Adventures in Germany - Fiction and Fact.

Words for Wednesday Word Challenge

Words for Wednesday is a word prompt challenge I have been participating in for the past few months. Up until this week, all of the fiction I have created using these prompts has been published on this blog. 

This week, I gave myself a time limit of 30 minutes to create a true work of flash fiction, using the words as soon as I saw them. Like many bloggers do, I published my piece immediately in the comments section of the Under the Porch Light blog post, where the words had been supplied.  

This week's words were: infiltrate, splendid, gastronomic, chipped, dither, tankard.

My sister and I in Germany.  I'm holding what may be a stein or a tankard, but is probably a mug of beer!

What I wrote this week, and where to read it

What I wrote was a short fiction paragraph that involves beer, a German vacation and an accident. You can view it on the blog Under the Porch Light.  Just click on this link, and then look for it in the comment section at the bottom of that blog post.  My story is part-way down in the comments: look for a good sized paragraph submitted by Susan F.  While there, I encourage you to read the other submissions as well!

My Inspiration

My word prompt paragraph was totally fictitious. While I was writing it, however, I was reminded of a time when I visited Germany with one of my sisters, during a Eurail pass vacation.  While there, I ordered a beer, and paid for the Lowenbrau stein as a souvenir. (I have never loved the taste of beer - so I desired the mug more than the beverage!) Today, I became curious as to whether a beer stein and a tankard are the same thing. I just did a little research on the Internet.    

Maybe just a mug?

Explanations of the terms stein and tankard are varied.  One site, suggested that a tankard should be all pewter or all-silver, and both a tankard and a stein have a hinged lid and a handle; a mug has a handle, but never a lid.)  Other sites indicated that a stein may or may not have a lid, and a stein must be sufficiently large to be called a tankard.  Confused?  So am I!

A trip to Germany

While in Germany, (a few decades ago) my sister and I visited the town of Baden-Baden - home of a famous spa and the Black Forest.  While there, we bought cuckoo clocks and ate Black Forest Cake.  I just found a recipe for "authentic Black Forest Cake" on Food.com that looks fun to try. 

Baden-Baden, Germany - me at the train station, and a store full of cuckoo clocks!

We left Baden-Baden, and then enjoyed sight-seeing in the University town of Heidelberg.

A train took us to Mainz; from there we took a five hour cruise of the Rhine Valley, between Mainz and Cologne. (My notes were good in my photo album - or I would never have remembered these details!) We saw many vineyards and beautiful castles. We were served a lunch of "Black Forest Deer Stew" and - of course - glasses of wine made from the grapes of the valley!

It was a chilly summer day for a boat ride, but the Rhine Valley was beautiful!

We disembarked in Koblenz.  The advantage of backpacking: we had all of our belongings with us, so we could just continue on our way through Germany from there!

There are many beautiful old buildings to admire in Koblinz

We spent an afternoon in Koblenz, sightseeing and shopping - and my sister and I both bought small Hummel figurines.  We boarded an early evening train for Cologne (Köln).

We had a wonderful meal of German food and beer in Cologne - the memory of which prompted this post! We felt safe wandering the streets of Cologne until after midnight, admiring the beautiful "Dom" cathedral and the work of the chalk artists.

These photos give a glimpse of the beauty we saw, but nothing compares to traveling and actually seeing these  wonders yourself.

Too broke to afford a hotel, that night we rode a train from Cologne to Koblenz and then back. This is a favorite trick of Eurail backpackers - save money and have a safe place to rest by taking advantage of the train rides all free to owners of a Eurail pass! In the morning, we watched the interesting process of a mail delivery being unloaded at the train station.

We then boarded a different train - on to our next country, and more adventures.

Do you like to travel by train?

This post may be linked to one of the great link-up parties I follow and list on my blog.  Check them out!