..visit to Tom & Valarie's..

as i arrived to frankfurt, Germany i hopped on a train where i would spend he next hour and a half seeing the country side of Germany at it's finest.


i asked to borrow someone's cellphone when i arrived at kaiserslautern. it was interesting when the person said sure but they wanted to make sure i was calling a landline because calling other cell phones cost.


a few moments later tom pulled up in a bmw to pick me up. we took a 15 minute drive to the cute little town of baalborn. soon enough we were doing things that we did when we were roommates in college.. exploring.


we took a hike through the beautiful country side of germany into the woods where we soon wound up in a field that was an old battlefield. there we found no vegetation and several old foundations to old forts and an old bunker with a supply train track to it. 




after an adventurous afternoon exploring and retelling many memories we had from the good ole' days we met up with Val to go eat at a german pizza place. 

the night ended with all of us outside of their house next to a fire pit enjoying the brisk spring air telling many stories. 


for the next couple of days that i was going to be in germany tom and val wanted to take me around and show me some of their favorite places. 


landstuhl castle ruins. this is a great castle that is located on top of a hill that over looks the beautiful city of landstuhl. today they use this castle for tours and shows taken place in this stage area below.

the beautiful city behind us 

next destination was "Falkenstein" or falcon rock. here we were at one of the highest points in the area. 

the view from Falkenstein 

Falkenstein castle 

the village below the castle 

after exploring some more we got very hungry and went to the restaurant in Falkenstein 

it was 65 and sunny with a little bit of haze but we could see for miles

 tom wanted me to order "Falkensteiner Teller" extremely bad but I had to get a schnitzel so he got the teller and had me try it. (saumagen is pig stomach)

"Falkensteiner Teller" i tried some of tom's and it was surprisingly tasty. the dumpling was like meatloaf and the pig stomach was like a sausage with a little spice with meat and potatoes inside

"Allgauer Art" noodles with lots of cheese and onions

i had the zigeunerschnitzel with fries and a salad and it was really good. the sauce was rich and the breaded pork was tender. the fries were extra crispy and the salad had a creamy delicious dressing. 

from castles to countryside with excellent restaurants along the way this was an excellent visit to germany. cant wait to take susie back with me!