Europe Adventure: Day Twenty One- Zermatt and making our way to Germany

On Monday, April 25, 2016 we woke up in our little chalet hotel in Zermatt. 

The Matterhorn was still playing peek a boo in the clouds so I used a Toblerone to see it! 

We loved our little patio with the gorgeous view. It had these little cutouts in the wood so I couldn't resist taking a pictures like this.

We decided not to ride the train up higher because it was pretty expensive and there was no guarantee we would get a better view. We decided we would just take our time this morning and then go get our tickets to Germany and start heading that way. 

Our hotel had a free breakfast so as soon as we were ready we went down to have that. 

Some of the art around the place...

They had a really nice breakfast spread. 

My breakfast:

My mom's breakfast: 

I was really worried about more train travel and even tried to figure out if there was a way to get to Freiburg without using a train... but we ended up just going with our original plan. 

After breakfast and checking out we took the hotel taxi to the train station and bought our tickets. 

It was very expensive but we wanted the least amount of stops possible and it wasn't far off from what we had budgeted for it so it was fine. 

I am glad we ended up doing this because the train travel this day was so much better. Part of that was that these tickets told us the platform we would be dropped off at and the one we needed to get to. I don't know why the other tickets didn't do that but it was so nice.

We went from Zermatt to Visp first.

We had been to the station in Visp the day before so it was a smooth transition as we knew right where to go. Also, as we were waiting they announced that the platform had changed but since they said it in German I was able to pick up on it and get us to where we needed to be. 

From there we rode the train to Basel. 

This was a nice ride. 

I was trying to read, but honestly it was hard to do with all the beautiful scenery to look at. 

This part of the world is unbelievably stunning.

During our entire trip we knew we had too much luggage... but then we saw these people that got on the train and sat next to us. They had about twice as much as we did if not more, also for two people... so that made us feel better. Ha.

Jennifer Rain was still with us and getting her picture taken for Madeline.

While we waited for our new train at Basel, we wanted to get lunch but the little cafe only took cash and we didn't have enough on us anymore at this point. That was unfortunate but we had some snacks with us so we turned to those.
We got on our next train and felt like we were on our way to Hogwarts because we had a ROOM! It was so awesome.

As soon as we got to Freiburg we called Enterprise and they told us where to meet them. I could see the building they were talking about but wasn't sure on the side of the road so we stood on the side we were on and then watched like hawks for a car that looked right. We saw a car pull up with a guy that looked like he was looking for someone... on the other side. So we ran across the road (at the crosswalk of course) and it was him. 

He was a really cool guy and a lot of fun to talk to. As he drove us back to the Enterprise I quizzed him on a lot of the rules of the road and things we would need to know. 

We didn't get a BMW like we thought we were going to but the car was really nice and I liked it a lot. The navigation was terrible though. Did not work well at all and we nicknamed it Maria as we sang "How do you solve a problem like Maria? a lot.

As soon as we finished the paperwork we drove out of Freiburg and drove into the Schwarzwald (The Black Forest). It was beautiful.

Soon we were pulling into our hotel. It was a main building and then a bunch of outbuildings all together in the middle of the forest all by themselves. It was amazing. 

We stayed at the Best Western Hofgut Sternen.

We were upgraded to the Goethe House which was really fun. 

This is the outside of the Goethe House. 

Our room was the two windows on the left, ground level. 

Johan Wolfgang von Goethe, the poet, visited Hofgut Sternen in 1774. He was so impressed by the location that he returned again five years later. 

Marie Antoinette also stayed here on her way to her wedding. 

There was a teen group staying here too which worried us at first but they were pretty quiet and we didn't have any problems. 

I thought the doorknob to our room was really cool. 

Our room: 

Our view

We were right across from the main building. The painting on the building is of the visit of Marie Antoinette with her entourage of 450 horses and many coachmen in 1770.

There were a lot of cute buildings with little shops in them. 

Huge working cuckoo clock....

The Ravenna Viaduct was a target of many bomber attacks during World War 2 but the bridge was never hit. But then right before the end of the war the retreating German forces blew up the three middle pillars. 

We ate dinner in the hotel restaurant after doing some browsing and shopping. 

We were given a little basket of bread.

My mom had Kasespatzle Bergkase which was pork with fries. 

I ordered Schweineschnitzel- in other words Schnitzel with noodles. 

It was a very good dinner. 

After dinner we went back to our room to relax and just enjoy being there. 

While my mom was getting ready for bed I had this funny text conversation with my dad that still makes me laugh... (I'm in blue)

In our room they left these little gummy sheep on our pillows. They were so cute. I took those home to give to Abi and Maddy.

I bought two things at the little shops. 

This little ornament...

And this owl made from Black Forest wood.

We were tired after another long (but thankfully much less stressful) day of travel. 

We didn't have any motion sickness from the trains today so that was a nice change!

We had a wonderful day and were so excited to be in Germany!