Whatever!" I yelled back and ZOOOOOM! we were off! The extra weight did make the scooter fly, we took the turns horizontally. I couldn't see, but Puppy told me after that she was worried a couple times that we'd run out of bank wall before the scooter dropped back down. We were greased lightning; all the moisture generally kept in our eyes started streaming along the sides of our faces. We almost caught Nancy D, who was just pulling her scooter off the track as we shot by and hit the pad at the end of the track. It was AWESOME and I feel the trip would have been worth it just for that.

*SuperNova Travel Tip: Go do the Rohren Bobsled!

After the bobsled, we headed into Monschau. After parking, we started walking through the adorable cobblestone streets towards the historic Senfmuehle (mustard mill). It turns out the Senfmuehle is not only at the end of town, but uphill past all the hotels at the end of town. Unfortunately, you can only view the actual mill on a tour and the tours only go on certain days and this was not one of those days. Fortunately, the gift shop was open and they encourage you to try everything. The marzipan honey was delicious, but their honey selection was nothing compared to their mustard tasting area where they have 18 varieties of mustard for you to try - fig mustard, honey poppyseed mustard, garlic mustard, curry mustard, tomato mustard, reisling mustard, all quite delicious. If you like mustard, that is. They also had wild game sausages to try, and I highly recommend the wild boar. The saleswoman spoke perfect English and was exceptionally helpful!

After loading up on mustard, we headed back to the main drag for lunch. We stopped at a lovely restaurant where we sat outside on a deck adjacent to the Eifel Museum of Photography and Film. We ordered club soda (I LOVE this about Europe - you can get fizzy water almost anywhere) and the Eifel Toast, a pork escalope with mustard sauce and cheese (I did not know what an "escalope" was, but enjoyed saying it and did so at every opportunity). I figured since we were in the Eifel area and the mustard town, I'd order the dish with the mustard sauce. My entree was on the cheaper side, so I thought it would also be on the smallish side. This was not German thinking. I was brought a piping hot plate with a long piece of bread that reached across the entire oval plate, topped with chopped lettuce, topped with mustard cream sauce, topped with fried pork cutlet (escalope mystery solved), topped with more mustard cream sauce, topped with melted cheese. The lettuce did not fare well in this hot dish, turning into something remeniscent of what comes on a McDonalds McChicken sandwich, but the food was delicious! Hurray for pork escalope! I ate as much as I could, then gave away as much as people would let me, however, when the waitress came and picked up my plate, she looked at me and demanded, "What is this?!?!" She seemed shocked when I told her it was delicious but just too much. This is the second time I have been reprimanded in Germany for not cleaning my plate.

After lunch, we wandered through the picturesque town and Mrs. Puppy stocked up on printen (German gingerbread) while Mr. Puppy photographed everything. We also wandered through the handy crafts mall before heading home. Monschau was a fantastic place that I would absolutely recommend and am hoping we can make it back there before I leave as I deeply regret not buying wild boar sausage when I had the chance.